Cresting gets new coat of paint
Pieces too large to carry inside; must be lifted to the top by rope
By BENJAMIN C. SHARP bensharp@journal-spectator.com

Staff Photo by Benjamin Sharp A.D. Willis Co. supervisor Chuck Crouch attaches a piece of the courthouse cresting to a rope line that's strung to the top of the clock tower. The cresting was lifted to the tower in this fashion on Monday after being refurbished.

After being "topless" for more than a week, the Wharton County Courthouse is finally wearing all of its cresting once again.

The ornamental railing at the pinnacle of the clock tower was taken down earlier this month and then reinstalled on Monday.

"They weren't powder coated well enough and we had them redone," said Chuck Crouch, project supervisor for A.D. Willis Co. of Austin.

A.D. Willis handled all of the roof tiles, cresting and cornices during the courthouse's restoration. Such work is a time consuming job, and one that isn't for anyone who fears heights.

Replacing the cresting, for example, required A.D. Willis employee Roberto Silva to climb to the very top of the tower, open up a hatch and lean over the side.

A rope was strung from that high vantage point all the way to the ground, where it was tied off around one of the courthouse trees.

Each piece of cresting was then attached to this line and slowly lifted - in a cable car fashion - to the top.

Carrying the cresting through the inside of the building was impossible. Crouch said the pieces would not fit into the confined spaces of the tower or through the small hatch.

Lifting them to the top by crane was also not an option.

Now that the restoration is complete, such a heavy piece of machinery is forbidden from being driven onto the courthouse lawn, which could be damaged.

"That's the challenging part," Crouch said, referring to getting the cresting to the top of the building.

Once there, the installation was relatively quick. Crouch and Silva were able to get the cresting back into place before Monday evening's deluge hit.

Crouch, who has done such work for years, seems as comfortable four stories up as he does on the ground.

When finished with Monday's work, he opted to take what he deemed the "easy" way down: rappelling off the side of the building.