Saturday, March 28, 2009
The photographs have been stored in a bank vault.
LISBON — County officials and workers will spend today hanging judges.
Some 20 photographs of the county’s finest jurists will be put on display on the first floor of the courthouse.
Their placement is expected to be permanent and coincides with an April 22 visit to the courthouse by the Ohio Supreme Court. The top court will hear four cases as part of its off-site court program.
The photos had been in the two common pleas courts on the second floor of the courthouse, but were not put back up after the courtrooms’ recent renovations.
When the Supreme Court visit was announced, county officials decided that the rest of the courthouse should get a long-delayed sprucing up.
The first floor and basement walls have been painted white to cover aging, two-tone beige paint. New lights were hung in the first floor.
Penny Traina, the president of the commissioners, said that all of the photos will likely fit on the first floor.
“They’ll all be hung together for the first time,” she said.
The photos will be hung at about eye level.
Commissioner Jim Hoppel already had brought his modern level device to the courthouse that shoots light to make sure items are level.
Atty. Don Humphrey, head of the Columbiana County Bar Association, said the photos are the property of the county bar.
They had been stored in the county law library in one of the county annex buildings. The building is a former bank, and the photos were kept in the vault.
Most of the photos measure 16-by-20 inches tall.
Tina Lippiatt, an assistant clerk for the commissioners, lightly wiped the wood with oil and cleaned the glass. Some of the glass has bubbles in it, she said, a sign the glass is old.
Each frame has the judge’s name and terms of service.
The work is being be done on a Saturday, when the courthouse is closed, as a safety measure.
The tricky part will be fastening the paintings to the walls. The courthouse is solid stone, so Jeff Elliott, the head of maintenance for the county, sent off for special fasteners that will be placed in the walls.
Other work that is being done as part of the update and visit has included painting the wrought-iron railings and polishing the brass railings.
At least one modern but battered table will be permanently removed from the first-floor hallway. It had been used for the placement of fliers and brochures.
A county worker volunteered to make boxes for the fliers. The boxes will be fastened to the bottom of a large bulletin board.
wilkinson@vindy.com