Ceiling in clerk of courts office collapses
A collapse of part of the ceiling in the Fayette County Clerk of Courts office has temporarily closed the office to the public. Around 2:45 p.m. Wednesday, an 8 to 10 foot section of the ceiling in the rear of the front office fell in. The collapsed section is directly above the workstation used by two employees, both of whom had moved from their desks to attend to tasks in the office not long before the tiles and a light fixture fell.
The rear of the office was filled with dust and debris, and one ceiling tile and other wires hung precariously. Clerk of Courts Janice Snyder moved a computer off of one of the back desks and covered both with a plastic sheet to curtail damage to anything on the desks.
“Thankfully, no one was hurt,” said Snyder, who was one of the employees sitting in the back of the office just before the collapse.
She said she had gone into her office, a short distance from the collapse, to get out a document when someone with her informed her that part of the ceiling had collapsed.
For now, Snyder said that her office will be closed to the public. That means that anyone who has to pay on court-ordered fines or other costs usually collected at the office will have to be mailed in.
While the office, which is the mainstay of the criminal court system, will continue to accept filings from attorneys, Snyder said she did not want to expose the public to any harm.
Payments can be mailed to the Clerk of Courts Office, 61 E. Main St., Uniontown, Pa. 15401.
Commission Chairman Vincent A. Vicites said Wednesday afternoon that he had not yet seen the damage, but pledged to pool resources to get the problem corrected as quickly as possible.
Unsure of the age of the ceiling Vicites noted that it is difficult to foretell when something like that will happen.
“I will work with Janice to get it fixed. She deserves to get the situation rectified to run her office in an efficient fashion. I will get my full support,” said Vicites.