In about a week, visitors to the Columbia County Courthouse could look up and see a collection of bare wires, ducts and pipes where the ceilings used to be.

Columbia County Building and Grounds Director Cory Wiegel said an asbestos removal project, involving the hallway ceilings on all three levels of the courthouse, will start after the courthouse closes Friday afternoon.

The ceiling tiles, and the friable (powdery) asbestos in them, will be gone by the time the courthouse reopens Sept. 15, Wiegel told members of the County Board's property and insurance committee.

"You'll walk in the door Monday morning, and there will be no ceilings," he said.

The project - which also includes replacement of hallway ceiling tiles and the grids that hold them, as well as lowering the ceilings on the courthouse's second and third floor to allow easier access to items hidden by the ceiling tiles - is expected to take no more than 30 days from start to finish.

The courthouse will be open during its regular hours for the duration of the project.

Visitors and employees will not be exposed to asbestos because the actual removal will be done during hours when the courthouse is closed.

In August, the property and insurance committee passed the decision on the project to the finance committee, "without recommendation," because property committee members were unsure where the money would come from for the project.

The finance committee approved the project, with its cost of a little more than $74,000 to be paid from the county's capital improvements fund. On Friday, property and insurance committee member Robert Andler of Rio asked whether the property and insurance committee ought to go on record in support of the asbestos removal project.

"I don't want anyone to say, ‘Well, you never approved this.' I just want to dot the I's and cross the T's," Andler said.

The property and insurance committee voted to approve the project, with member Richard Boockmeier of Portage dissenting.

"We can't seem to afford to provide courthouse security," he said, "but we can spend money taking out asbestos that doesn't bother anybody."

The county's recent asbestos woes began in late March, when the first-floor office of the victim-witness program was closed for a half-day after a small amount of asbestos dust was found.

Asbestos, an element that used to be common in buildings because of its fire-resistant properties, can cause cancer and respiratory diseases if ingested into the lungs repeatedly or in large enough quantities. The courthouse was built in 1962, at a time when nearly all buildings had asbestos.

Asbestos typically does not cause health problems unless it is friable.

But after the discovery of asbestos in March, the county commissioned a building-wide asbestos survey, which led to the discovery of asbestos in the 2-by-2-foot ceiling tiles (original to the building) on all three levels. The only ceiling tiles that are affected are in the hallways, not in the courthouse offices.

During the work, the infrastructure usually hidden by the tiles will remain exposed until the new tiles are installed, but the courthouse is expected to remain completely functional and safe the whole time, Wiegel said.

 

ljerde@capitalnewspapers.com

745-3587