By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
The Barton County Courthouse HVAC Renovation Project completion date continues to draw nearer, but not everything in the 106-year-old building has been updated. At Tuesday's county commission, IT Director Dereck Hollingshead asked for approval to replace access panels to secure rooms typically used by court and county attorney staff.
"Since July 2018, Barton County has used access-controlled doors throughout a lot of our county facilities," he said. "Judge Carey Hipp has requested that we secure seven of their doors on the third and fourth floor from punch pads to card access."
The old pads required a combination of numbers and the doors could be opened by anyone who knew the sequence of numbers, including former employees or anyone who saw the code being entered. The new pads will limit access and increase the county's ability to secure certain rooms. The county received two bids on the project and accepted the local and low bid from Nex-Tech for $6,230.38.