Barrow's dirty big secret

In an e-mail the previous day, Smith had expressed his concerns about his employees’ working conditions and asked about the status of the longplanned renovation of the courthouse and adjoining annex.

“I am very disappointed in how this has been handled and would like a response from at least someone regarding this matter to let me know where we are at,” he wrote.

He told the commissioners that some of his courthouse offices have no heat, that his staff has to use restrooms in the annex, which is in “deplorable” shape and has been “condemned.” Noting that the annex restrooms have neither heat nor hot water, Smith said visitors also use the same facilities.

Last year, the county restored the clock tower on the courthouse and painted the courthouse’s exterior trim. But the only work on the annex to date has been the removal of a rooftop air conditioner. That unit today still sits in the courthouse parking lot.

Smith wrote that he was assured last year that the county was working toward beginning the annex renovation, but he said he has not seen anything other than a contractor testing for mold and other things since the retirement of former buildings and grounds director Lyn Clement in July 2010.

“I can tell you without paying for the useless tests that there is mold and the smell is horrible on all floors,” Smith wrote.

DOCUMENTING THE DAMAGE

After receiving little immediate response to his e-mail, the sheriff contacted the Barrow Journal to ask for help in bringing the issue before the public.

The sheriff took the reporter to the second and third floors that once housed offices of the clerk of superior court, the probate court, the district attorney and the superior court judges. Smith said he had not been up to the locked upper floor for more than a year and after walking through the area Friday expressed surprise at how much its condition had deteriorated due to water leaks.

Both floors were musty, cold and wet.

Water from melting ice could be heard dripping into numerous waste cans. Precipitation that had missed its mark was puddled on the linoleum floors.

Carpeting was so thoroughly soaked that it made squishing sounds when pressed.

Waterlogged ceiling tiles, some discolored by both leaking rainwater and mold, had fallen to the floor and exposed numerous electrical wires that were visible through gaping holes.

Worst of all was the mold. In various hues and textures, it was everywhere. On ceilings, walls, floors and even on the metal stairway between the two floors.

While most of the affected areas were locked and inaccessible, the public restrooms were in a hallway with visible mold and standing water about 15 feet from the restroom doors.

A hallway thermometer just outside the restrooms showed that by the late afternoon Friday, the temperature had climbed to only 50 degrees.

On most winter mornings, the restroom temperatures are 35-40 degrees, and in the summer they sometimes exceed 100 degrees, the sheriff said.

THE COUNTY’S RESPONSE

Commissioner Larry Joe Wilburn is the only board member who responded in writing last week to the sheriff’s request for information about the project. He said he would like to raze the annex instead of restore it.

“Jud, I would like to see the annex torn down and the old courthouse remodeled and a park put around the area,” Wilburn wrote in an e-mail.

Following the BOC’s regular meeting Tuesday night, he repeated that sentiment to the Barrow Journal.

Pointing out that the county had spent only $1.5 million to build its new animal control center, he said it likely would cost less to tear down the annex and instead build a new sheriff’s office off Barrow Park Drive near the new jail.

According to the finance department, the county has spent only $130,500 of the $3.5 million in bond funds set aside nearly five years ago for the renovation. The project was among the capital improvements to be financed with $58 million in General Obligation bonds that voters approved on June 21, 2005.

Commission chairman Danny Yearwood said Tuesday night that he had just received a copy of a mold study of the annex and that the consultant told him that extensive remediation would be required.

“We’ll have to start on the top floor and tear everything out and treat the mold,” Yearwood said. “Then we’ll have to go to the next floor and do the same thing. It will be a lot of work.”

In a letter early Tuesday morning, the chairman told the sheriff that the work could not begin until his staff vacated the courthouse and made a second temporary move either to the former work-release building on Lee Street where the sheriff’s criminal investigators are now housed, or to the former fire headquarters at 66 McElroy St.

Yearwood wrote that the rehabilitation of the annex would begin with the replacement of its roof to prevent further damage and deterioration. That would be followed by the removal of all interior finishes on the top floor and professional cleaning and mold removal. Then all ceilings, carpeting and some sheetrock would be removed on the other floors for additional inspections and needed treatment.

Yearwood said he also could envision the county in 2011 replacing all substandard exterior windows, as well as inspecting and repairing the building’s elevator and inspecting the electrical, HVAC and sprinkler systems.

His letter did not clarify when the subsequent work on the offices would begin or when the entire project would be completed. It did say that he expected to receive the findings of a hazardous materials study Feb. 7 and that the project and its cost would be presented soon to the BOC.

Commissioner Steve Worley said Tuesday that the annex likely would have to be gutted on the inside and completely rebuilt. But he said officials first should determine the scope and cost of the work and consider all alternatives before asking the sheriff to make a second temporary move.

Smith said Tuesday that he is open to considering all options, but would like the decision to be made soon.