Drip, Drip. Drip

It's Sunday afternoon and no it's not midweek but I wanted to post a non-blog event if there is such a thing.

I predicted it would rain and it did.

The roofer started on Thursday and intended to work on Saturday and Sunday to work on what was supposed to be a 2 week part of the overall project.

Our little dog is afraid of thunder and lightening and just goes ballistic when it does.  In the night early Saturday morning, I heard her trying to dig her way through the utility room door.  As I went to let her out, I had not heard it thunder and I could hear no rain.  I was somewhere between awake and asleep as I walked down the hall.  I never heard it rain.  But it did.

Saturday morning the Sheriff called to tell me it had rained about an inch and had flooded the Courthouse.  I admit it was 8:30 and I had not quite stirred yet.

Now how does this work?  It only rained about an inch but there had to have been 3 or 4 inches that got into the Courthouse.

It just gradually worked its way through the building.  The old jail floor was awash everywhere.  In the law library, you could not see the carpet.  It was dripping through all of the ceilings from the light fixtures and the District Courtroom had a good 1/4" of water in it.

I think the old girl had about a 15 degree list to her by the time I got there.

The Project Manager got here about 6:30 a.m. and got recovery crews from Fort Worth in route.

It seems that the roofing crew had stripped off all of the roof we had and so it was open to the concrete deck.  If you recall, they were only supposed to take off as much each day as they could replace that same day.

When I got here, people were vaccuuming water up everywhere and even the roofer was here looking kinda hang dog and trying not to make eye contact with me or the Project Manager as I was briefed on the situation. 
We called the Department heads to come do a damage report and protect their records.  I called the Commissioners and posted a handwritten agenda for an Emergency Meeting at 12:45.  The handwritten agenda is probably the first one in the history of the Open Meetings Act in Jack County.  I had to do it in a hurry and it's scratched up pretty good.  I hate to think that a 100 years from now that someone will look at it and say, "heh, Edna, come look at this!"  I even mispelled "roof."

The Court met.  I briefed the members on what I knew and the Project Manger was given the floor.  I do not think we took any action; just heard the story and how the PM was going to respond.  But you see I would not know much past my part because I had to leave.

I had a wedding to perform at 1 o'clock.  It was gonna be in the County Courtroom and it had buckets and the Commissioners were all there and they sure weren't dressed for a wedding.  At 1 o'clock, the bride's mother who I had talked to earlier in the morning called to see if I was close to getting there as I had moved it to a local church for which I just happened to have a key.  I told her I was on the way.

I grabbed up my judge's robe and headed out the door.  I was determined that nothing was going to spoil the day for that young bride and her family!!!  I couldn't get to where I could print a copy of my text for the ceremony so I did it for the first time "without a net."  I told them and we were all pleased with the outcome.  Bless those children!  Certainly, I will never forget their wedding day.

The Recovery people have been here all day and night and will be with us till at least tomorrow.  They have machines and gadgets that pumped water and then have blown dry air everywhere and even a couple of things that draw moisture out of the air (we have plenty to work with) and push the water through little plastic lines that empty their product into sinks.

As bad as it is, it's not as bad as it could have been.  Looks like all electronics and permanent records are okay.  We had some boxes of stored records that got wet and so we are not sure what their status is.  I think we bought all of the plastic sheeting and blue tarps that the hardware store and lumber yard had to sell.

Now they have to find another roofer and not sure yet when he will be here.  We have a jury trial starting  Tuesday morning in the District Courtroom.  But it did rain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But Jack County people are a scrappy lot!  We ain't gonna let no little thing like this get us down.  We'll just cinch it up, hunker down, and take a new direction.

A friend gave me this in a hard time and I look at it once and again.  Now might be another good time.  I think the fellow underneath is an old county judge.

Now, please join me in a word of prayer.  Lord, I've lived in Texas all my life and I know it is a down right sin to pray against rain and I'm not gonna start now but if you take suggestions I might offer one.  It would sure work a whole lot better for some of us here in Jack County if you could just delay it for a couple of weeks.  But if you want it to rain, we need it desperately and you just send it.  We'll just deal with it.  Amen.

Oh, and we really are grateful for the rain.  We never loose sight of the fact that it, like all of our blessings, come from you.

The Old and the New

Whack, whack!  Bang Bang, Griiiiiind, griiiiind! whump!

Today it was like sitting in a dentist's office hearing him drill on a tooth all day.

That's pretty much what it has been this week.

Good evening, all.

All week I have been keenly aware of the white, powdery dust on everything.  All of them are alike in texture; part pulverized lawn and part powdered limestone.  We have had some nice compliments over the years on our lawn.  Our grass has always been a thick, lush carpet.

