Emergency plumbing crisis at courthouse

The Hot Springs County Commissioners held an emergency meeting Friday afternoon to discuss issues with the plumbing at the Hot Springs County Court House.

As part of the meeting, the commissioners went to the basement of the court house where some of the floor has been jackhammered out in order to examine the piping below the building.

In some areas, the pipes, due to their age, are literally crumbling with a touch and in other areas, they are completely plugged.

There is a toilet in the judge's chambers and its plumbing comes down the outside of the wall in the former commissioners room. The commissioners watched as Steve Jellis with Steve's Plumbing ran a camera down the pipe and found, about four-feet into the pipe, there is a crack with gaping spots that runs another three to four feet. At that point, the pipe is completely plugged.

Jellis said he became suspicious about what was going on in that particular area when he put dye in the line and it never showed up at the end of the system. A small pool of the green dye could be seen in the line right where the pipe was plugged, indicating the remaining water and dye had escaped through the large cracks.

So where is the water going?

Jellis indicated he was concerned there may be a large void under the southeast corner of the building created by who knows how many years of water escaping the system.

The commissioners considered having core samples taken to see if there actually is a void, but decided instead, to bring in an architectural engineer. That engineer should be able to determine if there is a hole under the corner and possibly, how large it actually is.

The group also examined a hole Jellis created in the basement hallway to access other plumbing in the building.

Unfortunately, the age of the lines is going to require tearing out the floor the entire length of the hallway, from the commissioners old chambers all the way to the entrace to the Joint Law Enforcement Center.

While some of the work can be done over the weekends, there will be an awful lot of noise going on in the courthouse until the floor is removed. Once that is complete, Jellis believes he can get the piping finished in a short period of time.

There will also be cement work that will have to be done to rebuild the floor and new tile laid down before the job is finished.