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Burst pipe causes massive water damage at Marion County Courthouse

The pipe, along with eight damaged air conditioning units, flooded parts of the courthouse with up to two inches of water after last week’s cold snap.

MARION, Ohio — These days, the inside of the Marion County Courthouse looks much like a strange obstacle course. Large tubes of flowing air snake in and out of doorways and along ceilings on several floors. It’s all in an effort to recover from massive water damage.

Marion County Clerk of Courts Jessica Wallace described first seeing the damage as scary, being unsure of the stability of the building.

“It’s dripping, raining from the ceiling, and we’ve got a team of staff, just a chain, moving the files along,” Wallace said.

Many of the court records stored on the second floor took on water. Staffers quickly tried to save what they could, with more than 1,200 boxes of case files and records being moved to a protected facility in Lima that specializes in housing government documents.

Several remaining boxes are too damaged to be stored there. They’re being shipped off to a specialty company to be put through a freeze-drying process to help save them.

“We’re working hard, we’re not going to lose anything under my watch, and we’ll get through it,” she said. “We’ll move forward, and hopefully there will be some positive changes that come out of this tragedy.”

Judge Warren Edwards, the administrative judge for the Marion County Court of Common Pleas, is thankful the actual courtrooms escaped damage. But plenty of other parts of the historic courthouse were not so lucky. Along with the damaged records, carpets have had to be ripped up, walls have water trapped inside, and parts of the historic ceiling have flaked off onto the floor below.

Judge Edwards said, when he first saw the damage to the 1884 courthouse, he was heartbroken.

“I love this courthouse,” he said. “It’s an honor to kind of be the custodian of it on behalf of the people that put me in office, and I have spent the greater part of the last four years trying to restore it. So watching it be destroyed by these conditions has been difficult.”

The judge puts the damage estimate at hundreds of thousands of dollars. But the building was insured by the county. So work is already underway to save what still can be saved.

Shambaugh Cleaning and Restoration has set up a huge desiccant dehumidifier behind the courthouse. Owner Jeremy Shambaugh said it’s powerful enough to replace 85 to 100 regular dehumidifiers. Three large tubes are pumping hot, dry air into the courthouse to dry out the historic building. And the process will take longer than a normal project. 

Shambaugh said, instead of ripping out and replacing soggy drywall, the workers are trying to save the historic walls and other parts of the courthouse. So they’ll work to dry things out as much as they can. Only then will it be determined what can be saved.

“I had a mission to fix this place before this happened, so now that mission is just greater, and I’m trying to look at it as an opportunity to fix all the things that I hadn’t had the chance to fix yet.

In the meantime, Judge Edwards said multiple experts have examined the building and deemed it to be safe. So the courthouse reopened this week. Not everyone is able to be back at work, however. The area housing the probation offices was one of the most heavily damaged spots. So those staffers are working remotely, much like they did at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I care a great deal about this building and about what goes on in it, and everyone involved has my personal thanks,” the judge said.

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