ECTOR COUNTY, Texas — It was a mess at the Ector County Courthouse Monday morning with a leak on the third floor that flooded the floors below, cancelling any trials or jury duty that were supposed to take place.
"It was an expansion tank to our water heater above the third floor and so that is why it began overflowing and then the subsequent floors began flooding," said Ector County Judge Dustin Fawcett.
Crews worked all morning and most of it is cleaned up, but damage was definitely done.
"Three of our courtrooms were impacted pretty severely in terms of the carpet, in terms of the tile, in terms of the wood siding and then we have the ceiling tiles that are also in poor condition and we are missing quite a few due to the water damage. So we're actively in recovery mode," said Fawcett.
This is just one of many incidents that has happened at the 60 year old courthouse.
"This is not the first time this courthouse has flooded, it's not the first time its had maintenance issues," said Fawcett.
Getting a new courthouse has been discussed, but right now there's nothing set in stone.
"Discussion about a new courthouse has been going on for well over a decade and those talks are going to continue and especially with today and what I would say about those talks is, one, that it would be a bond that we would take to the voters," said Fawcett
The judge believes the cost of a new courthouse might be a better investment than constantly fixing up an old one.
"Is it not a better idea to build a new facility? And I anticipate once we gather the data, once we break it down into a monthly appropriation that the principle interest on the courthouse and building a courthouse would probably be less than what the maintenance and operations of what this aging infrastructure is," said Fawcett.
Fawcett said he's ready to have the discussion with county leaders and the citizens.
"Stay tuned for potential town halls in the future about this topic, we're gonna study this thing, we're gonna understand this thing we're gonna do it smart," Fawcett said.
As of right now, the courthouse will be open and ready to go on Tuesday.