We are experiencing some pretty nice weather in the middle of August here in Nodaway County. Although it has been hot with high humidity, it certainly could be a lot worse. It seems like it has been several years since we all worried about hot drying winds blowing out of Kansas burning up crops and no rain predicted for the entire 10 day forecast. We have been receiving some precipitation throughout the area although it is still "spotty" but every little bit helps. I believe that this past week's shower that amounted to up to an inch in the south part of the county added five to ten bushels to the yield of the late soybeans. It also is helping the corn that was planted late to fill out. I suspect that if everything stays on course, we will have at least an average harvest and probably better than normal, but we are still going to have to receive some weekly showers and would like to see a late frost as well.
I need to take some of my allotted weekly space and explain again just what is going on concerning courthouse repairs and the tower work. I have been asked several times lately just how much of the tower is to be removed, if the clocks are going to be kept, the Christmas lighting, and other aspects of the construction efforts. The tower work has progressed down nearly as far as will be necessary. The original contract was to remove only the top, that is just the roof area, but there are a few "rows" of brick right at the very top where the brick and the wood came together that the contractor and engineer believed should be removed and then re-laid. This is an effort to "bridge" the brick and the new metal roof together making it stronger and more stable.
The clock "faces" will be removed but are going to be replaced with new metal and new "hands." The old faces look good from the ground level but when they are viewed closely they are in very poor condition. They are just boards with painted plywood that is deteriorating allowing moisture to get inside the tower structure. The shafts that ran through the faces from the clock mechanism inside have been removed so the entire faces can be torn off and then the new installed. This will seal the structure so it can be weather tight and not allow water to get inside and cause rotting.
The clock mechanism, that is the huge gears and "works" that were originally ran by weights but electrified in the twentieth century, is in good shape and has been covered to keep dust and debris out during the construction efforts. The clock shafts that ran from the mechanism out through the faces to the hands will be put back in after the work is done and then the clocks will again be functional.
The decorative lighting on the courthouse that has been traditionally turned on for the Christmas season will change some. The commission has ordered that the tower replica be constructed with new lights that will run up the four corners of the roof and then go around the base horizontally. The lights that are on the courthouse now are just normal glass bulbs that are very vulnerable to the elements, especially hail storms that can damage and break them, but the replacements are light-emitting diode (LED) lights that are the new modern semiconductor lighting that are becoming the trend in nearly all lighting replacement needs where the elements can take their toll. The LED lighting should last for many years without the worry of replacement or damage from hail storms and other elements. The commission is considering using more "strips" of this lighting on the tower area but also looking at utilizing "spot" lights to make the tower and clocks more visible. The old strips of Christmas lighting will be removed from the courthouse because much of it is damaged and does not function. The cost of replacing all of the lighting and its constant repair make keeping the old lighting not feasible.
The commission is still looking at options on replacing the deteriorating wooden columns between all the windows on the structure. We sought input from a company several months past that proposed creating new columns from a plastic material that would look just like the old but would never rot and would last for generations but the supplier's source for the material to cast the columns is no longer available and we are now seeking advice from other folk in that field. We had a local volunteer who "turned" one of the bases out of wood but the commission is concerned about the longevity of this product. The replacement efforts of all of these columns will be huge and we want a product installed that will not need painting for many years and cause a future commission to be concerned with them rotting again. We will continue looking at all options to address this issue.
I have mentioned previously that the bell and the hammer that struck it are stored down at the road and bridge headquarters and both will be restored and placed somewhere on the courthouse grounds for public display. I still have not had an opportunity to research the original installation efforts of the bell. I pointed out a few weeks past that it is cast with the date of 1894, 12 years after the courthouse was constructed, so it obviously was an "afterthought." I will get to the library one of these days and do some research and then report on what happened in the late nineteenth century by a county court to put this magnificent "chunk" of metal more than 100 feet up in the tower. It certainly must have been quite a feat considering that the construction workers of that day did not have the luxury of a diesel powered hydraulic crane to lift the 1583 pounds of bronze. There is little doubt that they utilized block and tackle and wooden scaffolding.
I will get some time and report on this but in the meantime stay involved in "your" county government. My personal e-mail address is sales@baumliauto.com
–Joe Baumli is the presiding county commissioner of Nodaway County and provides a weekly column for the Maryville Daily Forum
