Employees of SIRQ Construction place to highest and final beam on the new Kemmerer District Courthouse as construction continues with the Topping Out Ceremony on January 14, 2026. SVI photo/Duke Dance.

The expansion of the Lincoln County Courthouse in Kemmerer reached a milestone on Wednesday, January 14 with an official “Topping Out” ceremony, signifying the completion of the steel framing of the structure with the final beam placed at the highest point of the building.

Tayler Ward, Project Manager with SIRQ Construction, explained that the ceremony has tradition back to 1700’s Scandinavia, when the last piece of steel would be raised with a pine tree, symbolizing all of the efforts and resources that went into getting the building to where it is at in the point of construction.  The tree could then be donated to the building owner.

“In turn what SIRQ can give you guys is our appreciation,” stated Ward. “We have partnered with GSBS Architecture and SIRQ Construction to give you this moment. We are sincerely appreciative of the opportunity that you have entrusted us, and GSBS and our trade partners, to get to this point. It’s a huge milestone. It’s a milestone that’s being met about a 1/4 of the way through the project.”

The project is expected to be completed this summer with a ribbon cutting in July, according to Ward. The new 18,000 sq. foot facility, which began following a groundbreaking in July of 2025, will be home to Lincoln County’s District Court and is being built adjacent to the Lincoln County Justice Center.

“This project’s been on the books for quite some time due to some American Disability Act concerns with the second floor of the current courthouse, the old courthouse,” explained Lincoln County Commissioner Mel Shumway during an interview on SVI Radio in July of 2025. “I would like to note that the county saved for this for a number of years, so this is basically a cash project that the county has been putting into a capital fund to pay for this District Court expansion… It’ll be more secure, more compliant, and a better facility.”