HERMANN — Like a giant version of a kid’s Tinker Toy set, the much-anticipated elevator and its necessary components have arrived at the Gasconade County Courthouse and lie scattered inside and outside the main entrance just waiting to be assembled.

When that will happen is unclear. County officials heard last week that Otis Elevator technicians will have to schedule a time to be in Hermann and put together the lift that will connect the courthouse basement to the second floor.

County Clerk Lesa Lietzow at Thursday’s weekly session told the County Commission that more room was needed to accommodate the elevator pieces. Indeed, more space inside the main entrance area was needed and has been walled off by Franklin County Construction and some of the pieces of equipment — which are quite heavy — have been placed just outside on the main entrance porch. Contractors chose to store them outside because of the concern about so much weight being placed on the floor inside the courthouse.

Otis technicians said installation work would be delayed until it was confirmed that an adequate amount of electricity was available throughout the elevator shaft.

“That was confirmed yesterday,” Lietzow said. “Now,” she added, “we just wait to see when Otis can come and install — seven to 10 days to install” once they begin the project.

Southern District Associate Commissioner Jerry Lairmore, R-Owensville, commented on the work to be done to assemble the elevator.

“There are lot of pieces,” he said.

“It’s unbelievable…and all of it heavy,” Lietzow said. “That’s one of the reasons they wanted to use the front porch,” she added.

Placing the elevator components inside the main entryway means those south-side doors are shut once again with the primary entrance being the north-side door normally reserved for courthouse employees. That means the Sheriff’s Department metal detector and deputy have relocated across the way to the single door on the north side, positioned nearby to one of the few public restrooms in the building.

Complicating matters a bit has been the delay in finally being able to use the east-side doorway. That new doorway — along with a renovated stone porch and balcony — had been closed off for months to allow the renovation work. Now, the new door — ordered at the same time the south-side double doors were purchased during the coronavirus pandemic — has been installed but the door hasn’t been working properly. It still was not operable Thursday morning, meaning the north-side door will be the only entry and exit until the east-side door is working properly.

Meanwhile, county officeholders continue to grapple with a new phone system that still has bugs.

“It doesn’t like to work in the rain,” Lietzow said in giving an update on the effort to resolve the problems plaguing the phone system purchased at the first of the year from STL Communications of Chesterfield. Indeed, the county clerk said her office’s phones were down at the outset of Thursday morning, but began operating better as the workday began.

County government’s information technology provider, AQM of Washington, has been pulling double duty lately — working on the phone system as well as conducting a needs assessment in an effort to further protect county government’s computer network.

“AQM has been working with STL,” Lietzow told the Commission.

As for the computer network, AQM will be presenting county administrators with a set of specifications for use in seeking bids to harden the security of the network. The issue of increased security was raised in recent months during a statewide conference of county commissioners, who were advised by a state government agency to examine their county governments’ computer networks for vulnerabilities to cyberattacks.