State grant helps fund security window at Clerk of Courts office

HURON – Security has been enhanced at the Beadle County Clerk of Courts office with a bullet-resistant barrier separating the staff and the public.
The $32,296 project, recently completed by Picek Construction of Huron, was financed equally by state grant funds and the county.
In 2017, legislators approved a one-time appropriation of $250,000 to address courthouse security needs throughout South Dakota. Counties were eligible for up to a 50 percent match. Funds could be used for projects ranging from panic alarm systems to metal detectors and bullet-proofing.
Work in the Beadle County office included construction of an additional wall that includes a service counter topped with protective glass, a pass-through for the exchange of paperwork and payments, a security door for employee access to the inner office and space for storage and file cabinets under the counter.

County commissioners endorsed the application for state funding and agreed to pay for the match.
Before the project was done, there was no barrier between the public and the office staff.
“It’s not unusual for defendants to approach staff directly at their cubicle or follow them from the service counter to their cubicle,” wrote Marilyn McHenry, Beadle County clerk of courts, in the application for state grant funding.
“Additionally, a significant portion of the public we serve has language and cultural differences that make it unreasonable to expect them to understand unwritten rules of business etiquette,” she wrote.
“They frequently breach the ‘invisible wall’ that other clients respect. In our current times, we all know that such accessibility brings great risk.”