Courthouse security plans discussed

In this day and age security is a major concern on many fronts, from schools to businesses and places like our own Hot Springs County Courthouse.

Department heads at the courthouse have been meeting over the last few months to review their offices and come up with a plan for creating a safer environment for themselves and the citizens visiting their offices.

They presented their plan to the county commissioners at their Tuesday meeting.

The group evaluated each of the offices as well as the various vaults within the building, looking to possibly make the vaults “safe rooms” for employees and visitors in the event of an active shooter incident.

There were three priorities on the security list, the first being door locks and mirrors for offices and the museum.

Second priority were electric, magnetic door holders for the same areas, and the third priority would be the installation of new doors in a couple of the offices that would give employees and visitors an escape route for both fire and an active shooter situation.

An emergency button that would close all the doors immediately and lock them, giving people time to get into one of the vaults, would be used. Additionally, an easier way of closing the vault doors, as they are extremely heavy, would be installed as well as locks inside the vaults for security.

The departments themselves do not have the funds within their budgets to have these items installed, so help from the county commissioners would be needed to make this happen.

After commending the department heads for taking the initiative and looking for solutions to the problem, the commissioners agreed that the first and second priorities should be taken care of first and determined the funds would probably need to come out of emergency expenditures.

It should be noted, by the end of April, all of the employees at the courthouse will have gone through the ALICE active shooter training.

There has been a lot of discussion over the past few weeks in regards to the re-use of the old airport property.

To that end, county planner Bo Bowman told the commissioners Tuesday there was a possibility of a grant through Brownfield that could cover the cost of one of the items that will need to be done should the commissioners decide to sell the property.

The land is considered mixed use, with light industrial – the airport, and undeveloped land both within the same tract.

Brownfield has a special grant program that would cover the costs of having the land checked for possible ground and water contamination from the airport, the planes and fuels used there over the last few decades.

The commissioners approved Bowman’s request to apply for the grant.

Winter being what it was and spring poking her head up here and there, emergency management coordinator Bill Gordon warned the commissioners the Big Horn River will probably see higher than usual flows this spring and early summer.

According to Gordon, folks who have been uneasy in the past with where the water rises on their property should take heed this year as those areas are going to be higher than usual. Any equipment or livestock that may be in those water-prone areas should be moved.

Gordon said the snowpack is very high so the creeks should be running well, too. Not too far out of historic highs, but high nonetheless.

With a lot of water coming into Boysen Reservoir the release levels will be high, too.

Gordon told the commissioners he will be keeping a close eye on the river and creek levels and assured them if things look to be getting out of hand that he can call Worland to have a sandbagging machine delivered quickly.