Courthouse access limited again as of Nov. 30

With COVID-19 cases on the rise everywhere, including Putnam County, officials will again be limiting access to the Putnam County Courthouse beginning Monday, Nov. 30.

The announcement was made in a memo to Putnam County employees late Monday afternoon that stated “the Putnam County Commissioners have decided as of Nov. 30, 2020 the courthouse will be closed to the public. Each office will see taxpayers by appointment only. The employees will report to work as usual.”

While the matter was discussed during the commissioners’ meeting Monday morning, no formal decision was made at that time, though something changed between that discussion and when Auditor Lorie Hallett sent out the memo on the commissioners’ behalf at 3 p.m.

“Are we getting to the point of closing the courthouse down?” Commissioner President Rick Woodall asked fellow commissioners David Berry and Don Walton.

Ironically, the meeting was held Monday rather than a week earlier because Hallett’s entire office had spent the previous two weeks quarantining for COVID-19 exposure. The idea is to avoid any further closures of a similar or more widespread nature.

Hallett noted that some counties in the state have gone to an appointment-only structure, which Putnam County had also implemented during the spring and early summer.

The auditor also said that laptops will soon be shipped to her office and several others that will allow part of the staff to work in the office and others to work remotely, thus allowing for two teams should one be exposed.

Woodall urged action or at least movement toward action.

“My thought is if we don’t do it soon, by the end of the year the courthouse is going to be closed,” he said.

From the back of the room, Tom Helmer, who will take over Walton’s position on Jan. 1, echoed Woodall.

“I think it would work great if you close it down to office staff only and when someone comes in, you take their temperature,” Helmer said.

That adds one other piece to the puzzle, as reducing the courthouse to a single entrance and manning the desk to take visitors’ temperature requires additional personnel.

The commissioners are hopeful that if courts go to video conferencing, the bailiffs will be free to assist with these duties as the were earlier in the year.

Despite Helmer’s support, there was, however, no movement from the current commissioners, with Woodall asking Berry and Walton to take it under advisement.

However, with the afternoon memo, the plan is now moving forward following the courthouse being closed for Thanksgiving and Black Friday later this week.

The memo also noted that each office is responsible for keeping records of appointments and must, at the beginning of each workday, deliver a list of names and times of appointments for the day to the security officer on the first floor.

All appointments must be made at least 24 hours in advance so the security officers will be infomred of who should and should not be in the building. Appontments should be made through the relevant office.

It is unclear at this time what the new restrictions will do to the court calendar or upcoming public meetings scheduled in the courthouse.

Woodall in particular seems to want to avoid the kind of staffing problems he’s seen in county departments in recent weeks. Besides the closure of the auditor’s office, COVID quarantines recently hit the Putnam County Highway Department hard as well.

“Last week, I effectively was the county highway superintendent,” Woodall noted, “because the superintendent, all the foremen and the office workers were all in quarantine.”

The commissioners also discussed what has gone on recently in other counties, such as Daviess County, where an outbreak in the county jail has led to infections in a high percentage of inmates, with one even on a ventillator.

Besides this, though, all jail staff have been in quarantine, meaning other county officials have had to go to the jail for duties such as cooking for the inmates.

While this isn’t currently a reality in Putnam County, cases continue to rise.

The 33 new cases in the county on Saturday and 27 more on Sunday bring the county’s total positive cases to 1,183 since the pandemic began in March.

More notably, three of the four highest single-day increases have come in the previous five days, as last Wednesday’s total of 44 is tied for the county’s highest single-day increase.

The recent spike has also brought the county’s moving average of daily positives to 22, the highest it has been at any point in the pandemic.

Such struggles have led to manpower issues at the Putnam County Health Department, another matter that was discussed Monday morning.

Woodall initially floated the idea of having employees from other departments perhaps help the health department staff as they do follow-up calls with patients for contact tracing and other matters. It may not be the best time of year for such measures, though.

“What concerns me is, here it is the end of the year, all these other offices are busy wrapping up the year,” Berry said.

Hallett confirmed that this could be a problem in her office, for example.

Berry also pointed out that there is about $60,000 left of the county’s CARES Act money, so it might be helpful to hire a temporary employee or two for assistance.

All three commissioners, as well as the two Putnam County Council members in attendance, Dave Fuhrman and Larry Parker, indicated this would be an appropriate use of the funds.

The also noted their hope that it will help morale at the health department, where the ongoing effects of the pandemic seem to have employees feeling the stress.

“I wanted to throw that idea out,” Woodall said. “I had two people in the health department last week crying. They were just at a breaking point.”

While no formal plan was in place as of Monday morning, the consensus of the commissioners and the two council members indicates the health department will be able to move forward with hiring at least one temporary worker.

The Putnam County Council will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the courthouse, at its November meeting was also postponed one week due to the auditor’s office closure.