By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
The Tucker County Commission received an update on maintenance throughout the County’s facilities as part of the Commission’s regular meeting. Joe Long presented the report to the County Commissioners.
Long said that the courthouse fire alarms are now tied directly as one into the main courthouse panel. “So, now we’re as one complex,” Long said. “There’s not two separate fire panels.” Tucker County Commission President Mike Rosenau commented that it was an issue that had needed addressed for some time and expressed thanks for the completion of the task.
Long said he had contacted the Fire Marshal concerning the possibility of monitoring the Courthouse complex as a single unit. According to Long, the Fire Marshal agreed because the two sections were connected by a breezeway. “We contacted the Fire Marshal to see if we could have this building monitored or both buildings monitored as a unit,” Long said, “and he said, yes we could since it was connected by a breezeway.”
As a result of the confirmation by the Fire Marshal, the complex is being monitored by a company that will inform the 911 Center of any issues, according to Long. Long also said that Station Two is being monitored, as well. “So, that’s all complete,” Long said.
Work has also been completed at Camp Kidd, according to Long. Long said that his crew had completed siding, fascia, and gutters at the site. “I went down the other evening and it looked really nice,” Rosenau said.
Long said that a company was currently repointing and refacing the Courthouse Clock Tower. According to Long, the company reported they would be 50 percent complete. According to Long and Rosenau, the company employees hand carry all the brick and mortar for the project to the work site on the clock tower. “They’re hand carrying all those bricks from downstairs all the way up to the clock tower,” Rosenau said. Long said the crew was also carrying all the old brick down as well as mixing the mortar on the ground and carrying it to the worksite.
According to Tucker County Commission Administrator Sheila DeVilder, funding for the masonry project was provided by a grant. “The grant that we applied for the clock tower. It was a smaller grant to get it done through the facilities,” DeVilder said. “So that is being paid for through grant funding.”
The most current project, Long said, involved security cameras. The old cameras were outdated, according to Long, and malfunctioning. “We had cameras, but they were not very good,” Long said. “They were at the end of life and malfunctioning.”
Long said the new cameras were needed to maintain security at the Courthouse. The new system is cloud based, according to Long. “For security reasons, we needed new ones and these are all cloud based,” Long said.
The new cloud based system will allow the 911 Center access to any camera at the Courthouse, according to Long. Long also said that work on the new system was nearly complete with only one remaining camera to be installed and training on the system to complete. “So now, 911 can access any camera in the Old Courthouse or the Annex or all the exterior and they have one more to put up in a holding cell and we have to do a little bit of training,” Long said.
Rosenau thanked 911 Center Director Michael Simmons for his department taking on the additional task of monitoring the new Courthouse camera system. According to Rosenau, the 911 Center is the monitoring center for the cameras. Simmons and his staff were lauded by Rosenau for accepting the additional duties with the camera system.
Long also said the new system will also assist law enforcement and citizens with coverage of the area outside of the Courthouse. Long said the old system was difficult to retrieve footage of accidents and other law enforcement requests and the footage retrieved was often not of the best quality. According to Long, the new system had much better image quality and is easier to retrieve footage from.
The next meeting of the Tucker County Commission will be held on December 13 at 9 a.m. at the Tucker County Courthouse Old Courtroom in Parsons.
