GREENSBORO – The Hale County Courthouse is one of the most unique buildings in Greensboro when it is at its best. Lately, its beauty has been hidden behind construction equipment and scaffolding.

The courthouse has undergone massive renovations for the last month, but as work progresses it looks like the building may be back in tact sooner than expected.

Hale County Commission Chairman Leland Avery said the construction has gone very well and is moving in accordance to the target date.

“It looks like everything is going very well,” Avery said. “They had 90 days to complete the project and they are well within that now.”

Avery said aside from a minor bump in the road things are going well.

“Everything is going very well so far,” Avery said. “I think they had a little problem with the bell tower, but other than that everything seems to be going well.”

The problem with the bell tower is nothing major. The construction crew simply found a little more damage to the tower than had been expected.

N.C. Morgan Construction supervisor and contractor David Faulkner said the damage to the bell tower should not present much of a problem other than how to get workers to the damage.

“In the repair phase we found a little more rot in the bell tower than we had thought was up there,” Faulkner said. “Now we are in the process of meeting with architects, engineers, and scaffold companies to see the best way we can scaffold around the tower. Now that we have found this it is more than we can do with a man basket.”

Faulkner said once the bell tower is complete they will need a little cooperation from mother nature to begin to close out the renovations.

“The scaffolding should come down around the front porch sometime next week,” Faulkner said. “Then we can start painting if the weather will allow us to. That has been one of the biggest problems for us the last couple of weeks. We think if the painters can get here Wednesday and Thursday we can take the scaffolding down.”

Renovations to the courthouse have been widespread and have included repairs to the front entrance roof and repairs and repainting of all plastered areas. Some walls are also receiving new caps.

Faulkner said the courthouse is also being equipped with protection from severe weather.

“We’re also installing lightening protection and repairing all the gutters on the flat roof areas,” Faulkner said. “So far it has all gone very well.”