By Jason Clay Jansky

Karnes County’s courthouse is tearing itself apart and the county’s hopes of getting it back into good structural condition hinge on Texas’s current legislative session.

County officials will be waiting on pins and needles, hoping legislators allocate funds to historic preservation grant projects. Once the money is approved to be distributed, Karnes County’s share could be as much as $6 million if the county grant application is accepted.

The official state budget was set to be released as of press time Tuesday. If the money is approved, it’ll take almost a year before the county knows anything definite.

In the meantime, cracks are widening in the face of the courthouse, the foundation is shifting, and signs of the building’s degrading structural integrity can be seen from the inside and out.

In the second floor courtroom, one half of the entire room now visibly slants away from the rest. The once-level benches people sat on to observe court activity now dip down at an angle and courthouse officials have closed off seating in that half of the room.

"Architects have taken a look at it and the engineer has taken a look at it. I expect them to come back on Saturday this week and spend a whole day," County Judge Alger Kendall, Jr. said.

Workers are still trying to pinpoint the exact reason for the courthouse’s degradation. At first, they thought water leaks may be to blame. The county received a $100,000 grant from the state to fix the problem, but they soon realized the problem was larger than $100,000 could begin to touch.

"At that time, everyone thought that it was probably water leaking into the roof or around the edges. They did some testing of the dirt, walls, ceilings, (and) roof, and decided that was not the problem," Kendall said.

The Texas Historical Commission told Karnes County officials they could use money to start working on a historic preservation project, and the first step has been determining what exactly is causing the courthouse so much grief.

One theory is weak or rotting support beams or metal bracing. One constant underlying problem has been that the additional wing, added to the courthouse years after the original building was put in place, has a foundation settling at a different pace than the other half of the courthouse.

It could be a combination of many factors. Right now, hopes of keeping the building in good condition rest on the legislature.

"If the legislature appropriates the money, then I think our chances are real good," Kendall said. "They told me that we’d probably be up in the top three or four. The money would not be available until September. At that time, we would apply for one of those grants. We’re talking about two or three months to be awarded (the money), so you’re looking at this time next year before anything really happens."

County Republican Party Chair Eric Opiela said he thinks there’s a very strong chance the state will continue to fund the Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program.

"The program has been in existence for years. The renovation of these courthouses is like a sacred cow in rural Texas. I think it’d be highly unlikely to see the program cut," he said.

Kendall said he expects experts will be able to give more detail on the courthouse by April or early May this year.

If the county is awarded a grant for historic restoration, the entire extension to the courthouse — which houses the county clerk’s office, commissioner’s courtroom, and the district clerk’s office — will have to come down.