Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette The Houghton County Jail building is structurally sound aside from badly needed roof repairs. At a recent Sharon Avenue & Jail Property Use Committee meeting, it was suggested the building could be converted into office space, while the cell block area could be converted into storage.

HOUGHTON – Aside of needing roof repairs, the Houghton County Jail building is structurally sound and could be converted to other uses, possibly offices and storage, said County Commissioner Roy Britz.

During the Sharon Avenue & Jail Property Use Committee meeting on January 29, Committee Chair Britz said the roof was inspected a couple of years ago. “There are actually some small trees growing on top of it,” he said.

The roof was replaced in April 2015, with gravel over a new membrane roof. Due to a lawsuit shortly after the roof was completed, he said, the county was required to install a new HVAC system, resulting in some 44 holes being punched through the new membrane.

County Building Department Manager Todd LaRoux said because there were no interior spaces under the roof to house them, the HVAC ducts were installed on the roof and exposed to the weather and required an insulation wrap, which over the years had deteriorated. Water now penetrates the insulation, travels inside it and into the holes punched through the membrane. LaRoux added because water travels, it is impossible to pinpoint where it comes from.

“After they replaced it,” Britz said, “we probably had half a dozen to 12 buckets placed around the whole building, collecting water from the holes they put in a quarter-of-a-million-dollar roof.”

The county then consulted an engineering firm which created a plan to construct a peaked roof over the existing one in order to protect it and the HVAC ducts from the weather, but that plan was abandoned because a potential new jail would replace the existing building.

Britz said he recalls a time when water leaked into one of the holding cells through a light switch on the wall, posing a real danger to any inmate in the cell. The water came from a pipe inside the masonry wall. Repairing the pipe would require demolishing part of the wall, he said, but due to state regulations, any demolition would then require the entire building be brought up to state Dept. of Corrections code.

“The history of the problem with with that building is anything that needs fixing in it,” Britz said, “you’re going to basically have to redo the whole building.”

Aside of the roof issue, however, the jail building is structurally in very good condition, Britz said. Because the building is structurally sound, he believes it could be repurposed. He suggested converting the front of the building, where the Sheriff’s office is currently located, into office space, while the back half, the cell block area, could be converted to storage.

“My thought always was to move the administration there,” Britz said, adding that at one time, the front of the building had housed the Prosecutor’s Office.

It was not known at the time of the meeting, what cost estimate would be attached to converting the building.