Urinal leak causes damage to county treasurer department records

A leaking urinal is causing a messy cleanup of historical records in the Taylor County Courthouse.

On Friday, October 18, county treasurer Sarah Holtz informed members of the county’s finance committee that a leak from a urinal in the third floor of the courthouse had resulted in damage to tax record books that are stored in a vault behind what is the Restorative Justice of Taylor County office located on the second floor. Plumbing for the third floor men’s restroom extends through a hole in the ceiling of the storage room.

“There is a very strong smell of urine in the room and the books are starting to mold,” Holtz said.

The county is required to keep the tax records which are in bound volumes that go back more than 150 years to the county’s founding. The copies in the storage room are the only copies of these records. The books are accessed by county staff on a regular basis. Holtz explained the most common request they get is from people who have inherited property to determine capital gains for tax purposes.

Holtz said the leak was discovered by the real property lister’s office staff and that it likely occurred in the past few weeks. She noted that in addition to the damage from the urine and water, cleaning chemicals in the urinal have damaged the bindings on the books and is eating away, showing pictures of the damaged books on the shelf below the leak compared to those on other shelves.

Holtz had reached out to other counties that had similar water damage and was in contact with Prism Specialties of Greater Wisconsin and Western UP in Green Bay, a professional restoration service who advised immediate action to try to salvage the books. Holtz noted that when Trempealeau County had a similar incident it was fully covered under the county’s insurance. She said Prism would work with the county’s insurance and administrative coordinator Nicole Hager to get a claim underway.

“We couldn’t wait. These are historical books,” Holtz said.

Holtz said she then talked with finance committee chairman Chuck Zenner who told her to proceed.

“I felt we didn’t have a choice,” he said. “Absolutely, we didn’t have a choice,” said committee member Mike Bub.

The 440 books on the impacted shelf have been picked up by the contractor and brought to their facility in Michigan. There, the company will freeze them to get the water out and treat them to remove any mold. They will also rebind any books where the binding is too badly damaged.

“I don’t know where the money is going to come from,” Holtz said, noting her budget doesn’t have anything in it for that expense. She was optimistic that insurance would cover at least a portion of the cost.

Holtz said one of her concerns was for how to prevent a similar thing from happening in the future. Possibilities include putting a drip pan above the cabinets, however this would require it to be checked on a regular basis.

County register of deeds Jayme Kohn sad this is not an isolated incident. “We have had a couple water leaks in the past few years,” she said, stating that the value is compromised in places. She said if there was similar damage to records her office maintains the bill will be much larger and have a wider impact.

“We don’t want this to happen again,” Zenner said.

The question was raised about digitizing the older records. Not only would this provide additional copies of the records, but would make using them much quicker and more efficient for staff members.

However, Holtz said the estimate for digitizing would be about $200,000 and is not something her budget could absorb.

In other business, committee members: • Approved sending the formal resolutions for short term borrowing to the county board. The rate will be 5.45% and will be in place for a matter of a few months with it to be paid off following tax settlement in early 2025.

• Approved the resolution to formally send the proposed budget to the full county board for action at the Oct. 30 meeting. Committee members also discussed changes they would like to see in the budget process for future years including starting the process earlier to give more time for the committee to consider areas where spending cuts could be made. Bub said he would have liked to look at some cuts, but said he felt their backs were against the wall for time and wanted to be able to do it in a fair manner.