Jackson County Courthouse will be closed all week for lingering water leaks

Lingering problems with broken water lines have forced the Jackson County Courthouse to close for the rest of the week, officials announced Monday afternoon.

The courthouse at 415 E. 12th Street in downtown Kansas City has been closed since Jan. 31 when a broken water line pumped more than 10 feet of water and thousands of pounds of mud and debris into the courthouse basement, causing water damage and power outages that also affected City Hall.

Workers from Jackson County, Kansas City Power & Light and the city water department worked around the clock to restore power and water service to the government building and hoped to open the courthouse Monday.

But those plans were derailed when a different water line break happened on an upper floor of the government building, causing water to leak to the floors below.

Those problems caused officials to close the downtown courthouse for the rest of the week.

“We are disappointed about this setback, but when you’re dealing with a nearly 90-year-old building, it is not uncommon for one problem to cause other issues,” Jackson County Executive Frank White said in a news release.

Crews are working to remove the water from the latest break, assess the damage and begin the cleanup process, officials said.

Hearings scheduled at the downtown courthouse will be moved to alternate locations when possible. Notices of where the next day’s hearings will be held will be placed on the doors of the downtown courthouse and on the court’s website each day. Judges and their staffs will also work with attorneys to reschedule cases, according to court officials.

Information about canceled court hearings will be available online through the Missouri Case.net system. Litigants can also call the records staff at the Independence courthouse for assistance.

Operations at the county’s other courthouses — the Eastern Jackson County Courthouse in Independence at 308 W. Kansas Ave., the Family Justice Center at 625 E. 26th St. and the Criminal Justice Building at 1315 Locust Ave. — will continue as scheduled.

This story was originally published February 4, 2019 at 5:39 PM.