Crumbling courthouse may cost taxpayers

LEE COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) - Lee County Commissioners are trying to determine how to best address the problems causing massive cracks in the historic courthouse.

The Lee County Courthouse in Downtown Giddings was built in 1899 at a cost of about $32,000. The three-story structure was designed by architect J. Riely Gordon.

In 2003, the Lee County Courthouse underwent a $4.5 million restoration with the help of the Texas Historical Commission’s Courthouse Preservation Program. The state funded just over half the cost, Lee County taxpayers picked up the rest. Lee County was given $300,000 from The Lehman Charitable Foundation to help pay for the renovation.

The project included some structural improvements, heating and air conditioning and plumbing restoration. The walls and archways underwent extensive re-plastering and painting. But you would find it hard to believe once you walk through the doors.

The entire building, on all three floors, are cracking. The ceiling, the walls, the archways and the floors are cracked.

"The cracks showed up about two years ago," said Paul Fischer, Lee County Judge.

Elected 7 months ago, Lee County Judge Paul Fischer, inherited the problem.

"I see a building that we need do something very quick like," said Fischer. "We need to do some major repairs. The foundation was not addressed during that period. And it just started cracking."

Many homes and buildings develop thin hair-line cracks due to the soil conditions in Central Texas. But those pale in comparison to the cracks in the Lee County Courthouse.

KXAN found cracks big enough to accommodate your fingers. A crack on the tile at a doorway measured more than three-fourths inches wide. he crack near the baseboard in the balcony of the courtroom was big enough to slide your entire arm inside. (Check out the photo slideshow at the top of this story to see examples of some of the cracks)

And some of the cracks run deep. Like the one in the courtroom that you can see directly to the outside of the building.

But the cracks are not surprising to Dale Rabe of Rabe + Partners Architects. He was in charge of the renovation.

"We knew we didn't put everything we needed into it," said Rabe. "I don't think, we were hoping we wouldn't end up with the problems they have now, this soon. But we knew they would come back. We really didn't address some of those problems. They just didn't have the budget to do everything."

He said the foundation problem is as old as the building itself.

"Since the courthouse was built, they've been doing things to reinforce the foundation of the building," said Rabe.

Historical documentation and physical evidence supports that.

"Whenever you walk through the building, you’ll see in the courtroom especially, that there are steel tie rods running across the ceiling level and those were meant to stabilize the building after it had initially started moving, in probably in its first decade of existence," said Mark Cowan, a project reviewer for the Texas Historical Commission. "So these problems go all the way back and they've been recurring."

One thing everyone agrees on is that the building is safe. It was the first thing Fischer wanted to know.

This summer Lee County hired a new engineering firm to help them fix the problem. The preliminary estimate to fix the foundation is about $1 million.

"Our engineering company will inform us of everything that happened during the restoration and whether things were done under those plans or not, so we can't really say at this time that we can hold anybody responsible, but I can assure we are going to be looking at it," said Fischer.

Lee County officials will be applying for an emergency grant with the Texas Historical Commission to make the needed repairs. Fischer hopes that they will be able to get bids out by the beginning of the year.