The Athens-Clarke County Courthouse building, which includes the offices of the sheriff, tax assessor, tax commissioner, district attorney and others, will shut down for a week to be treated for a bedbug infestation.
The courthouse closed Monday after Superior Court Chief Judge Lisa Lott issued a judicial emergency order. Niki Jones, the acting manager of the Athens-Clarke County Unified Government, also closed the building’s nonjudicial offices.
This is the second time a bedbug infestation has brought the county’s unified government to a grinding halt in less than a year and a half. The last infestation took place in February 2023 and also lasted about a week.
Lott’s emergency judicial order canceled all jury trials and hearings and suspended many other judicial activities, a government statement said. Further orders will be issued to address other court-related procedures.
According to the government’s statement, courthouse occupants informed the central services department about the bedbug infestation, and the department contacted a pest control service for an assessment. The pest control service confirmed the presence of bedbugs, and facilities management recommended that the building be shut down.
The treatment plan is expected to last through the coming weekend, with the courthouse set to reopen July 29.
“Additional entry measures may be required for employees and visitors once the building is reopened,” the government’s statement said.
Because the courthouse is a heavily trafficked building open to the public, building managers could not determine the source of the bedbugs, the statement said.
According to the CDC, bedbugs are not known to spread diseases to people but can cause irritation, itching and loss of sleep. Their removal “can be expensive and inconvenient,” the federal agency said. Bedbugs can travel in the seams or folds of luggage, folded clothes, furniture or anywhere else they can hide.
Most people do not realize they’re carrying bedbugs and infecting new areas, the CDC said, and the presence of bedbugs is not necessarily an indication of how clean it is.
The courthouse was opened in its current location in 1914. The exterior appearance of the building remains nearly the same today as when it was built more than 100 years ago, though a series of new annexes and a parking deck were added in the late 1980s and 1990s.
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