Jasper County officials make emergency plans after water line break floods courthouse in Carthage

Jan. 18—CARTHAGE, Mo. — Cold weather and a broken pipe on Wednesday caused water damage in the Jasper County Courthouse in Carthage, destroying computers, carpets and ceiling tiles in the Jasper County collector's office and damage in other areas of the building.

The courthouse and a number of parking spaces around it were closed Thursday and will remain closed Friday as cleanup and the drying process begin.

"It's a mess," Jasper County Presiding Commissioner John Bartosh said Thursday. "The court system, outside of one courtroom, is in pretty good shape. That courtroom, it'll probably be three or four months to get it back up and running. The ceiling is down, carpets and furniture are damaged. The collector's office, it's just destroyed. Everything is just destroyed in that room, and those places will take months to get fixed. The rest of it, I'm hoping by Monday a lot of this can be going. If not Monday, then by the end of next week we can be in good shape except those rooms."

Carthage fire Chief Ryan Huntley said the fire department got an automatic alarm from the courthouse at 6:48 p.m. Wednesday.

"Our engine crew showed up and made entry to the building," Huntley said. "At that time, the guys could hear what they thought was water flowing, so they made their way upstairs, and that's the point where they actually saw there was water on the ceilings and on the floors. I was en route at the time, and when I got here, we immediately made entry into the basement and equipment room. We shut the system off and opened it so we could get those water lines drained."

Huntley said firefighters found a broken pipe feeding water to the fire suppression system in the attic above the third floor near the north exterior wall of the courthouse. He said they had the sprinkler system shut down within about 15 minutes of receiving the call and that the system was drained a few minutes later.

He also said firefighters responded from both Carthage stations with vacuums and squeegees to help clean up the water and move vital equipment and files to dryer parts of the courthouse.

Bartosh said the pipe in question had broken before, but that was during the $4.5 million renovation in 2020 and 2021.

"We had all the heat shut off up there," he said. "The power was off up there, and there wasn't any big damage then because everything was already torn up. We also didn't lose nearly as much water that time."

Bartosh said it appears when the renovation was finished, the insulation that was installed cut the attic off from any heat coming from the third floor.

"We relied on heat to come from the third floor courtroom area to go up into the attic to keep these pipes from freezing," Bartosh said. "I guess we insulated too well and the heat wasn't getting up there."

Major damage was limited to the northwest corner of the building, Bartosh said.

Jasper County Circuit Judge John Nicholas said a courtroom and bathrooms on the third floor were damaged, as well as another courtroom and the probate office on the second floor.

Many of the ceiling tiles in the collector's office on the first floor had fallen in, and the carpets and desks and computers and anything else in the office were soaked.

"This is unbelievable. To me, it's totally ruined," Collector Steve McIntosh said Thursday, looking at his office. "And here's the kicker, last Friday, we did the last item on the punch list of a 2 1/2-year remodel. We were done. Now we're back to square one."

McIntosh said the collector's offices in Carthage and Joplin were unable to use their computers because the server for both offices was located in the Carthage courthouse. He said the server doesn't appear to have gotten wet, but technicians were on the way to see if it would still work.

Zachary Sloan, an owner of the ServePro business in Carthage and Joplin, said his cleanup crews worked overtime Wednesday night and Thursday morning to start getting the water out of the building and get important documents and computers to safety.

"I had crews rolling back to the shop to head home, and I instantly called them off and told them, 'All hands on deck, everybody to the courthouse,'" Sloan said. "We responded at 9 p.m., and we were here until 12:45 a.m. Thursday."

Sloan said the areas most affected will need a lengthy rebuild, maybe three months or more. Other parts of the building could be usable as soon as electricity, water and heat are restored.

County Clerk Charlie Davis said his office was still functional and the deadline for cities, school districts, fire districts and road districts to submit any issues for the April election was still Tuesday, Jan. 23.

"That doesn't affect the general public, but it does affect the cities and schools, fire districts, road districts, things like that," Davis said. "Our office is still open for anything election-related. We're still doing payroll and accounts payable for the county."