Carthage office reopens, historic elevator to be fixed
CARTHAGE, Mo. — For the first time in months, an area county office is back up and running in both locations, much to the delight of employees.
What a difference a few months make to Jasper County Deputy Collector Samantha Brunnert.
“It was complete devastation, it was actually heartbreaking to see so, it was very sad,” said Samantha Brunnert, Chief Deputy Collector.
The county collector’s office in Carthage sustained heavy water damage back in January after a pipe burst due to freezing temperatures.
Employees who usually staff that office were moved over to the Joplin office inside that courthouse.
Just a few days ago, the repair process finished up in Carthage and all those workers were finally able to come back home.
“Now it’s great, it looks great, it’s back to normal plus we’ve got all the remodeling done so it’s perfect,” said Brunnert.
County Collector Steven McIntosh says the repair and remodel process could have gone even more quickly had it not been for a couple of unforeseen circumstances.
“Well, what we didn’t plan on was abating lead-based paint on the ceiling, abating asbestos tile on the floor that got disturbed and so those strung it out, so it took roughly what, five months, six months to get back in here,” said Steven McIntosh, Jasper County County Collector of Revenue.
McIntosh says this is the second major remodeling project to occur in his office recently.
He says a two-year-long remodel project to his Carthage office was finished less than a week before the office was decimated by what he calls the great flood of 2024.
“The baseboard, which is true to the authenticity of this historic building we had to have made and it took a while to find someone who could make it and put it in, there’s a curved piece back here in the break room, they had to use old old-fashioned techniques, but they did, and it looks good,” said McIntosh
One of the oldest elevators in southwest Missouri has been taken out of service due to safety concerns.
Jasper County Commissioner Darieus Adams says a recent safety inspection of the elevator inside the Jasper County Courthouse revealed it was no longer safe to operate.
He says it will be closed for the foreseeable future until a new part can be made and installed to replace the one that has failed.
“The unfortunate part is it’s about a three to four-month fix so it’s going to be down for a while but the good news is that we’ll be able to get it back up and going and the company has assured us that will get us about a fifty-year shelf life with this fix so that’s very good news,” said Darieus Adams, Western District Commissioner.
Adams says the traction machine is the part that needs to be replaced and will run the county for about one hundred sixty thousand dollars.
He says there was no elevator at the time the courthouse was built, and that it was added inside the building in 1916.
If visitors need to do business with one of the offices not located on the first floor, and they can’t do steps, all they have to do is call that office and a representative will come down to them.
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