It’s been almost two years since the first announcement that Home State Bank in Jefferson was expanding to include a second-story on their existing building. The project took a major step forward recently with exterior improvements.

Interior work had previously started to set the foundational steel beams to get ready to install steel beams for the upper story. Home State Bank President Sid Jones explains why there was such a long delay from starting the exterior work.

“We originally thought this process was going to be underway late last summer and early fall. And as a result of the embargo on steel, those big steel beams you now see up there were fabricated in China. And so we became part of the China embargo and had about a 4.5 month delay in the delivery of those.”

Jones says the steel frame for the upper story is erected and will hold the trusses that will be set starting next week, with about 3-4 weeks time until the new roof is installed. With COVID-19 and the bank closing its lobby to customers, Jones points out it has made some difference for the contractor, Kirk Gross and Company, to pick up some speed on the project.

“It has allowed them to do a little bit more than normal during working hours. What they had been working is a lot of evening and nighttime hours. It didn’t really work around our customers anyway (before closing the lobby), but this allowed them to work kind of a daytime shift to some degree.”

Jones says the first floor will include personal and business bankers, along with the trust department and bank tellers. The second story will house the cashiers and deposit operations, along with loans, information technology, marketing and human resources departments, as well as the 1-4 family residential loan department. Jones anticipates the project to be completed by this winter with an open house around Christmas time.