County residents have probably noticed an abundance of construction work taking place outside the Clarke County Courthouse over the past few weeks.
The Clarke County Board of Supervisors decided to take advantage of a grant opportunity to better provide for the community by adding more handicap access points to the courthouse.
“We’re working through a grant for a handicap program, so it’s not costing local dollars,” explained Board President Mickey Long. “We’re working through that grant to make the courthouse more accessible to handicapped people. It makes it safer for everyone, too. We’ve had a couple of incidents of people falling, and we felt like we needed to do something now.”
They have made several changes and updates through the grant to provide better access.
“We’ve made ramps coming into the courthouse and put them in strategic places for the main entrances,” continued Mickey. “We put in good handrails for people just walking up and coming up the steps. We’re just trying to make it a safer place for everybody.”
While they are close to completing the project, they are also observing the work and making adjustments where they see a need so that it will be just right once it is fully completed.
“It’s 95% complete, but we’re tweaking just a few things on it to make it even better,” expressed Mickey.
Once the project is complete, there will be multiple safe and handicap friend entry points to the courthouse for citizens to have an easier time taking care of any errands they may have at the courthouse.
