1800-pound clock part falls onto courtroom ceiling from Franklin County Courthouse tower

MOUNT VERNON, Texas (KLTV) - A nearly 1-ton concrete counterweight for an East Texas courthouse tower clock fell from its constraint on Wednesday.

The concrete weight fell during lunchtime at the courthouse, which County Judge Scott Lee attributed to providence.

“The good Lord looks out for a lot of people a lot of times,” Lee said.

Had the courthouse been full, all 1,800 pounds of concrete could have fallen through the ceiling onto the pews of the historic courtroom. As it stands, the counterweight severely cracked the ceiling where it landed, and later was safely removed. Luckily, no one was beneath the landing zone when it caused what the county auditor mistook for an 18-wheeler striking the building.

The recently redone and rededicated courthouse will begin to undergo repairs tomorrow morning. Lee said that this type of event isn’t too surprising for a building as old as the courthouse, which was constructed in 1912.

“It’s still an old courthouse, and it still has its problems, and you’re going to continue to have problems because it’s an old courthouse, and things are going to break,” he said.

The county originally thought that the building would need to be shut down for as long as three months for repairs. After today’s assessment, however, they believe the building will be back up and running within a couple weeks.

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