Nov 30, 2017 3 min read

WAYNESBURG – Crews will need to rebuild pillars surrounding the Greene County Courthouse’s bell tower, a repair neither the county nor the company contracted for the work anticipated to have to make.

County Chief Clerk Jeff Marshall said when the commissioners put the project out for bid earlier this year, they were unsure of the extent of the damage.

The county approved work to restore the courthouse bell tower in August, after it was discovered it had been damaged by water. Marshall told commissioners in March water entered part of the square base above the courthouse roof, rotting the wood.

“We had no inclination of those upper columns being rotted out like they were,” Marshall said.

As crews were working last month, they realized more needed to be done to restore the building.

Jesse Fiske Sr., who owns the company contracted to make repairs, said as they were working on pillars surrounding the clock tower, they realized the wood rotted out. Fiske said they removed the pillars, which he said looked as if they may be original to the building, to construct new fiberglass pillars.

It’s made for an unusual look to the courthouse’s trademark bell tower.

That work will take at least a couple of weeks. Fiske anticipates work on the bell tower will be complete by Dec. 15. After that, new sandstone will need to be installed near the entrance of the courthouse, including at the base of the large columns. Fiske estimates his crews will still be working through January. However, recent unseasonably warm temperatures helped with the timeline.

Fiske’s crew needed to pack up and finish by 4 p.m. Thursday in order to accommodate the holiday events around the courthouse Friday and Saturday.

“We’ve asked them to remove the lift, remove their trailer and the barrier devices,” Marshall said, for the tree lighting Friday night and parade Saturday afternoon.

“We’ll be back on Monday,” Fiske said.

The work was originally expected to be complete by Thanksgiving. Now, Marshall said he’s hoping it’s done by Christmas.

“Everything we add keeps adding time to it,” he added.

The approved contract for $246,800 to Jesse L. Fiske Sr. LLC was to make various repairs to the columns and pillars, but Fiske said he didn’t originally anticipate needing to fully replace them. The commissioners approved building new columns last month, adding $41,000 to the project to replace the rotten pillars.

“It just made sense to the project at this time and hopefully now we’re done with it,” Marshall said.

This phase of work on the courthouse started in August, but there have been efforts to maintain the building for about five years. After evaluating how to fix issues near the gutters of the building, Marshall anticipates being finished with work on the courthouse for a while. That project could be down the road, and should not be as invasive as the work the past few months have been.