Long lines for the one working elevator at the Lauderdale County Courthouse are over.

County officials said Monday all three elevators are now operating.

“We were down to one for the last two weeks,” Lauderdale County Commission Chairman Dewey Mitchell said.

Commissioners on Monday canceled a contract with Otis Elevators, of Birmingham, and approved a maintenance agreement with Bagby Elevators, also of Birmingham.

The county has had a maintenance agreement with Otis Elevators since 2009. A technician from Otis was not able to repair the elevators and told county officials a new system, costing $104,000, was needed.

Mitchell said Friday technicians from Bagby Elevators were contacted and the repairs were made to a public elevator and one in the sheriff’s office.

“We had this problem for a month and got nowhere,” Mitchell said. “We did without and displayed patience for a long time, but something had to be done to get these elevators operational. We called the other company and they had it fixed within four hours.”

County officials said the problem began in early December when one of the two public elevators stopped working.

“Then two weeks ago, the elevator in the Sheriff’s Department, where prisoners are brought up on, went out,” Lauderdale County Commissioner Larry Irons said. “It was a nightmare trying to get people up and down on one elevator.”

Irons said one problem was that when the sheriff’s elevator was down, prisoners brought to court from the detention center had to be brought to the first-floor of the courthouse to use the public elevator.

The new agreement with Bagby Elevators is a contract for $750 a month. County Administrator Brenda Bryant said this will include a monthly inspection of the elevator system.

“Hopefully, we won’t have this problem anymore,” Irons said.

Tom Smith can be reached at 256-740-5757 or tom.smith@TimesDaily.com.