The general public will have unrestricted access to the Lyon County Courthouse at the start of next week.
Thursday morning, the Lyon County Commission issued a series of guidelines for an unrestricted reopening of the courthouse which will occur Monday, Jun. 1 meaning appointments will no longer be required for individuals to enter the facility. Commission chair Rollie Martin says the county is relying heavily on individual responsibility with this course of action.
Masks are also recommended for all courthouse visitors, but not required. If an individual requires a mask they will be available at the security desk.
Additionally, residents are asked to only bring items that are needed to conduct business. Purses and bags will not be permitted.
The county is also requesting that “high-risk individuals” who need to visit the courthouse do so between the hours of 8 am and 9 am when the courthouse is at its cleanest following specialized sanitation and overnight cleaning. Appointments, online payments, mail and utilization of the county’s dropbox are still being encouraged.
While the courthouse will be open to the public, District Court and Clerk of the District Court offices will remain closed to the public as state-mandated safeguards are put in place. Martin says further discussions regarding the implementation of new screening processes will continue to take place over the next several weeks.
In other business, a number of appropriation requests came before commissioners including a request of around $5.4 million from Lyon County Sheriff Jeff Cope. The total sum reflects the request for three separate budgets including the law enforcement, emergency management and detention center budgets.
According to Cope, there was an increase in this year’s request from 2020 for the detention center budget of 1.79 percent, due mainly to medical costs for inmates.
In a separate presentation, Lyon County Clerk Tammy Vopat submitted her requests for the Clerk’s Office and Election Office which both saw increases from 2020. For the County Clerk Office budget Vopat requested an increase of $5,931 and an increase of $3,738 for the Election Office.
According to Vopat the increase requests were predominately for training and wage purposes.
Additional requests came from Crosswinds Counseling and Wellness CEO Amanda Cunningham and SOS Executive Director Connie Cahoone. Both requests were relatively flat from 2020 with SOS seeking $21,000 and Crosswinds seeking $400,000.
Crosswinds CEO Amanda Cunningham says while they are very appreciative of the partnership they have had with the county over the years, Crosswinds is currently working to become more self-sustaining in the future and are hoping to not have to rely simply on state and county aid.
During her presentation, Cahoone stated SOS is seeing a significant rise in 911 calls as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. When asked why she chose to keep their request flat from the previous year Cahoone says the answer is two-fold.
Commissioners have taken the requests under consideration and will continue to receive appropriation requests in the coming months. The Lyon County Commission will next convene Wednesday at 9 am for a work-study session followed by their weekly action session on Thursday at 8 am.
