Commissioners discuss maintenance projects; Handicap ramp crumbling, jail roof leaks

New Ozark County Presiding Commissioner Terry Newton has been doing some house cleaning in the courthouse and commissioners’ office lately, organizing the space and updating files as he can. Now, he’s looking to get a jump on maintenance and improvement projects on county-owned buildings.

Newton and fellow commissioners Gary Collins and Layne Nance talked about county maintenance and improvement projects Monday morning during the regular weekly meeting of the commissioners.

Newton invited Sheriff Cass Martin to the meeting, and the group discussed various maintenance projects including the possible replacement of the roof at the Ozark County Jail.“We need to get together a packet so we can look at going out for bids on replacing the roof at the jail,” Newton said. He asked the sheriff to come up with some information about the roof and what needs to be done.

Martin said the current flat roof at the jail continues to leak. “We had a pretty bad leak not long ago in the lobby,” he said, adding that he believes the water leaks have caused some electrical and wiring issues over the years at the jail.

“Let’s look at what it would take to replace it, either with a pitched roof or a flat roof that has a good warranty,” Newton said. “We’re just going to have to see which way we want to go on it, and which one would be the most cost-effective.”

The leaks over the years have damaged several of the ceiling tiles at the sheriff’s office, which is also an issue at the courthouse, according to Newton.

“Some of the tiles in the courthouse are horrible,” Newton said. He said he spent a couple days and examined all of the tiles in the building to gauge the damage.

“I think what we’re going to do is replace all of the damaged tiles with tiles from one of the rooms in the courthouse and then just buy new ones for the one room, because it’s almost impossible to match these with new tiles,” Newton said.

Concerning the courthouse, Newton said the county was told by boiler inspectors that some of the needed regular maintenance on the boiler system hasn’t been done.

“There apparently is some sediment buildup, and nobody knew that maintenance on that was supposed to be done regularly,” Newton said. “So we’re going to have that taken care of.”

The county is also looking at the handicap ramp on the west side of the courthouse.

“I’m not sure what can be done about it, but it’s not ADA-compliant,” Newton said, explaining that the ramp is too steep to comply with the American Disabilities Act requirements. He said that some of the concrete on the ramp is in bad shape and is failing” We’re going to have someone look at it and see what can be done,” Newton said.

Last year the county installed automatic doors at the main entrances on both sides of the courthouse and also at the ADA-compliant door that enters the courthouse at the basement level.

Newton said they also plan to have the county’s heating and cooling systems inspected.

“It’s just good to get on top of these things,” Newton said.