A bit icy with courthouse talk

Feb. 24—Complaints were coming in loud and clear as some Garvin County officers and their employees are not happy about having to fight through some dangerous weather out there to get to a courthouse building they believe should have been closed anyway.

The focus of the complaints is the icy conditions on Feb. 10, which was actually a few days before the frigid arctic system arrived dropping several inches of snowfall throughout the county, state and region.

County Treasurer Sandy Goggans was the loudest voice as she and others are questioning why they had to get out on some dangerous roads to get to work at the courthouse on that day.

During a meeting Monday it was Goggans who targeted her concerns at District 2 Commission Gary Ayres as to why the courthouse wasn't closed on a day when icy roads made the drive into work and even a walk to a vehicle a difficult thing.

"We shouldn't have been here," Goggans said. "Every one of my employees had trouble getting here. People slid off the road. People were falling down. It was too slick to be out."

Goggans herself had so much difficulty driving the morning of Feb. 10 her vehicle slid off a road and wound up crashing.

She cites employee safety and possible liability issues of keeping the courthouse open during inclement weather conditions outside like ice on the roads, sidewalks and parking lots.

"The point is that Wednesday we should not have had that courthouse open. That was unacceptable.

"I'd like to see more communication with something like this," Goggans said about the issue of closing the courthouse or keeping it open during inclement weather.

----Garvin County Emergency Management Director Dave Johnson said after the first wave of snow and frigid air arrived last week the courthouse's generator went down because of an oil leakage.

Generators from District 1 were loaned out for use at the courthouse and in Paoli and Lindsay, he said.

During the commissioners' meeting this week Johnson added a rural water district in Davis literally ran out of water because of excessive usage during the worst of the winter storm.

That resulted in 100 to 150 residents in Garvin County, along with four volunteer fire departments here, being left without water. That service is expected to return as some point this week.

He said a federal declaration of emergency now means each county commissioner could possibly get reimbursements back for their employees' overtime worked during last week's storm.

Johnson encouraged them to keep close track of those hours and any expenses they incurred related to the weather event.

The winter weather also slowed down a renovation project in the courthouse.

Sheriff Jim Mullett said the renovation of the first floor annex space formerly occupied by the district attorney and county assessor was delayed a few days because of the arctic system.

The sheriff said the hope is for his staff to move into their new office area by the second week of March.

As an update Johnson said the county's 911 dispatchers have all received their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

"They're going to start rolling out the vaccine to the public. More vaccines will be available over the next few weeks," he said.