County engineer Wade Weiss has had frequent conversations with the board of supervisors in the last few years about maintenance at the Mahanay Bell Tower, as water seeping into the tower has continued to be a problem. As the bell tower approaches it’s golden anniversary, the struggles that were there from the start are still present.
Weiss had extra information for the supervisors Monday: letters from late 1966 and 1967 to and from people involved with the project about leaks. Attorney Francis Cudahy wrote to Forman Ford Glass Company of Des Moines in April, 1967, “It appears that the aluminum strips which go up along the sides are bulged out (that is curved out) in some places. This may be an illusion but this is the way it looks. At any rate, the glass is set in some sort of a compound and there are a number of places where there is a pulling away from the glass where water comes through. The entire observation deck leaks very badly (like a sieve, someone said). After the last light rain the carpet on the observation deck was soaked. Water came down through the top of the elevator and soaked the carpet in the elevator…. I hope that when you come out that you will send people who know what they are doing and they will do a job that will repair this permanently because we have had difficulty with the leaking from the very start.”
“All the problems we’re have today with seepage through the construction joints and water on the deck have all been there since Day 1,” Weiss said. “We’re trying to fix things that maybe from the get-go were there…. It was never designed to have those windows in there on the observation deck. It’s been a problem from the get-go.”
The county engineers earlier this year hired Brooks Borg Skiles of Des Moines to do an engineering study of the bell tower. Weiss told the supervisors that BBS engineer Steve Stimmel is nearly finished with his report.
Weiss said Stimmel has looked at the entire courthouse, and that he is “very concerned” with the stained glass fixtures in the courtroom. The windows have deteriorated over time and are in danger of falling in. Weiss gave an estimate of $200,000 for repair to the stained glass in the courthouse and the rotunda, as well as some needed exterior work.
Weiss was directed to “fast forward” work on the stained glass in the courtroom.
