May 6, 2026 - The Shelby County Commissioners decided to move forward on a window replacement project to the active Shelby County Courthouse, which has been in line for repair for a couple of years.
During the Commissioners' Court meeting held Wednesday, May 6, 2026, the commissioners moved forward with the almost $100,000 project following discussion over what needs to be accomplished and conferring with Jeff Dean of Cornerstone Construction.
Roscoe McSwain, Commissioner Precinct 1, moved to pay $51,812.91 to Center Glass and to pay $38,727.85 with an "open window" for contingency for unforeseen problems. Commissioner Tom Bellmyer seconded the motion, and it carried with all in favor.
During discussion, Commissioner McSwain reminded the court they have been discussing the need for window repair over the past three years with water leaking in the main entrance, in particular from the third floor. He also remarked that in some places within the building, wallpaper is peeling as a result.
Judge Harbison has contacted several companies about working on the windows; however, McSwain commented that no response has been received from those companies.
"While the court had Mr. Jeff Dean fixing the concrete on the [courthouse] building, he was asked to take a look at the windows and see if he could give us a plan," said McSwain.
Dean concurred that he was asked to take a look at the windows, and he then sought quotes from Center Glass to provide the glass to replace every window in the courthouse.
"There's two estimates here, one is for the actual material for all the glass from Center Glass, and then I have a quote from myself for the labor, equipment rental, and disposal of all the old glass," said Dean. "Currently there is about a three-week window or lead time window for materials, so once a decision is made, it's three weeks to get the material."
Dean projected it would likely be a four-week time period to replace all of the glass. His understanding was that the windows in the courthouse were installed in the late 70s to early 80s.
The windows will be replaced with a similar insulated window to what is already in place. Dean said the new windows will be installed into the existing frames. Once the new glass is put in, the frames are reinstalled.
Dean explained that the windows over the front doors, in the main entry of the courthouse, are installed from the inside. They will have to be removed from the inside. Deana expects that portion of the project will be completed either after courthouse hours while the courthouse is closed and on weekends.
Discussion among the court revealed the potential for additional damage within the walls near the frames and the need to consider a contingency should additional expenses become apparent.
"Thinking about Commissioner McSwain talking about contingency, it's important that we, I think that we have it because there's going to be a level of discovery that comes up," said Commissioner Bellmyer. "I would think that the glass, as far as the glass proper and the sealant, that's a fairly static amount that that won't change. I would anticipate if there was some growth or on discovery that it would be on the labor side, and perhaps if you found some rotted wood and things like that that you had to come [to court]. But I would feel pretty confident that the glass side of the estimate is probably pretty secure."
Judge Harbison commented on the vast difference in price between previous quotes and what has been quoted by a local company.
"The quotes that I've gotten over the last two years is anywhere from a quarter of a million dollars to half a million dollars," said Judge Harbison. "So the fact that we're keeping this local as well as saving a lot of money."
She commented that out-of-county contractors wanted to bring in inspectors and "pad the bill." Judge Harbison felt that keeping everything in county will save the taxpayers money and is just a "win-win,"
In preparation of future plans for the AgriLife Campus (Old Elementary School) located on Nacogdoches Street in Center, the decision was made to move forward on getting an asbestos survey accomplished followed by demolition estimates.
Commissioner Bellmyer moved to go forward and reach out to an environmental cleanup company. Commissioner McSwain seconded his motion, and it carried with all in favor.
Judge Harbison commented that all of the AgriLife buildings will stay as-is, including the gymnasium. She further commented they would be in coordination with Lane Dunn, County Agent, on what buildings may be salvageable.
The commissioners reviewed a previous asbestos study from 1998 provided by Amanda Kirby that was conducted on behalf of Center ISD.
Once the area is cleaned up, Judge Harbison commented on the potential of the area being available for Ag Mechanics, especially during the poultry festival, as well as a farmer's market location.
The commissioners approved renewing a license agreement with Magnet Gray Key software used by the District Attorney’s Office for accessing cell phone data, as well as cloud storage.
Commissioner McSwain moved to approve the renewal and the cloud storage for a total of $32,892 with $14,250 of that being for cloud storage. Shannon Metcalf seconded the motion, and it carried with all in favor.
D.J. Dickerson, District Attorney Investigator, presented the commissioners with the quote for the package. He reminded the court that last year they started out with the original approval of the system which was initially $29,530.60 to get started on Magnet Forensics with the Grey Key with the Axiom Essentials. The District Attorney's office also received training passes, which included two people to run the machine and perform all the evidence collection.
"With this new quote this is the annual renewal license, which was mentioned in the original presentation last year and as mentioned in that presentation, it was going to be a percent increase," said Dickerson. "They didn't really have an idea of what the percentage would be, but they kind of guessed a little bit. But ultimately, in this new quote for the license for this year is a total of $18,642.65."
