Masks, marriage licenses and elevators. How COVID changes Jackson County courthouses
Jackson County’s courthouses are getting a deep clean before opening for business next Monday.
And if you happen to have business to conduct at any of them — the courthouse in downtown Kansas City, Independence annex and the former courthouse on Independence Square — you had better be wearing a mask. It will be a requirement for all employees and the public.
So will temperature checks to see if those entering the building have a fever, one of the symptoms of COVID-19.
Those are some of the details that emerged Monday on the gradual reopening of Jackson County government, with more to come when a formal announcement is made later in the week.
Want a marriage license?
“There’s been a pent-up demand” during the shutdown, County Administrator Troy Schulte told county legislators at their regular weekly meeting.
However, marriage licenses will only be available at the Historic Truman Courthouse in downtown Independence, not at the Kansas City courthouse. Reason: roughly half of the staff in the recorder’s office are in the population groups most vulnerable to having serious complications should they contract COVID-19.
So only one office can reopen, Schulte said, and it may be that way for awhile.
That may not be a bad thing, because it will mean fewer people entering the main courthouse in downtown Kansas City.
Jury trials have also been suspended until July, and county workers who can work from home are being encouraged to continue doing so and keep the building emptier than it might otherwise be.
One big reason for wanting to keep the hallways empty is that the 22-story building has had only two public elevators operating for more than a year now. Sometimes one of them will quit and crowds gather.
The other two public elevators were knocked out when a water main break flooded the courthouse basement in early 2019. Legislators approved a $6 million contract in December to replace all four as well as two employee-only elevators that are reserved for transporting prisoners to courtrooms, maintenance workers and freight. That project, however, won’t be complete until next year.
But even with fewer people entering the downtown courthouse, “our elevators are going to be a bottleneck,” Schulte said.
Schulte said that, much like in retail stores, the floors will be marked to help keep people at least six feet apart as they wait to get on one.
The county is also spending $150,000 to sanitize surfaces in the downtown courthouse, as well as the courthouse annex in Independence and the Truman Courthouse, which is also home to satellite offices for the collector and assessment departments, as well as the county historical society.
Up to $100,000 will be spent on see-through, acrylic partitions and other materials to separate employees from customers at public counters. The total will be paid with federal coronavirus relief funds.
Schulte said dispensers of hand sanitizer will be set out for public use and that sheriff’s deputies assigned to the buildings will enforce social distancing requirements, when necessary.
“We’re not going to open like business as usual,” he said. It could be six months before operations return to anything approaching normal.
As such, the county has bought a six-month supply of masks for employees — 190,000 of them. Word to visitors: Bring your own.
Legislator Jalen Anderson said he appreciated the efforts the county administration was taking to make the buildings safe.
“We don’t want to be the place where people get infected,” he said.
