The barely one year old Grimes County Justice Center now needs its first major fixes, thanks to a water leak on Christmas Day.
County Judge Joe Fauth stopped by to discuss in studio this week, saying the brutal Holiday freeze was to blame.
“This break happened where the fire riser is, and all the fire protection equipment. Even with all the wall insulation, sheet rock, pipe insulation…we had a break at the copper pipe 90 degree angle,” said Fauth. “Best we can tell, it was a 50-gallon a minute leak, and ran about 2 hours until we found it…in that time, we pulled about 6,000 gallons of water out of the Justice Center.”
He says with that damage, comes the shuffling around of county offices.
“We have moved the District Attorney and her office to the Annex, by the Historic Courthouse. Our District Clerk…her team is working out of the district courtroom, and probably at the county court-at-law courtroom,” said Fauth.
Fauth added that auditors are set up to work from home.
He did not have a timetable for when the repairs would be complete.