By John Estridge
The Union County Courthouse will remain closed to the public except when specific appointments are made.
Union County Commissioner Howard Curry asked if it was time to reopen the courthouse to the public as it normally was before the pandemic. Curry said he had been approached by both residents and county employees wanting the courthouse reopened with regular rules and times.
However, fellow commissioner Tim Williams said Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb extended the state’s health emergency and the broadened parameters associated with the Open Door Law another 30 days. Williams said he thought the state was getting close to easing restrictions due to the number of cases going down seemingly every day within the state. He said he had not received any complaints about the courthouse situation.
Auditor Cheryl Begley, who acts as the commissioners’ minutes taker during meetings, explained the business of the county continues to get accomplished.
“I know we are still handling business,” Begley said. “As far as the exemptions and stuff, we email them or mail them to them. Deeds, they either email them to them or they make an appointment to come into the courthouse. Business is being taken care of.”
Also, Begley said several county employees and elected officials have received the first shot of the vaccine.
Curry said he telephoned the local health department about the situation but as of the Friday morning meeting, no one from the health department had returned his phone call.
In other business, the commissioners:
*Heard about the ambulance report from January. The previous ambulance company always had an employee come to the commissioners’ meeting and presented the monthly report in person. Williams read the report from an email he received from Reid Health.
There were 57 dispatches during the month with seven disregards and 10 people signed an SOR, two dead on arrival, two helping out the fire department. They transported 36 people with 28 going to Reid and eight going ot McCullough Hyde.
Heard from Trisha Persinger, head of Union County Public Transportation.
She said public transportation has been hit hard by the pandemic. Numbers are greatly down due to COVID-19.
Before COVID-19 hit, there were a dozen drivers for public transportation. Now there is half that number with six. Prior to the shutdown in 2020, January had 92 riders per day. In February 2020, the number was 97 riders per day. However, in March the number went down to 56. And in April, it dropped farther to 13. Through the rest of 2020, it did not go above 34 riders per day in any month.
“The world has changed a little bit for public transportation,” Persinger said.
Commissioners’ next meeting will be at 8:30 a.m., Friday, February 19.
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