Courthouse fire cleanup cost 'huge,' Davis says

Tuesday,” Davis said. “They were only down six working days.”County Clerk Donna Simpson moved to the former FSG Bank branch at the Village Green.“She was up and running on Monday, which was only five working days,” Davis said.“I think that’s pretty good to be up so soon,” he said.He also noted Circuit Court Clerk Gayla Miller and her staff had courts running the Monday after the fire, with assistance from the city of Cleveland who offered space for some of the courts to be held.“Thank goodness probation had just moved to their new offices at the workhouse,” Davis added. “That would have affected a lot of people.”He also lauded the help of the Church of God and Lee University, which opened their warehouse to provide furnishings for the new locations.“Lee University had better furniture in their warehouse than what we were using,” Davis said. “They were wonderful to work with.”He said while the desire was to be in one location, “we wanted to get set up as fast as we could.”Davis joked that some of the departments might prefer to stay in their new locations.“That’s the next thing I have to deal with, probably,” he said with a grin.Davis said he had hoped the alternative single-location opportunity would have been made available with the hopes that move could be permanent.Davis said the ceilings in the courthouse have now been taken out and the carpet removed.“We were told it wouldn’t cost any more to replace the carpet than to clean it,” he said.“The good thing about it is we were going to have to work around the courts and offices during the planned renovation,” Davis said. “They can now do their work in a much better environment and, hopefully, a little quicker.”He said all of the officials worked well together throughout the ordeal.“The one concern was how quickly they could be ready to serve the citizens,” Davis said. (Cleveland Daily Banner)