NATCHEZ &045; With work on the city’s portion of the federal courthouse now complete, the city plans to transfer the property’s deed to the U.S. General Services Administration by mid-August.

Aldermen recently declared the city’s part of the renovation of Memorial Hall as a federal courthouse complete.

The city still has plenty of time to finalize the paperwork necessary to transfer the building to the GSA, said City Engineer David Gardner.

Originally, the agency would have had to have the building by July 1 in order to bid out its part of the work by Sept. 30, the end of the federal government’s fiscal year.

But now that the GSA is using an in-house contractor, it doesn’t have to take such bids &045; and time is not so much of a factor, Gardner said.

&uot;So now, we have (more time) to deed it over, but our goal is to have it deeded by later this month or mid-August,&uot; he said.

The city has spent more than $1 million on its part of the renovation, not including more than $1.1 million spent on non-construction costs such as property acquisition, architect’s fees, cost estimating services and abatement services.

The first phase of construction included gutting the unusable parts of the building’s interior, removing old wiring and plumbing, installing a new roof and utility connections, restoring stucco and brick and structurally shoring up the building.

Next, the GSA will work on the inside of the building, including walls, plumbing, air conditioning, electrical, duct work, security and elevators.

Once the project is completed, the Administrative Office of the Courts will maintain the building.

Figures from the City Engineer’s Office show $6.44 million funding was made available for the project from the city, county, state and federal government.

That included $1.8 million from the GSA, $1.44 million from the AOC, $1 million from the U.S. Marshals Service, $900,000 each from city and county bond issues and $400,000 from the state Department of Archives and History.