Anderson committee to consider single courthouse entrance

Information from WYSH Radio

This story was updated Sept. 14, 2013.

An Anderson County committee is scheduled to consider a recommendation on Wednesday to close all but one entrance to the county courthouse in Clinton.

That move has been recommended by the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department deputy in charge of courthouse security. ACSD Cpl. John McCulley wrote in a memo to the committee that limiting access to the courthouse to only one entrance and one exit will “better protect the courts and the citizens of Anderson County.”

The three-story courthouse on Main Street in Clinton now has four entrances and exits.

McCulley recommended staffing the security checkpoint at the one entrance with two deputies, as a third patrols the courthouse. The Anderson County Courthouse Security Committee will consider that recommendation during a meeting at noon Wednesday in the Chancery Court Courtroom on the third floor of the Anderson County Courthouse in Clinton.

During that meeting, the committee is also expected to discuss a proposal to place glass or some other type of partition at the clerks’ windows at the front desks of all the county’s courts and enclose the sally port at the rear of the courthouse to make it more secure for the public, the jailers, and the inmates being brought into court there.

Officials said there is approximately $100,000 in the special fund set aside for courthouse security enhancements that could be used for any or all of these proposals.

Update (from WYSH on Sept. 14, 2013): 

AC Courthouse to keep four entrances

A proposal to limit access to the Anderson County Courthouse to just one door was quickly shot down by the Courthouse Security Committee on Wednesday. Committee Chair Judge Don Elledge called the proposal presumptuous and said it would step on the authority of the County Commission. A similar proposal was shot down in 2007 as well. The committee did vote Wednesday to seek bids on improving security at the sally port at the rear of the Courthouse where prisoners are brought for court appearances. One idea under consideration is a remote-controlled roll-down gate. The security committee has more than $240,000 in its budget, which is funded by court fees.