Like many governments have done recently, Oneida county is moving toward changing how you get into the courthouse building. The Administration committee recently discussed options for increasing security.
Supervisor Billy Fried felt going to a single point of entry would help security but also with the COVID precautions...
"Wouldn't it be nice to just funnel the public through the front door. We could have our sanitizing station there, we could have masks there..."
But the front door, or the west side, is not handicapped accessible. Fried says to get a jump on possible mandates down the line, he wanted to know if single point entry should be a priority.
Buildings and Grounds Director LuAnn Brunette said the first phase would flatten out the west side entrance to make that door fully accessible along with the two side doors already in use. Closer parking and securing entry doors even more would be phases two and three of the project.
If implented, Brunette said policies regarding entry and exits for employees and supervisors would need to be looked into. Fried is on a capital improvement subcommittee and said he thought the county could make improvements sooner rather than later to the front door to improve access and security without a large scale project, noting problems elsewhere..
"We don't want it to become a news item again to react," he said.
The matter is likely to surface during the upcoming budget talks.
