VIDALIA — Concordia Parish’s former courthouse on the corner of Oak and Carter streets may soon receive a facelift for the first time in nearly 40 years.

The Concordia Parish Police Jury will discuss cleaning mold out of the building and replacing the air conditioning system and ceiling tiles at its meeting today.

Police Jury President Melvin Ferrington said the police jury’s courthouse maintenance technician will contact an air-conditioning specialist and an engineer to get advice about how to solve the problem.

Police Jury Secretary-Treasurer Kevin Frilloux said the courthouse’s original design caused mold to build up in the building.

“The building was never designed for air conditioning,” Frilloux said. “The system drips onto the tiles and forms mold in some places. Replacing the air conditioning system would be difficult because the ceiling is close to the air-conditioning system and there isn’t really any space to work.”

Frilloux said the last major renovation to the courthouse occurred in the 1970s.

The air-conditioning specialist and engineer are expected to inspect the building and present several solutions, but the police jury doesn’t have an estimated cost for the project, Ferrington said.

“Once they do a complete inspection, we will probably have some kind of cost estimate,” Ferrington said. “The courthouse has just deteriorated over the years. We are thinking that we will most likely replace the ceiling tiles and floor tiles and do some cleaning; it probably won’t be a whole lot.”

He said the police jury would either apply for grants or place a courthouse renovation on Louisiana’s capital outlay budget to fund the work.

The capital outlay budget — Louisiana House Bill 2 — is a recurring bill that provides local municipalities and parishes with money to complete large-scale projects.