>From the Crawford County mailing list: from the Wisconsin State Journal, Thursday, January 18, 2001 page B1 Courthouse cleanup continues by Richard W. Jaeger / Regional Reporter Prairie du Chien- Imagine taking thousands of file folders, removing the dozens of papers in them and handscrubbing a sooty film from each sheet. That is the scene at the Crawford County Courthouse, where work crews continue to clean up after a Jan. 3 fire that damaged the clerk of court's offices on the second floor. "We probably won't have everything cleaned and ready to return until late February," said Donna Steiner, clerk of court, who along with her three-member staff, are operating out of a tiny meeting room on the first floor. The Register of Probate staff and a judicial assistant also were displaced by the fire that was confined to the court offices. They are sharing offices with juvenile officials in the courthouse basement. County Clerk Janet Geisler said damage estimates are not available. There was no actual fire or water damage to the office and its equipment and files. An overheated electric motorr malfunctioned and spread heavy smoke throughout the offices. The fire was discovered by a county maintenance worker when he arrived at work. Steiner said the state quickly provided her offices with replacement computers so the office could return to work the next day. "We were able to rescue some of the current court files immediatedly after the fire and have cleaned them ourselves so the judge could continue with his cases," the clerk said. She said there has been some problems meeting requests for older paper records. "We had one man come in and want a copy of his divorce for his marriage liicense application," she said. "We had to take his name and will have to search for the record which is among those being cleaned by a professional cleaning company." Records and computers are not the only things that will need replacement and cleaning. The area needs to be deodorized, the ceiling tiles have to come down and some walls need repainting.