ABOVE: The historic murals on the third floor of the Martin County Courthouse in Fairmont. The county is looking at repairing both the murals and the walls behind them.

FAIRMONT– The topic of the Martin County Courthouse dome murals was revisited by the board of commissioners on Tuesday. The county has been actively talking about the condition of the murals since the spring of 2024.

The murals were painted in 1906 or 1907 by Franz Rohrbeck and partially because of their age, and partially because of damage they’ve sustained, they’re deteriorating.

Building Maintenance Supervisor Luke Cyphers said they received some water damage prior to the courthouse roof being repaired several years ago and some of, if not all of the murals, have become partially detached from the ceiling.

“Scott (Higgins) did a lot of work with a restoration company that ended up not being able to help us in the end as far as getting us a final number on the cost of the project,” Cyphers said.

Back in the spring of 2024, the county had received a grant worth about $2,500 through the Minnesota Historical Society to have a conservation assessment done by the Midwest Art Conservation Center.

In September of last year, Rita Berg with the Midwest Art Conservation Center told the board of commissioners that it would be a complicated and big project and encouraged the county to look for grants.

Since then, Cyphers said on Tuesday that he found a company, Second Nature Painting, that does some restoration work. He reached out and asked if they could reattach to stop the ongoing damage.

“This is not a restoration, this is a “stop the damage,” he stressed.

The soonest the company could come in would be the end of October and it will take four to six weeks, during which time the third floor rotunda of the courthouse will be completely covered in scaffolding. This could affect access to the third floor courtroom, where trials are held.

“The problem with this project is the high cost of the scaffolding rental. Every day that that’s here, rental per week on the scaffolding is $160 to $200,” Cyphers said.

He added that $16,000 is the cost for the scaffolding being brought in and being both assembled and disassembled by an outside company.

He spoke more about the process but said the scope of the project is kind of unknown until they get working.

“I’ve worked on enough old buildings to know that when you start patching and reattaching, a year later or two years later when you go to redo it you have a hard time getting it back off without damaging it more,” said Commissioner Richard Koons.

He said there was a reason the painting weren’t holding to the wall and while he wants the work done, he agreed that more problems could occur.

However, Koons pointed out that there is $650,000 left of the bond money in reserves and $250,000 in the CIP for the murals.

Commissioner Joe Loughmiller asked what needs to be done to fix it right the first time. Cyphers said they would need to find a company willing to do the work that can supply some firm numbers for it.

“The murals will have to be detached completely from the wall, taken to a separate art facility, cleaned, touched up and any rips repaired. Then they would be rolled up and stored,” Cyphers said.

He compared it to when the county restored the bronze eagles that now sit on the exterior of the courthouse dome a few years ago.

“They came down, they went somewhere else and got worked on and came back at the end of the project,” Cyphers said.

While the murals are stored, the plaster and any wiring for the lights will be repaired.

“You know that it’s crumbling behind those murals,” Cyphers said.

Loughmiller asked if there is any idea how much all of this will cost and Cyphers said he has no estimates right now.

“No matter what we’ll have the $16,000 (for scaffolding) to have an assessment. Then when they come back to do the work we’ll have the $16,000 for the scaffolding again,” Koons said.

Cyphers suggested the board make a motion not to exceed a certain amount to get the project done.

“We can afford to get them here. We have to do it,” said Commissioner Jaime Bleess.

Loughmiller agreed that the board needs to have an estimate and then decide where to go from there.

“This feels like a $250,000 tuck pointing project that turns into a $5 million roof is what it feels like,” Loughmiller said.

A motion passed to go forth with the scaffolding and pursue an estimate to restore the murals and repair the ceiling.