WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL)—Repairs are underway inside the Wichita County Courthouse after a ruptured pipe caused flooding on floors two through four, leaving several employees displaced or relocated into makeshift offices.

Precinct One County Commissioner, Mark Beauchamp said as of now, they have crews inside working as fast as possible in order to get the 30th district courtroom back in working order but said as of now, It’s still too early to set a completion date or a price tag on the repairs.

30th District Judge, Jeff McKnight is no stranger to having to improvise when it comes to trials, he endured the COVID pandemic while making rulings over a computer, well now he’s faced with a new problem.

“When it happened it was immediate, try to save what we could, and then after that, it was trying to figure out what else needs to be done from there, so it’s just been hectic,” McKnight said.

Since the flood, McKnight has been working from home or utilizing other courtrooms, the court administrators are having to work with the only space available, but Beauchamp said they are working on freeing up some space.

“We’ll be moving into the space with the district clerk and the HR space two weeks from today which will open up other space for offices for the 30th district court,” Beauchamp said.

Something that McKnight has been a collaborative effort between several departments.

“Everybody jumped in, everybody immediately started coming in and grabbing things that needed to be out of the way the county people around here have been fantastic to initially started even now, everybody is understanding that we’re in a very unique situation,” McKnight said.

A unique situation that Beauchamp said could be costly, something he said shouldn’t really affect taxpayers.

“We’re working with everyone’s insurance at this point it should not be a huge impact on the taxpayers because it’s all under insurance whether it be contractor’s insurance or our own,” Beauchamp said.

And while crews continue repairing the damage, Beauchamp asks that the public be patient.

“It’s an unfortunate situation but we’re all working to deal with it and deal with it as quickly as possible to minimize the impact on our citizens,” Beauchamp said.

Beauchamp said in the meantime crews will begin working on a temporary courtroom for the 30th district which he says could be complete by May.