ABOVE: The dome of the Martin County Courthouse in December after on of the murals, called Peace, was removed in order to be examined by Conrad Schmitt Studios, Inc. (CSS).

FAIRMONT– The Martin County Board of Commissioners received a comprehensive update on the state of the courthouse dome murals during their meeting on Tuesday. The murals were examined on-site in December by Conrad Schmitt Studios, Inc.(CSS).

Maddie (Gruenke) Trepton of CSS did the initial review and then took findings back to the board and at its Nov. 18 meeting, the board approved a bid of $12,650 to have the most damaged of the murals, called Peace, examined by CSS in December.

“Your murals are gorgeous, they’re beautiful. They contribute a lot of historic character to the courthouse and the space, which warrants treatment by experienced professionals and conservators which is what Conrad Schmitt is,” Trepton said.

She provided some up close photos of the murals, which were originally installed in the early 1900s on the third floor of the courthouse by Franz E. Rohrbeck, so the board could better see the damage.

“All four murals, as I’m sure you’re aware, are extremely, actively delineating from the plaster substrate and it’s due to elevated humidity and chronic water infiltration,” Trepton said. “There was evidence of multiple repairs present throughout all the murals that were unsuccessful and left the murals extremely brittle, compromising the original binding and weakening the structural integrity of the fabric.”

The most advanced deterioration was on the Peace mural that CSS removed from the ceiling because Trepton said it was in such poor condition that it was posing a hazard to not only the mural itself, but those walking beneath it.

With the mural removed, she said they were able to better view the substrate behind it, which she said was in decent condition. However, the plaster that was applied had a textured finish which she said they think caused a lot of the problems.

ABOVE: A close up look at some of the damage of the courthouse dome murals. Photo courtesy of CSS.

She further said the murals all had heavy application of paint and varnish, and had been collecting dirt and dust, but the plaster molding that are arching the dome look to be in better condition.

One of the photos showed a picture where she said it looked like bullet holes but were actually nail holes that was an attempt to keep the mural up but she said in reality it was essentially “ruining” the mural.

After presenting information on the condition of the murals, which Trepton said was dire, she moved into the proposed treatment plan.

“We would need full access to the full working area in the dome and each mural would be faced… and then the murals would be carefully removed, rolled up and then transferred to CSS to do conservation off-site in Wisconsin,” Trepton said.

Once all of the plaster was exposed, they would examine it again to see if there is any damage under the other murals, though she said they’re not expecting it.

“From there we would clean everything, stabilize, consolidate and apply a high level build up plaster to create a very smooth, uniform surface to apply the restored murals back on,” Trepton said.

Finally, everything would be re-varnished with a conservation grade reversible varnish.

For the Peace mural specifically, Trepton said they have a preferred option and a contingency option. She said that due to the deterioration and damage, the preferred option would be to completely reline the mural onto new canvas and once it’s stabilized it will be cleaned and filled in and through photo documentation, they will in-fill paint to match.

However, if that doesn’t work, Trepton said the contingency option is to fully recreate the mural at CSS, which she said they don’t foresee happening.

“The plan here is not to change anything, but to conserve and preserve what’s there,” Trepton said.

The county’s Building Maintenance Supervisor, Luke Cyphers, added that full access to the area would include extra scaffolding that’s not included in the quote to repair the murals.

Commissioner Jaime Bleess asked why the board would need to go out for bid on the project and County Coordinator Scott Higgins explained that the county’s bid compliance law is set at a $175,000 threshold and anything beyond that needs to go out for bid.

Currently the restoration estimate from CSS is about $202,000.

“These guys are the premier people to do it and I would question any other one we’ve considered prior to match their level of expertise. We can’t just go ahead and approve this today? We have to send it out for bid?” Bleess asked.

County Attorney Taylor McGowan said that given the nature of the project and the money involved, the county will need to “go through the hoops” and send it out for bid.

He added that CSS might be the only bidder on the project, but that the board still needs to go through the motion of sending the project out for bid.

Cyphers said the building committee has been updated on the project as well. He also shared that every 28 days the rent for the scaffolding costs $576.

The board talked about the timeline and how soon work could start and it was determined that after three weeks of advertising for bids, it will be the end of March or early April before work can start.

However, Cyphers said that the original set up of the small portion of scaffolding was $7,698 plus $500 for trucking.

“There’s no sense in taking it down when you’re spending $8,000 to get it here,” Cyphers said.

Bleess made a motion to approve and authorize advertisement for bids for the mural restoration project. The motion passed unanimously.