But that is about gone for a while.  I am going to ask that we begin to water our roses and see if we can get the weeds out of the sand area between the curb and the sidewalk.

Things are busy this week though some of the things that I had hoped would manifest themselves have not.  Still there is progress.

Workers have completed the removal of the cap stones and the honing crews are busy now every day.  The honing crews are smoothing the face of the limestone panels taking off the pittings and damage from the sandblasting as well as the staining and oxidization of 70 years.

The difference is pretty astounding when can see what we have seen now for so long that we don't think about it anymore and then right beside it is the bright white of the "new" stone.

A good portion of the South elevation and the West elevation have been done and most of the ground level panels are complete.



West elevation & photos do not do justice to the contrast


Here are a few shots of the South elevation.



So. Elevation - right half honed





So. Elevation - note fellow working at ground level

 There is a delay in the installation of the spandrels.  They are not likely to go up until next week.  They are waiting on some materials in the installation of a moisture barrier before the spandrells are put in place.  Workers continue to remove the other gray panels.

You cannot see it from the ground but the demolition of the old roof has begun.  They are taking it down to the concrete decking.  Now watch it rain.  Here is a spot where they were working.

Heh, it's not all gonna be pretty!

Thursday morning as I sat at the computer I noticed that was a lot of activity going on outside.  As I watched for a moment it was evident that the fellows moving around were part of the roofing crew.  Most of the day one of their lift vehicles was lifting bundles of the roofing material on the roof.  One of them they must have been dropped since as I worked I felt and heard a big ... WHUMP! ... and at least my corner of the building shook a little.  I had not felt that since our little earthquake a few months ago.

Not sure how far they got today but they made a good start as you can see below.  They have Friday as well to work.  This pic gives a pretty good cross section of the new roof.  I think they will come back on top now with another covering.  This roof should increase our R factor for heating and cooling.



The old and the new roof

 As I said earlier, part of our cost of the roof is being paid by a Federal stimulus grant.  Ironic. Ironic in that the courthouse was built under a Federal grant during a financial downturn in our nation's economy.  The purpose of those programs was to stimulate the economy, create jobs, and help put money in circulation.  Today, the SECO grant money was issued under a program designed to do exactly the same thing.

Accurate restoration can test your patience, I guess.  We are waiting on a ruling right now by the Texas Historical Commission to rule on a type of glass that we are going to use to replace broken glass in a number of places.  The glass is called "obscure" and is used in places like restroom windows to assure privacy.  Our windows man had tried unsuccessfully with a number of vendors in Texas and one in New York for a match but has not found one yet.  We are waiting to see if THC will accept the closest match found.  Some of the glass to be replaced is 30 feet in the air so who is going to be able to tell.

From time to time, I have hear people say that they did not like the look of our courthouse.  They thought it was plain and many have openly stated that they wished that we had kept the old one built in 1886.  I was visiting with a friend the other day who said she had never thought of our courthouse as particularily attractive but said lately with the work going on that she was seeing some things about that she really liked.  Someone else told me that we are starting to see that when it was new that it was pretty striking.

Perhaps we are now seeing what she was meant to look like in her beginning.

Most of us see those photos of the 1886 courthouse but we have never read of its failings.  The Commissioners Court in the opening years of the 20th century had iron rods driven into its walls to try to stabilize them because they were separating.  That problem continued to be a concern and was one of the leading reasons for building the current structure.

Your commissioners have really stepped up at this point to take on what they have done.  I hope you will tell them 'thank you' and how pleased you are with what you are seeing. 

We have just received word from the THC about the timeline for the next round of courthouse restoration grants.  When this program first started there was $50 million budgeted by the State for these projects.  A national study had shown that courthouses were some of the most threatened historic structures in our nation.  This 2-year stretch provides only $22 million.  But we, as a people in Jack County, are showing a great interest in our courthouse's restoration and, I believe, our chances are better than in the past to be funded to finish the work.

That deadline for filing is December 1.

Next time I hope we can talk about reinstalled spandrels.

I will also introduce you to our Courthouse's first guardian.

Where did Justice go?

Hello, all!

Still hot but we're still making progress down on the square.

As they told us looks like it is shaping up to be a busy week despite the heat.  Yesterday and today there were several groups of workman.

Monday morning when I arrived the Sheriff and a Deputy had Church Street (East side of the square) blocked off on the north and south ends.  in the middle of the street was a big flat bed 18-wheeler who was off loading large rectangular bundles of what looks like styrofoam material and some other materials that are further roofing supplies.  There was a lot of it.  It took up most of the curbside parking on the east side.  They had not told me about that and I felt sure I would hear about it but later in the day a fork lift manuevered it all into two rows along the curb.  So we still have 1/2 of the stretch of parking anyway.

