The Marshall County Commissioners learned this week that more work needs to be done to the Marshall County Courthouse Clock Tower.
Midwest Maintenance, Inc. Foreman/Supervisor Jerry Hazeltine explained to the commissioners Monday morning that rotted wood was found on the lower portion of the tower when workers were removing several layers of paint. He said a screwdriver could go right through the wood.
“What I found so far, visually, is the last four floors of the scaffolding,” said Hazeltine. “We do have a wood expert coming in Wednesday. He’s going to do a better examination. He can give us an idea what you do have there as far as what type and what it can be replaced with, and the extent of the rotten wood. I found a lot of metal repair up there where they just patched it with metal and a lot of caulk to cover it up. It looks like it leaked quite a bit and that’s where you’re getting a lot of your rot.”
There is an estimate that about 60 to 70 percent of the Clock Tower will need to be repaired with new material.
Additionally, Hazeltine said a structural engineer will be on site this week to look at a support beam near the stairway on the east side of the courthouse.
“We did have our metal guy come in, our welder, and he started prepping the baring beam plate and it was just so rotten that he could just poke his finger through it. With that being said, we opened the hole up a little more and stuck our hand up in there and started snapping pictures. That’s where we found that the I-beam, which is over the header of the doors to the entry of the basement of the stairs, was totally gone.”
Hazeltine said the wood expert and the structural engineer will assess the damage and come up with an estimate for repairs for review at the next commissioners meeting. The commissioners are expecting repairs to be costly.
Commission President Kevin Overmyer asked if estimates would be available before the next meeting so they can be reviewed sooner. An emergency meeting may need to be held to keep the project going. He added that a contract extension may be needed to complete the project.
Meanwhile, Buildings and Grounds Maintenance Director Doug Masterson said the clock faces are done and will be inspected to ensure proper work was done.