According to Dickerson, Magnet Forensics did go up on the Gray Key license essentials which includes the brute force actions to gain access into a locked phone in the event an individual doesn't give access via their passcode or pattern to access the phone in question.
"We can brute force into it, we can break into their phone and still access it," said Dickerson. "That has been very successful, I can tell you over the last year because we had several phones that came in evidence search warrants and they refused to give the passcode So I was able to brute force into it using the machine and using those actions that's included with the plan."
The Gray Key license increased by $2,176 and since they started it earlier in the year, the total has been prorated. Dickerson related that the Magnet Axiom Essentials is a program that helps in keyword searches for evidence. He shared that it has increased by $673.40.
A software they utilize called Preserve was at a price of $1,000 and Dickerson described generally how it functions.
"Apple devices, what they have done in the new updates is if you don't mess with your phone basically within 72 hours, it does a reset basically," said Dickerson. "What that does is any new data or information that evidence could be deleted or swapped off of it, basically. Kind of like cookies on a computer type thing. So that machine is set aside for when a phone comes in, we can hook up to it within 72 hours and basically deactivate that internal timer of the Apple device and that helps us preserve that evidence."
Data storage is one of the greatest challenges in unloading the data from the phones that are being analyzed Dickerson said that it's going to be about $15,000 per year for unlimited cloud storage through magnet forensics. The storage capacity of phones has increased greatly, as Dickerson points out, even up to a terabyte of data on one phone.
"So what it's doing is it's dragging down the computers that we have, and we have several hard drives on this one computer that I'm using. But I can tell you, I've already done over 35 cell phones and it includes an iPad as well, and it's killing our storage," said Dickerson.
Dickerson shared the District Attorney's office has had to resort to external hard drives to store a lot of the data and remove it from the Gray Key machine to open space and allow for other extractions. Meanwhile data has to be maintained for use in cases and even through the appeals process.
The original agreement, according to Dickerson, was that the City of Center, the Sheriff's Office, and the DA's office would each contribute a third to the expense to Magnet Forensics.
"I had a conversation with the Center PD as we were preparing for this. I'm not sure why they budgeted only $4,500 in their budget last year because the quote that I sent out in an email was it was going to be basically $18,000 is what we were figuring, but of course it's a little bit higher," said Dickerson. "So it had to be at least about $6,000, but they budgeted $4,500. So they're in discussions right now."
Dickerson said the $4,500 from the City of Center could come up, but he didn't know if they're going to be able to supply the rest of their third, from what he was told.
"My understanding the Sheriff's Office is still going to do their third from what I heard, I guess, or that was non-departmental," said Dickerson.
Commissioner Bellmyer asked why the City of Center was "hedging" on the agreement and if the DA's office had done some forensic work on phones for them this year.
"We have done a majority for the City of Center this past year," said Dickerson.
Discussion on where some of the county funds would come from to help in facilitating the funding of the licensing, and the DA forfeiture fund had provided a third last year, but won't be able to sustain a constant with $12,000 in that account as of the meeting.
Before Shelby County had the Magnet Forensics equipment, it was necessary to travel to departments in other areas where they had similar equipment to gain access to phones. Commissioner Bellmyer asked Dickerson if there was a cost attached to that service. Dickerson said they didn't charge that service. Bellmyer indicated now that Shelby County has the equipment, it might be a good idea to establish a pay schedule for other agencies if they need to have access to the technology.
Tri-County offered a donation of the playground equipment at the AgriLife campus, which they used while they were on the grounds. Judge Harbison explained that with the expense to move the equipment, it would be more economical to purchase new playground equipment.
The commissioners decided to donate the playground equipment to Center Elementary School.
It was determined through guidance of John Price, County Attorney, that two motions on the subject would be necessary. First Commissioner Shannon Metcalf moved to accept the donation from Tri-County to Shelby County, and Commissioner Stevie Smith seconded his motion. It carried with all in favor.
Commissioner Roscoe McSwain then moved to donate the equipment to Center ISD, and Commissioner Bellmyer seconded his motion. It carried with all in favor.
The meeting adjourned at 10:30am.
Agenda items approved during the meeting include: 1. Pay weekly expenses. 2. Pay current payroll. 3. Donation of the playground equipment at the Agri Life Campus to Center Elementary School. 4. Take action for the future plans of the Agri Life Campus. 5. Approve the license agreement renewal of the Magnet Gray Key software program used by the District Attorney’s Office. 6. Move forward with the repair of the windows for the (current) Shelby County Courthouse. 7. Adjourn at 10:30am
