Delicious: Court Toilet off by an Inch,

Gotcha. What a way to defund all courts. Anyone feel unjustly treated in a divorce action, don't get a gun, get a tape measure.

Down The Toilet? Courthouse Restroom Repairs Cost Oconee County $1.1 Million
The building was cited for 93 violations of the Americans With Disabilites Act.
By Chris Cato
Published: July 23, 2010
Updated: July 23, 2010 - 12:16 PM
WALHALLA, S.C. --

Talk about flushing money down the toilet.

Violations of the Americans With Disabilites Act, most of those dealing with handicap access to restrooms, will cost Oconee County taxpayers more than a million dollars to repair.

Shortly after the county's new $8 million courthouse opened in 2003, the US Department of Justice slapped it with 93 violations of ADA requirements. County officials say the DOJ found the violations during a random inspection -- not as the result of any complaints by the disabled public.

"We still haven't had any complaints from the disabled," says Lake Julian, Oconee County's Director of Facilities Maintenance.

He says many of the violations seem "minor" and could be found at any public building in the country.

"But they are violations and we know we have to come into compliance," says Julian.

For instance, ADA requires toilets to measure 18 inches from the center of the bowl to the wall. Julian says several of the toilets in the courthouse measure 19 inches. Also, some of the stalls are four-feet wide, whereas ADA requires them to be five feet. And mirrors are 41 inches from the floor, whereas ADA requires 40 inches.

The mirrors are an easy fix. The toilets are not -- because they are mounted into the wall.

"If they were mounted in the floor like the one at your house, you could just put in an offset flange and slide it over one inch to be in compliance," says Julian. "But since it's mounted into the wall, all of the plumbing runs up through the wall."

Which means the entire wall will have to be torn out and all of the plumbing shifted over -- one inch.