MIAMI COUNTY — The historic Miami County Courthouse managed to escape the wrath of damage left by Saturday night’s tornadoes, but the pressure from the storm loosened stained glass from its frame in its dome.
According to Miami County Director of Operations and Facilities Chris Johnson, the pressure from the storm caused the panels of glass to shift out of its lead encasing and frame and slide, but did not break.
Johnson said there was no imminent danger of the dome’s glass falling and striking people in the large courtroom on the third level, but the area will be roped off and a tarp over the area for cautionary measures. Once the tarp is in place, the courtroom will reopen to the public.
Johnson said the county has contacted a stained glass repair company that will remove areas of the 135-year-old glass and have it restored. Johnson said restoration of the dome and its stained glass is to be part of the county’s interior renovation of the courthouse in the future, but the incident has since pushed the project higher on the list to be addressed.
“We were going to restore it anyway and it put it definitely into focus that we need to do the renovation on that particular glass sooner than later,” Johnson said Thursday.
Johnson said no further damage was reported to the courthouse, although the pressure from the storm popped a few windows out of the sash, but they were then simply pushed back into place.
