Courthouse Annex operations displaced after sewer backup

Hill County Health Department workers have been forced to work from the basement of the Hill County Courthouse after sewage backed up into the basement Thursday evening of the Courthouse Annex building where their offices are located.

Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson said the backup occurred during Thursday's thunderstorm which dumped .41 inches of rain on the area, according to data from the National Weather Service. Peterson said the city's storm drains are connected to some of the sewer systems downtown, including the annex's, which can cause waste to flow back into buildings if storm drains receive too much water too quickly.

Peterson said employees at the annex arrived Friday morning to an awful smell inside the building, which was quickly determined to be coming from the inch-or-so of sewage flooding the basement.

All health department operations have been moved around the corner to the basement of the Hill County Courthouse and are fully operational. Anyone seeking health department or WIC services can receive assistance in the Timmons Room of the Courthouse.

Peterson said he hopes operations will be able to return to the annex Monday if the cleanup goes according to plan.

"Quite frankly, this is a blessing in disguise," Peterson said, citing the fact that the cleanup effort is allowing for many old and obsolete objects to be thrown away. Anything that is not metal and entirely cleanable will be tossed.

Peterson said that nothing of importance is ever left on the basement floor, specifically to avoid damage during floods, and that workers will be documenting anything important that needs to be thrown away. 

"It doesn't look like any records were impacted," he said.

Servepro Restoration Services out of Great Falls were on the scene Monday cleaning out the basement of the annex. Peterson said no companies in Havre were able to provide the needed cleaning services, so the county outsourced to a company from Great Falls.

Peterson said he hopes to leave about half a dozen air filters running inside the building this week to remove any contamination, and said he intends to use an air quality monitoring system to assure the environment is safe before health department workers are allowed to return to their offices.

"If it's safe on Monday, they're moving back," he said.

Peterson said everyone involved in the situation has been easy-going and good to work with. Meetings have been moved and people have been forced to share space, but the temporary arrangement is running well.

"Everybody is working very, very hard to make this work, It's just a hiccup in the journey to the end of the year." Peterson said.