County Justice Center back to normal after flooding

The Flathead County Justice Center is dry again and repairs have been made following a sprinkler mishap three weeks ago that soaked three floors of the county building.

Testing by a third-party firm will be done soon to make sure there’s no lingering mold from the water damage, county Maintenance Director Jed Fisher said.

Work was being done to upgrade the sprinkler system to meet fire codes when a contracted worker pulled a sprinkler head off where he thought the water was shut off, and it took some time to get to the shut-off valve. Water damage was heaviest in the Justice Court area of the second floor, but the first floor and basement also were deluged with water.

A jail cell in the basement was unusable for a couple of days and ceiling tile has been replaced there. Justice Court was closed for a day because the noise from the fans was too loud to conduct business.

“Operationally, everything is up and running,” County Administrator Mike Pence said.

Rainbow Restoration of Kalispell was brought in to dry out and clean the carpets.

“The dry-out went really well in the time frame that we had anticipated with minimal disruption to the county staff and now it’s business as usual,” Cameron Wride of Rainbow Restoration said in an April 9 memo to Fisher. “All work has been completed besides a few minor repairs that will be done by county maintenance.”

Insurance companies for both the county and the company hired to do the sprinkler work are involved in settling the costs of the accident, Pence said. He doesn’t know yet what the total cost is.