COLUMBIANA COUNTY Courts plan more security measures

World events prompted the security station plan.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- For more than 130 years, visitors to the Columbiana County Courthouse have strode up its massive steps and walked right into the building to attend to business.
That's about to change. In a sign of our troubling times, county officials have decided to install a security station just inside the stone structure's main entrance.
By the first of the year, it's expected that visitors will have to pass packages through an X-ray machine and pass themselves through a metal detector. These procedures will occur in front of an armed guard.
No instances of violence have occurred in the courthouse to prompt the change. It's what's happening in the rest of the world that has county officials wary and wanting to take precautions, county Commissioner Jim Hoppel explained.
Random violence and terrorism are "out there in society," Hoppel said. "We've got to do what we can do to protect employees and the citizens that use the courthouse."
"I don't think we're isolated" from the violence that has struck other areas, Hoppel said. He added that if the security effort prevents even one instance of violence or terrorism, it will be worth it.
Expected costs
Costs are still being worked out. But the county expects to hire three to five retired law-enforcement officers to staff the station.
Total salary cost for the officers, who will be deputized by the county sheriff, is expected to be about $40,000 annually, Hoppel said.
There also will be some costs, undetermined right now, for rewiring and installing security equipment.
The county already has an X-ray machine and metal detector, both of which have been donated.
Money for the security station and its staffing will come from the general fund, Hoppel said.
Making it accessible
County officials considered putting the station in a basement room adjacent to a ramped entrance for people with disabilities, but that idea was scrapped.
"There's something to be said for entering the courthouse up the main steps," Hoppel said.
"People shouldn't have to enter the courthouse through the basement," he added.
People with disabilities will use the handicapped entrance, which will lead to a sheriff's office.
There, a portable metal detector will be used. Any packages brought in through the handicapped entrance will be taken upstairs by sheriff's personnel and passed through the X-ray machine, Hoppel explained.