That scaffolding is not useless. It is serving an important political purpose: 1. It insures the state does not forget that eventually, it is going to have to cough up money to finish the restoration. 2. Taking down the scaffolding signals that advocates for the courthouse have given up. 3. Lastly and leastly, it makes it look like someone is busy.

The GA courthouse doesn't just need some work -- if it doesn't get the work, it will become a tear down.

The netting under the portico, for instance, is to protect people from crumbling debris that falls from it, hitting people in the head, etc.