Warren County government has the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to roof conditions. 

The roof of Warren County Health Department is the worst, says county maintenance employee Greg Bowdoin.

“Besides the roof being bad, the drains are bad,” he said. “There’s no patching the roof. I went up there and put some stuff on it. We’ll see if it holds, but I doubt it. It’s rolled and cracked. Rain is coming through. We’re using trash cans to catch the water.”

The information was presented during a county Building and Grounds Committee meeting to discuss the current condition of county buildings.

“We have a recurring leak at this building,” said Bowdoin of the Administrative Building on Locust Street. “We’ve had it fixed several times. I think it’s been seven or eight times that we’ve patched that spot. The patch will last about six or seven months and we’ll have to do it again.”

County Executive Jimmy Haley said Road Superintendent Levie Glenn is going to assist in a project that could determine the cause of water reaching the basement, a problem commissioners have discussed for years.

“We have a major water infiltration on the lower floor,” said Haley. “Don’t know exactly where that’s coming from. We know our gutter system on this building is bad. Levie has agreed, when the weather gets better, to bring his backhoe over here and we are going to clean everything out from the front of the building all the way down to see if there are any cracks in the basement foundation walls. We have one utility room that has a standing 2-3 inches of water.”

Bowdoin added, “It’s only a matter of time before it gets into the archives.”

“It can roll in sometimes pretty heavy,” said Haley. “A week or so ago when we had heavy rain, it was pretty bad.” 

The courthouse roof is the best of the three.

“So far at the courthouse, it’s holding its own right now,” said Bowdoin. “There are no big leaks. Nothing is just rolling in.”

Haley said consideration should be given to using Unclaimed Property Act monies, which could exceed $200,000.

“We’ve already received $6,200 from the state since we passed that resolution,” said Haley. “I would like to create a capital improvement project line item for that, since we’ve never had one and to earmark that money for roof repairs.”

Allocating funds specifically for capital improvements would require full Warren County Commission approval.