The conversion of the court into a library in Louny will cost 55 million crowns

Louny - The city library is set to move into the building of the former courthouse located in the central Mírové Square of Louny. The cost of renovating the building has been preliminarily estimated at 54.7 million crowns, and the city council has approved the submission of an application for a grant from the EU regional operational program, said deputy mayor Jan Čermák (ČSSD) to reporters today.
The former courthouse is owned by the city, which initially intended to lease it. The most serious interested party was the Ministry of the Interior, which wanted to establish a regional center for the foreign police in Louny. However, they have since withdrawn from this intention.
The library currently operates in a private building, with the city paying an annual rent of 980,000 crowns. "If we succeed with the grant, the city's contribution would only be 7.5 percent of the total amount, which is 4.1 million crowns. The optimistic version for the library's operation in the new premises talks about the period around Christmas 2010," Čermák stated.
The building on Mírové Square was not suitable for the Louny courthouse; in addition to cramped spaces, employees were troubled by old electrical installations and inadequate social facilities. Therefore, the Ministry of Justice had the former polyclinic renovated, with reconstruction and furnishing costs reaching 54 million crowns. The court moved into the new premises in September 2005.