Engineers warn Lincoln County courthouse roof may not meet modern snow-load standards

Robbie Burich, a structural engineer with Midwest Engineering, told the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners on May 12 that a visual inspection of the county's 1890s courthouse roof found multiple areas of concern and that the structure likely does not meet current snow-load requirements.

"We would consider dead load around 15 lb a square foot," Burich said, and that "this roof would need to support 33.6 lb a square foot" under current code. He added that projected code changes taking effect July 1 would raise the design snow load to about 63.8 lb per square foot, substantially increasing the standards any repair would need to meet.

Burich reviewed recommendations that initially appeared in a 2020 report by SEA/ARKING and said much of that work—deck repairs, replacing decking and joists, adding joist hangers and analyzing notched members, ridge and valley beams and truss connections—had not been completed. During the inspection Burich observed overloading and side-grain crushing at several primary truss connections and "severe checking" of key members that is causing connections to move.

He also noted an HVAC unit apparently installed in 2008 that appears to have been added without structural reinforcement; he estimated its weight at roughly 1,500 to 2,000 pounds and said the supporting members showed signs of overstress and deflection. Burich said bats and some guano were present in the attic but were not a structural weight concern.

Burich recommended a full, labor-intensive structural analysis: grade each major timber to establish strength values, run calculations for primary and secondary members, and identify where sistering, added connections or other reinforcements are required. He and county staff warned that adding structure to strengthen roof members increases loads on walls and foundations and may require further analysis of the building's walls and foundation before final repair documents are produced.

Commissioners did not take formal action on the non-action update. County staff said the county could procure the needed structural analysis as a professional service or through an RFP; Burich said producing construction documents for bidding would require that detailed engineering work first. The presentation followed recommendations from the 2020 review and county staff said the recent $7,500 inspection was a follow-up to that prior work.

During public comment, resident Doug McKinney said he feared the report would be used to justify tearing down the courthouse. "I can see this whole thing is geared towards tearing it down, which I hate to see," he said. Linda Montgomery urged the county to seek multiple assessments and not rely on a single engineering opinion.

Next steps indicated in the meeting transcript: staff may prepare procurement documents for a detailed structural analysis and engineers advised the county to grade members and produce full calculations before soliciting construction bids.