By Tracy Overstreet
tracy.overstreet@theindependent.com

The entrance will be part of a new connecting building between the courthouse and the courthouse annex, which was formerly the Public Safety Center.

It will be part of a $1.6 million renovation that also includes the construction of a third district courtroom on the middle floor of the courthouse.

The board had previously decided to build the connecting building, but debated Tuesday on whether to make that building the main entrance for the courthouse by including a security station there.

The majority of supervisors liked relocating the entrance and the security station in order to have metal detector screening for the public going to the courthouse and the new annex.

The courthouse houses county and district courtrooms and county court offices. The annex is being updated to serve as the office of the clerk of the District Court and satellite offices for the Hall County Corrections Department and the Hall County Sheriff's Department.

"We feel it's the most efficient way to provide security to the entire campus," Supervisor Pam Lancaster said of relocating the entrance and security station.

Currently, the public enters the courthouse at the corner of First Street and South Locust. The security station is in the first-floor rotunda of the courthouse.

The relocated entrance will face South Locust Street and the parking lot that surrounds the annex.

If the security station were not relocated to the new entrance, there would be no metal detection security for the first-floor county court offices and the district court offices once they move to the annex.

Security is a priority, supervisors said.

"Once they get used to this, they'll like it better," county board Chairman Bud Jeffries said of the public adjusting to the change.

But what people may not like is the price of the connecting building, said Supervisor Jim Eriksen.

"I don't feel I can justify an additional half million dollars for this particular passageway," he told supervisors.

Making the passageway substantial enough as an entrance adds about $230,000 to the project cost. The connector itself adds about $250,000 to the project cost. A stand-alone heating and cooling unit for the connector adds another $93,000, said project architect Victor Aufdemberge.

Eriksen said the money for the renovation is money the county doesn't have.

"We have to borrow it," he said.

Estimates currently are that the renovation will add $6 to $8 a year to the property tax bill of the owner of a $100,000 home, Lancaster said.

The county could borrow the money from a bank at 4.5 percent interest, could bond the project at 3.5 percent interest or could borrow the money from the county's inheritance fund, but that would nearly wipe out that fund.

County board Chairman Bud Jeffries said the funding question will be addressed later.

Supervisors approved the relocation as a way to boost security and because the connector is handicapped accessible something an alternative connector proposed by Eriksen wouldn't be.

"We have a good value here, but it is a lot of money," Lancaster said.

For the record

In other action Tuesday, the county board:

* Approved spending $66,000 to buy an imaging module for the Spillman law enforcement software program. The imaging module will allow digital photos of inmates as well as their identifying characteristics such as tattoos or birth marks. The photos can be stored over time to create a large data base.

* Approved a new guaranteed investment account for the county's jail bond proceeds. The former account ended in March. The new account will have about $7.9 million held by Trinity/GE Funding, earning 2.116 percent interest.

* Received a claim from Qwest Facilities, which said employees of the Hall County Road Department damaged a Qwest buried service wire with a bulldozer on March 21 at Capital Avenue and 190th Road in Cairo. County supervisors said it's unclear whether a county employee or a contractor cut the wire.

* Approved the hiring of two new part-time clerical employees for the Hall County jail. The vote was 6-1, with Supervisor Dan Wagoner voting no.

* Heard a request from county landowner Mike Dobesh about the Coalition for Protection of Agriculture Communities.

* Approved sending letters of support to the full Legislature regarding the relocation of the Nebraska State Fair to Grand Island.

* Heard a directive from county board Chairman Bud Jeffries that he wants all committee minutes available to the public except for those items discussed by committee that would be protected as a closed-session item. He also is directing that county committees comprise no more than three supervisors. Several committees have had and still do have four members, which is a majority of the seven-member county board. Jeffries said if every member of a four-member committee approves of a committee recommendation, it's a "slam dunk" for approval by the full board. Committees are to reduce membership to three supervisors or be reduced by Jeffries within two weeks.