COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – Upgrading reduced security at the Branch County Courthouse will have to wait for at least several months. County commissioners decided yesterday at their work session they needed more information before considering a proposed electronic warning system for offices in the courthouse with hidden alarm buttons for each employees’ desk.
Due to budget restraints, there is no full time security at the only entrance to the courthouse with the metal detector station not staffed as much as 20 hours a week. The commission yesterday heard a presentation from a Cincinnati-based firm that provides government security systems nationwide.
County Board Chairman Commissioner Don Vrablic said he would prefer, if the funding could be found, to have two part time deputies staff the courthouse entrance, at an annual cost of $30,000, rather than rely on a warning system that wouldn’t always guarantee a timely response when the signal for help is transmitted.
County Clerk Terry Kubasiak, whose office is just beyond the courthouse entrance, told commissioners that by referring the matter to the board’s Safety Committee, which doesn’t meet next until the end of January, they need to make sure the issue doesn’t disappear from their list of top priorities for 2016.
