Repairs to the stained glass dome in the court room at the Greene County courthouse could be finished within the next couple of weeks, the county board of supervisors learned Monday.
County engineer Wade Weiss reported that the dome was dismantled without breakage to any of the glass. The sections were taken to The Stained Glass Store in Des Moines where they have been cleaned and re-leaded, and the craftsmen are in the process of putting the sections back together again.
The process of taking the dome out was rather like laproscopic surgery. The dome is accessed through a narrow opening in the attic, with only a catwalk to reach the dome. Only a support structure, not flooring, is available inside the dome cover. In close quarters, craftsmen dismantled the dome and took it by section back through the opening. It took the craftsmen less than half a day.
Cost of the repair is $31,000, most of which is labor.
The dome in the courthouse is covered, with backlighting to provide a look of daylight. The supervisors approved another $4,000 to update the lighting while access is easy. The original plan was to install LED lighting, but a Stained Glass Store specialist and local electrician Chris Durlam determined high bay fluorescent lighting to be a better option. The additional cost of LED lighting would not be recouped by additional lifespan of the bulbs.
The high bay fluorescent tubes are expected to last up to 30 years with the limited use they get. Weiss told the supervisors the dome lighting is coming in below budget, and he proposed other updates to lighting in the court room with the remaining funds.
The supervisors on Monday repeated their intention to have the $175,000 repair job to the large stained glass dome over the rotunda before the building’s centennial in 2017. That process will be a similar “laproscopic” method. The access point to the dome is larger, but so is the dome.
