McDowell County seeks bids for courthouse window restoration in Welch

The windows at the McDowell County Courthouse in Welch are getting a public test of their own: the county is accepting sealed bids for a restoration job that could help protect the building from weather, cut energy loss and keep one of the county’s main government offices secure. Bids are due to the McDowell County Clerk’s Office by 12:00 p.m. Wednesday, June 10, 2026, and will be opened publicly that same afternoon.

Contractors interested in the job must attend a mandatory pre-bid conference at 1:30 p.m. June 2 at the courthouse, 90 Wyoming Street in Welch. The project is being funded through Cycle 23 of the West Virginia Courthouse Facilities Improvement Authority, the state program created by the Legislature in 2001 to help counties pay for courthouse improvements or new courthouse construction. For counties that win that funding, the current grant materials say the authority can provide up to $100,000 with a 20 percent local match.

The bid packet puts the usual public-work requirements on the table. Bidders must be registered with the state tax department, licensed in West Virginia and prepared to post bid bonds, along with performance and payment bonds if they are awarded the contract. Bidding documents can be obtained electronically from ZMM Architects and Engineers or in hard copy through Charleston Blueprint, which signals a formal construction process built around transparency, competition and oversight rather than a simple repair order.

The courthouse itself makes that stewardship question more than routine maintenance. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, with the listing dated Aug. 29, 1979. State historical material says it is McDowell County’s third courthouse, following earlier log courthouses in Wilco and Perryville. The current Romanesque Revival building was designed by Frank Pierce Milburn, and architectural reference material says the design was chosen in a competition that drew 12 architects.

This is not the first window-related work around the courthouse complex. McDowell County issued a separate courthouse annex window removal-and-replacement bid earlier in 2026, and a similar courthouse window-restoration project was bid in 2025 under Cycle 22. Taken together, the projects suggest the county is working through a broader preservation effort at a building that still anchors public business in Welch, with taxpayer-funded repairs aimed at keeping the courthouse usable, efficient and intact for years ahead.