By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Building security is always important, more so when confidential materials are stored inside. Wednesday morning, the Barton County Commission agreed to pay for half the bill to outfit the remainder of the Juvenile Services building with Salto electronic locks. Juvenile Services Director Marissa Woodmansee gave an example of why the system is important.
"I like the continuity of safety for that, just for the simple fact that I recently had an employee that had her car broken into and she lost her badge," she told commissioners. "If we were in the days of keys, then you're looking at the expense of a building being re-keyed, etc. Now it's as simple as I can make contact with Derrick (Hollingshead) in IT and say, 'Could you please deactivate the badge for safety and security?' Then it was just a matter of issuing a new badge for that employee."
The building began using electronic locks approximately five years ago, but several doors in the facility that also houses community corrections, parole, court services, and environmental management, still had old-fashioned locks. Woodmansee said, given the nature of the business, that caused additional problems.
"With Juvenile Services, we have a lot more contractual employees, so there is that higher bit of turnover when those employees go on to bigger and better opportunities," she said. "For me, that retaining of keys and getting keys back was sometimes cumbersome."
With the electronic technology, the county can simply deactivate a badge to cut access to the building. The county and Juvenile Services agreed to split the $5,576.90 bill.