BENTONVILLE -- Benton County maintenance workers are scrambling to patch leaks in the courthouse tower as justices of the peace consider plans for a new courts building.
John Sudduth, county general services administrator, oversees the Maintenance Department. The leaks seem to be the result of cracks in the brick facade of the courthouse tower built adjacent to the old courthouse in the 1990s, Sudduth said. The roof on the original courthouse, built in 1928, was replaced last year.
Courts building
Benton County officials are working on plans for a new building to house the county’s circuit court judges, their courtrooms and staffs, the prosecuting attorney and public defender and other court-related offices. The Quorum Court’s Committee of the Whole is scheduled to discuss the project when that panel meets at 6 p.m. June 9 in the Quorum Courtroom in the County Administration Building, 215 E. Central Ave. in Bentonville.
Source: Staff Report
"We've had the roofing contractor up there checking that the day before yesterday," Sudduth said Friday. "It's not the roof on the old courthouse that's leaking. It's coming through the tower. There's a big vertical wall on the side that faces Second Street and it's apparently coming through hairline cracks in the facade."
Circuit Judge Robin Green said Thursday the holding cells used to keep prisoners waiting to appear in her third-floor courtroom weren't usable Monday morning. Her schedule didn't require the use of the cells until that afternoon, by which time the water had been cleaned up and the leaking had stopped for the moment. The cells could not have been used while the water was coming in, she said.
"The transport deputies would have to work around it somehow," Green said. "There were buckets in the cells, buckets outside the cells, buckets near the elevator."
Green hasn't seen any leaks in the older parts of the courthouse since the new roof was put in place, but the leaks in the tower are a concern.
"This is in the newer part of the building, so that's significant," she said. "I appreciate that they're still trying to find it and fix it. What's bad is that this is in the newer part of the building."
The leaks in the tower didn't concern two of the county's justices of the peace in regard to their evaluation of a site for a new courts building. The Public Safety Committee has recommended a plan for keeping the courts downtown, which includes keeping the old courthouse in use for the judicial system. A second option would have the courts moved to a new building on Southwest 14th Street, near the county jail, and the old courthouse renovated for use by other county offices.
"In either scenario we're keeping the historic courthouse in use," said Kurt Moore, justice of the peace for District 13. "Whether it's re-purposed for other offices or kept as part of the judicial center we need to find and repair the leaks."
Tom Allen, justice of the peace for District 4, agreed with Moore the leaks won't be part of the decision-making process on the new courts building.
"It's got to be fixed no matter who's in there," Allen said.
The county is working to get masonry experts to examine the exterior of the building and locate the possible sources of the leaks so they can be repaired, Sudduth said. A masonry seal will be applied to the building once repair work is done, he said.
There doesn't appear to be any significant damage, but the leaks have to be stopped before the situation gets worse, Sudduth said.
"Any water is too much water," he said. "We will get it stopped. We absolutely do not want it coming into the building."
NW News on 05/25/2015