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Lady Justice due for upgrade

LISBON — The highest point of the Columbiana County Courthouse, the clock tower, is getting much-needed repairs this summer.

County commissioners on Tuesday approved a $48,000 contract with R.J. Kunkle to have work done starting at the catwalk around the top of the stonework right to Lady Justice on the top.

Commissioner Jim Hoppel said Lady Justice is currently missing her scales of justice, which she used to hold. Additionally, one of the clock faces is cracked and missing one of the hands. The tower has four clocks, one on each side.

Additionally, Hoppel said the catwalk around the tower is currently not safe for someone to climb on. The dome is being repainted and all the repairs are being made. Hoppel said the courthouse clock tower has not been painted for about 25 or 30 years.

“We’ve been wanting to do this for a long time, but we haven’t had the money,” Hoppel said, “So we thought we could pull together what is needed for part of it this year and next year, hopefully, we can get together the rest of it.”

Hoppel said the next half of the project will include repointing the stone which sits under the tower, down to the roof.

The company doing the work this year comes with some good references. Hoppel said he spoke with four people from some of their other jobs and “all of them gave a very good report.”

R.J. Kunkel is from the Grandview Heights area of Columbus, but Hoppel said they have done about than 40 county courthouses and seven or eight state capitols, including the one along Interstate 77 in Charlestown, W.Va.

Hoppel said the company has been doing this type of work for about 40 years.

The company began work on Tuesday morning, right before commissioners met to approve the contract. A large boom lift is parked next to the courthouse along with a dumpster for the debris.

Last fall, county commissioners were among 25 building owners in downtown Lisbon who received a “friendly warning” letter asking them to make some repairs to their buildings. The cupola of the courthouse was one of the things on the list.

In another matter, commissioners opened bids for two summer paving projects. The first set of bidders were The Shelly Company, $210,943; Central Allied Enterprise, $248,516; and Arbaccus Construction Co., $282,520. The second project was bid on by The Shelly Company, $1,326176; Central Allied Enterprise, $1,428,011; Shelly and Sands Inc. of Rayland, $1,693,607; Butch and McCree Paving of Hillsville, Pa.; and Arbaccus Construction of Akron, $1,747,493.

Commissioners voted to have the county engineer’s office look at the bids and make a recommendation at the next commissioners’ meeting. The paving projects include multiple roadways.

djohnson@mojonews.com

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