The new Greene County Courthouse Security Committee has been making progress to improve overall security.

Assistant County Attorney Thomas Laehn recently reported to the Board of Supervisors some of that progress. He said the committee sent out 40 surveys to county employees and received 30 back. One of the areas that 27 of the 30 respondents “strongly agreed” or “agreed” to was in support of a text message alert system for county employees for certain situations. Greene County Sheriff Jack Williams described what those situations could be.

“If we have something that comes in that we deem to be a credible threat to the courthouse, we can just send a message out with one click of a button to all courthouse employees so that they are aware that there maybe a situation.”

Another survey response that Laehn pointed out was 24 respondents replied with “yes” to doing an active shooter training inside the courthouse. Sheriff Williams talked about that aspect of security.

“The active shooter training, I think everybody should have to go through that. Just with today’s day in age, it’s something that we have to look at unfortunately and should start training to deal with. So if it ever happens here people are aware of what they should and should not do.”

The courthouse security committee is an ongoing committee that’s guiding principles include security, accessibility, preserving the beauty and long-term functionality of the over 100-year-old courthouse.