We’re standing on the brink of a historic time in state government. 

After nearly two decades of talking, saving and planning, construction on the Wyoming Capitol Square project is expected to begin this fall. 

While that’s a long way away from Powell, the project is still significant to us as Wyoming citizens.

The Capitol Restoration Oversite Committee will meet on Tuesday, June 2, to finalize some important design and timeline decisions, then preparation for the project will begin.

What began first as the need to address serious infrastructure problems and deficits in the Capitol Building has since grown to a nearly $300 million project to restore and upgrade the Capitol and to remodel and expand the Herschler Building, also located on Capitol Square. 

That seems like a lot of money, and it is. But, without renovation, the state Capitol Building will continue to deteriorate. As it is, it fails to meet the minimum state and federal building standards. “In fact, it’s on the edge of being condemned,” said Michael O’Donnell, special assistant attorney general, in an Associated Press report. 

Access for people with disabilities is limited; water and sewer pipes are aging; restroom facilities are far from adequate; heating and electrical systems are old and outdated, and infrastructure for computers and Internet access is a challenge, to say the least. 

Legislative meeting rooms are too small to accommodate lawmakers and members of the public who wish to sit in on legislative committee meetings, and people frequently are left standing around the edges of rooms or in hallways.

The Capitol remodel will take about three years to complete. It will modernize electrical, plumbing and air systems; upgrade elevators; and add smoke detection, sprinkler and smoke-evacuation systems. 

But remodeling a building that is more than 125 years old isn’t an easy task. One of the challenges is finding ways to make needed improvements without losing the historic construction and design of the building. 

It takes a delicate balance to modernize the facility while keeping it historically accurate. This remodel is designed to restore the Capitol Building to the way it looked in about 1920.  

Another challenge is creating additional room in a building where space is finite, and finding office space in other buildings to relocate government agencies and the Legislature while the Capitol is being renovated. 

To create more space for public participation in the legislative process, main offices for the governor, secretary of state, treasurer and auditor will be moved to the Herschler Building, located north of the Capitol Building. However, each elected official also will have a smaller office in the Capitol Building to facilitate public access and involvement in the legislative process. 

But, to accommodate the elected officials’ move to the Herschler Building, that building must be remodeled and expanded as well. That means both buildings will be undergoing major construction projects at the same time. Therefore, offices for the Legislature, state elected officials and state agencies now housed in either building must move to temporary leased space in other buildings. 

The Legislative Service Office will begin its move in mid-June. Other offices and agencies will follow. 

According to the Associated Press report, the entire cost of the project is $299 million, of which $221 million is budgeted for construction costs. The other costs include leases for other buildings, moving expenses and utilities.

The Herschler Building project is expected to take two years to complete; the Capitol renovation will take three. For the next three years, the Wyoming Legislature will meet and work out of the Jonah Financial Center. 

According to Rep. Rosie Berger, R-Sheridan, the Legislature has set aside more than $111 million for the Capitol Square construction project and has made a commitment of four additional appropriations of $37.5 million to complete the project.

Groundbreaking is tentatively planned for late summer or early fall. J.E. Dunn, the firm handling the renovation of the Capitol and the remodel/expansion of the Herschler Building, has renovated capitol buildings in Kansas, Minnesota and other states. 

Here in Powell, distance often makes it difficult for us to remember that we have a say in state government. But, as Wyoming residents, things that happen in the Captiol Building have as much to do with us as with anyone else in the state. 

Many people here likely have never set foot in the Capitol Building or Herschler Building before. But this project will ensure that, when we do have that chance, the building still will be standing, and it will still be the solid, beautiful base for state government that its designers created it to be, starting in the 1880s. But it also will be modernized and functional for today’s world, and, planners believe, ready to serve its purpose well into the next century.