County building reopens after frozen pipes left offices awash
GOLDEN – Jefferson County’s administrative offices re-opened Monday after pipes in a mechanical building atop the County Courts and Administration Building burst, flooding parts of five floors in the facility and forcing the building’s closure late last week.
County and District courts on the opposite side of the building from the administrative offices, remained open and were unaffected by the thousands of gallons of water that seeped into walls, dripped from ceilings and covered floors and desks.
Other county agencies, including Open Space, Human Services, the District Attorney’s offices and the Coroner’s offices are in separate buildings on the Jeffco government campus and also remained open.
No estimates of damage were available, said county spokeswoman Kathryn Heider.
Crews from the county’s Facilities Division and workers for a private damage recovery contractor continued working to repair and assess the damage . Computerized records are secured in an off-site data backup system, Heider said.
The cleanup crews worked through the night Thursday and were expected to work through the weekend to get the building in shape to open Monday, Heider said.
The leak, blamed on the week’s frigid weather, apparently originated in pipes running through a small structure atop the county building, and hit the County Attorney’s offices on the 5th floor before soaking through onto ceilings and walls on lower levels, Heider said. The County Assessor’s Office was soaked and part of the Assessor’s Office also sustained some water damage, Heider said.
The County Clerk’s Office, which stores a number of paper files, seems to have escaped with little or no damage, Heider said.
“It was above the attorney’s offices, sort of in the middle was where the worst of it was,” Heider said. “And then it went down the wall to every floor below.”
The leak was discovered about 6:30 p.m. Thursday by a security guard who “was doing his routine walk through.”
