Repairs following damage from a busted pipe on the fourth floor at the Webster Parish Courthouse are almost complete.
Juror Steve Lemmons, chair of the Webster Parish Police Jury buildings and grounds committee, gave a brief overview of repairs, saying the roof has been replaced on the courthouse on the east and west wings.
“During the renovation, they’ve already done some work on the roof, and we’ve had some leaks occur on some portions they didn’t repair,” he said. “In the future we’re going to have to do some mortar work around some of the older bricks. These are some of the things that may be costly.”
According to a memo to jurors, the old HVAC units were taken out and new ones installed.
“We currently only have one issue that is due to cracks in the mortar within the old bricks between the original courthouse and the two wings – east and west,” the memo said. “(There is) also a problem with the exercise yard on the roof. Although we were able to have it re-decked during the renovation, water tends to pool under it during these hard, severe rains.”
The Clerk of Court’s office is nearly complete. New floors and carpet have been laid in the main office area and walls have been repaired in the criminal division. New carpet was also laid.
Carpet and trim was replaced in the small courtroom on the second floor and the wall has been repaired and painted.
In the judge’s office on the third floor, Lemmons said new base trim and a new entrance door has been installed. Wall plugs were replaced and files have been relocated, he said. New furniture will be moved into the judge’s office as well, as most of the furniture was on loan from the Benton office.
Renovations for the courthouse annex are also coming along. Carpet was installed in the offices last week and the contractor is working on purchasing the furniture.
Carnahan said the project should be complete in September but the contract has the completion date in October.
As for the police jury office on the third floor and the police jury meeting room on the second floor, repairs and renovations to those will be done once the police jury moves across the street to the annex. Once that is done, the police jury room will be renovated to be an additional courtroom, and the police jury office is slated to go to the district attorney’s office.
The annex gives the police jury much needed space and the police jury room is under upgrades to furniture, recording equipment and décor.