Mysterious illness still plagues courthouse

Local government officials still haven't been able to determine the cause of the mysterious smell and illness plaguing the Morgan County Courthouse since this summer.\nThe popular thought among people close to the case was that the air ducts in the building's air conditioning system were producing what is known as Legionnaires' disease, with symptoms including headache, fever and sore throat. \nThese symptoms were similar to those reported by courthouse employees. \nOn Monday, a courthouse worker tested positive for Legionnaires' disease, a county official said.\nBut a thorough investigation of the air conditioning system in the building concluded that Legionnaire's could not be the cause of the illnesses or smell.\nAt a press conference held on the front lawn of the Martinsville courthouse, County Commissioner Norman Voyles announced that extensive testing had failed to shed any light on the issue.\nMany of the cases going through the courthouse doors have hit delays due to the medical concerns, a city official said. \nWith the smell and sickness worrying more employees each day, moving and taking care of administrative issues around the building has simply slowed down the court's ability to process cases, the official said.\nA city spokesman said medical specialists have been working for days to come up with an explanation for the strange odor, which has reportedly made many of the courthouse employees ill. \n"As far as we've seen, the air ducts in the courthouse aren't the kind that would produce Legionairres'," County Commissioner Brian Goss said. "We ran about 60 air tests, and everything came back negative. We're having a commissioner's meeting, and there we'll decide what we're going to do next."\nThe smell became a problem during the late summer months, when the courthouse temporarily closed in late July after two employees complained they had become ill due to the smell. The building re-opened in early August but had to close its doors again shortly thereafter when it became apparent the smell was a recurring problem and was causing many employees to experience symptoms. \nMakeshift courtrooms and offices have been set up in the county's administration building as well as the county jail. When the courthouse will re-open is anyone's guess.\n"For now, everyone has been moved out of the courthouse until we have definitive answers," Morgan County Councilwoman Brenda Adams said. "Whether that is going to be for the short term or the long term, we don't know."\nApproximately 20 more tests have been performed by the Indiana Department of Public Health, and until they come back, additional information will be scarce.\n"They're still waiting for the tests to come back from the state. Until that happens, there's really nothing that can be said or done," Martinsville Councilwoman Patricia Burleigh said. \nBurleigh rejected the possibility that the illnesses contracted by the courthouse workers could simply be a contagious disease spread from employee to employee and the smell is just a coincidence. \n"That is not the case," she said. "Judges wouldn't be moving their offices to different buildings and changing things around if there wasn't a problem."\n-- Contact staff writer Scott Lipsky at slipsky@indiana.edu.