At their regular meeting this week, the Greene County Board of Supervisors decided to make plans to repair two stain glass domes on the roof of the courthouse.

County Engineer Wade Weiss says there is one dome on top of the courtroom and another that is located on the rotunda.

He talks about the conditions of the domes and which one needs to be attended to soon.

“As with any stain glass that’s hanging upside down, gravity’s taking its toll on it and there are support structures behind it, there’s movement that goes on with any structure and deterioration.  And in the 97th year of those being in place, we’ve got a recommendation that the courtroom dome is probably more of an emergency repair than it is a long-term maintenance.”

It became even more apparent when a severe storm came through Jefferson on Sunday, August 31st and some small debris from the dome in the courtroom fell.  However, Weiss points out that the public is in no danger from the dome completely falling apart, but that something needs to be done soon.

“We do not want that to happen, obviously that’s one, we don’t want to hurt anybody and two, the structure is not one that we want to have coming down.  It’s too beautiful and we need to maintain it and the Board (of Supervisors) absolutely agrees with that.”

Board Chair John Muir says they are looking at The Stain Glass Store in Des Moines to completely refurbish both domes which he believes will not only make them safer with today’s technology but also keep the integrity of the building.

The preliminary total estimated cost for both domes is over $200,000.