No roofing crew yet but they should begin this week.  With that the materials will be lifted up then onto the roof.  We will be increasing the R factor with this roof design and be using a SECO (stimulus) grant to help pay for this part of the project.

All day yesterday and today another crew has been working next to the east side of the building and on top in the same area.  There is a man on the ground in some kind of vehicle sorta like a cross between a fork lift and a front end loader.  He sits in a little cage on the side and manuevers it.  There a double arm like a bucket on a front end loader but it has the two teeth on the front like a fork lift.

The crew is removing the capstones along the top of the parapet.

Modern building codes would require that there be a moisture barrier underneath the top course.  The top course is the last layer of stone in this case that sits atop the wall.  Actually there is an inner wall of brick and the layer which in this case is limestone.  It was common in the day that the workman would dispose of their rubble (broken bricks) into the cavity between.

Today there would be some sort of barrier (tar paper at least) to carry the water that might get through the seams between the capstones to the outside.  In the courthouse, it is open all the way down.  So if water gets between the capstones, it goes into the wall.

We have for a long time had water coming from around the windows causing the plaster on our walls to spall.  The plaster gets wet underneath and then pops up like a bubble.  Then it usually dries to a powder and then proceeds to fall off in bits or sometimes in chunks.  You can knock it off and replaster but the same thing happens again.

So these guys are getting ready to try to cure this problem.  They are now removing the course of capstones around the top of the parapet one by one and lifting them to the ground and stacking them.  This is no small feat in and of it self as each one of these weighs about 500 pounds.  The Project Manager tells me they weigh about 100 pounds per linier foot.  I thought they would re-use what they could but apparently not.

Here that crew is at work:

They say the honing crew will be here tomorrow and start smoothing the face of the limestone panels.  A long time ago, the staining on the exterior was removed by sandblasting the face of the stone.  Though it may have been state of art at the time the face of the stones are pitted and wavy.  The process opened the face of the limestone to promote the staining you can now see.  This has to be better for the stone but you always have to still wonder about this state of the art process in several years.  We will still have to periodically clean it in some fashion to preserve the finish.

The spandrels that were cleaned up are on the way back.  Three of them are here and will go up sometime this week.  They are truly beautiful.  Their caretaker has strengthened them and sealed the back of them to protect them from deteriation. 

Here's one of them:

They have stripped off the gray paint, cleaned them up, polished them, and strengthed the reverse.

But where did justice go?

When the 1886 courthouse was torn down in the opening moments of 1939, it occurred at the end of a world wide depression so great that it had its own name.  Experience taught that generation not to throw anything away before you use it or wear it out.  That courthouse was brought down in a matter of moments by bulldozers, I am told, pulling cables wrapped around it.  The stone was recyled and much of it is still in use today.  Some went to build the old City Hall/Fire Stations, some went to the country to build a cabin, some went to build part of the City's water treatment plant on the parade grounds of Fort Richardson, and others to be used as part of other homes.  The bell is still located on the square but what happened to Lady Liberty.

Lady Liberty was often used in 19th century in many places but often on court buildings.  Lady Liberty is a symbol of the Greek and Roman goddess of Justice.
     And thus she stood overlooking the main entrance (south) examining those who entered.  In some instances, she appears blindfolded so she cannot see those before her and in some cases she is not so, it could be said, she can see those who stand before for who they are.  In most instances she holds the Scales of Justice to measure the evidence presented and a sword for the swift administration of her justice.

Somehow when Lady Justice came down off of the uppermost height of the 1886 courthouse, she disappeared.  A number of us have puzzled over her fate through the years.  One woman has told about seeing her later.  She said as a young girl she saw her stored in  the old Commissary Building at Fort Richardson.  She said when she saw she still had what she was told were bullet holes placed there by cowboys on a Saturday night who had a bit too much of ol' Who Hit John.  But from there she disappeared and no one seemed to know where she went.

Several years ago in an article in the newspaper, I was quoted as saying I was still trying to find out what happened to her.  Fast forward a couple of weeks to a Friday night home football game and a fellows says to me, "I read you were looking for Lady Jusice."  I assured him that I was and he told me she went in a scrap drive in WWII.  He was a boy at the time and personnaly saw her on a a scrap there on the square.  So she did her part for the cause perhaps ending up in a bomb or shell casings or the wall of a tank defending our nation.

So now you know, too.

Here she is probably after having been just removed from the 1886 courthouse.   The Scales are gone from her left hand, her right hand still in place to hold the sword gone, and apparently she wore no blindfold.

Till next time.