Flood Damage Repaired at Washington County Justice Services Building

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, December 02, 2015

Restoration of Washington County Justice Services Building Complete

After three weeks of flood damage remediation work by County crews and contractors, the basement of the Washington County Justice Services Building (JSB) in downtown Hillsboro is now back in service. Some fifty displaced staff from the District Attorney's Office, including the Child Support Enforcement Program, the Misdemeanor/Traffic Prosecution Division and Grand Jury operations have now returned to their previous office space with minimal disruption to the public.

On Saturday, October 31, after a deluge of rainfall hit the region in the late afternoon hours of Halloween, storm drains were overwhelmed—leading to unprecedented flooding of the nearly 10-thousand square foot JSB basement. Hillsboro Fire and Rescue responded immediately and over the course of several hours, assisted County Facilities and Parks Services personnel with pumping out an estimated 3,000 gallons of water and the removal of equipment, furniture and documents to prevent further damage.

In the ensuing weeks, after intense coordination to relocate affected staff and critical operations, all efforts were focused on repairing the damage. All carpeting, water-logged sheetrock and furniture have been replaced. Telephone service, computers and electrical systems have been restored. Approximately 100 dampened boxes of stored documents are in the process of being restored.

According to County Facilities Building Superintendent John Williams, the work has progressed smoothly and efficiently due to excellent cooperation between various County departments, the State Courts and restoration general contractor NRC. "Everyone involved has worked hard to complete this project in a very short timeline. We were committed to returning the space to the DA's Office within a month and I'm happy to say we did it in just three weeks," said Williams. He also praised the efforts of several internal and external partners including the District Attorney's Office, the County's IT staff and Risk Management, the Sheriff's Office, the Hillsboro Public Works Department and Hillsboro Fire and Rescue.

Senior Project Manager, Bassam Khalifeh, also noted that the crisis gave County Support Services staff the opportunity to exercise their emergency "continuity of operations" plans that had been in place for some time but not tested to this level. Khalifeh noted that key staff from Support Services worked through the weekend to begin immediate restoration and relocation efforts in order to minimize disruption to all of the various users of the space.

District Attorney Bob Hermann had this to say. "I'm extremely proud of my staff. Those who were displaced pitched in to assist in the move to their temporary workstations, did their work in very tight quarters, barely missing a beat. They've continued to perform their duties in their usual professional and dedicated manner, while making the best of a very challenging situation. I'm also very grateful to our partners in Circuit Court for providing temporary spaces for the Grand Jury operations to continue uninterrupted." Hermann also expressed gratitude for the quick response of Hillsboro Fire and Rescue and their extensive efforts to assist with water removal after the flooding.

As operations return to normal in the JSB, Risk Management will continue to work with the County's insurance provider to recover a majority of the cost of repairs which are estimated to be close to $400 thousand dollars.

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