Jan. 23—CARTHAGE, Mo. — A representative of Servpro, the company contracted to clean up the water-damaged Jasper County Courthouse, updated county commissioners on the work five days after a water pipe break in the attic flooded two courtrooms, the county collector's office and other spaces in the historic building.
Santa Davison, project coordinator with the company's disaster recovery team, said large plastic hoses leading from trucks outside the courthouse have been set up to help dry out every nook and cranny of the affected spaces.
The trucks, which will block the parking on the north and west side of the courthouse, have the air pumps and drying equipment that are blowing warm, dry air into the building and removing moisture.
"In a building like this, there are so many nuances that we have to take into consideration," Davison told the commissioners at their regular Tuesday meeting. "Our No. 1 goal and our No. 1 priority here is do everything possible to keep the integrity of the building in place. You're going to see a lot of equipment in the building. We're going to try to do everything we can to control noise."
The damage happened Thursday when a pipe feeding water into the fire sprinkler system throughout the building in the attic apparently froze and broke around 6:45 p.m. shortly after the last employees had gone home for the day.
The Carthage Fire Department responded to an automatic fire alarm triggered by the broken pipe and found water flowing throughout the building. Firefighters broke into a maintenance room in the basement of the courthouse and shut off the water to the sprinkler system within about 15 minutes of receiving the alarm, but the damage had been done.
The courtrooms and offices in the northwest corner of the courthouse received the majority of the damage. The probate office on the second floor was flooded.
The Jasper County collector's office was also flooded. Desks, chairs, computers, walls and other spaces in the office on the first floor were all damaged.
Collector Steve McIntosh said the main computer server for both the collector's office in Carthage and the Jasper County Courts Building in Joplin was in the Carthage office. That server was checked for water damage Tuesday and found to be undamaged, so the Joplin office returned to full service Tuesday. The collector's office in Carthage will be closed for the duration of the cleanup.
No firm timetable for the cleanup was provided, although it is expected to take three to four months to finish.