Plastered with problems: Oneida County facilities committee tours courthouse

The Oneida County board’s county facilities committee met on Monday to tour the courthouse. 

Committee chairman Russ Fisher said the tour spanned nearly 40 minutes.

He said now that the roofing project for the courthouse is complete and the window project is underway, the committee was shown plaster which has come down on the “historic side” of the building. 

“So we’re looking at fixing that back up … doing some restoration on it,” he said. “So we haven’t taken any action on it or anything like that. It’s more than likely going to be a … capital improvement project.”

Fisher has been committee chairman for roughly three years, and he said this was the first time the committee toured the courthouse.

“So there’s some issues that our buildings and grounds wanted us to be aware of and they wanted us to visually see it so we knew what they were talking about,” he said. 

Once the tour was completed and the committee convened for its regular monthly meeting, one big item of discussion involved a courthouse chiller tube repair. 

He said a chiller tube for an air conditioner was damaged during the roof project, leaving some offices on the courthouse’s top floor without air conditioning. 

“We got to see what direction we’re going to go with that,” Fisher said, also indicating it could be an expensive project. “It came in at a different bid and then we had a rebid and assessed it, so it was coming in at $35,800 to redo it. So we’re hopefully going to try to get it fixed.”

It would be considered an emergency procedure, he said, and in one of the judge’s chambers last week it was about 85 degrees. 

“And that, to me, is unacceptable,” Fisher said. “And it’s something that popped up after we put the new roof on. One of those unforeseen deals.”

Trevor Greene may be reached via email at [email protected].