OHIO CO., KY (WFIE) -
Changes are planned for the Ohio County Courthouse.
Designed to make the building safer for those working there as well as the public.
Right now, just about anyone has access to certain areas in the Ohio County courthouse, but that won't be the case for much longer.
Dispatcher Carol Smith works in the basement of the courthouse and says it's not uncommon to see people in that area who aren't supposed to be there.
"There's someone sitting on the bench outside the Sheriff's door, and we walk by them, again, in a closed courthouse for the weekend, and you walk by them, and you're like 'What are they doing here?'," says Smith.
Because the building needs to be open 24/7, the situation seems to repeat itself.
"People come in down here and roam around the courthouse, get them something to drink, come out here by our door," says Smith.
To help solve that problem, the basement is going to be shut off to the general public.
A keycard will be needed to access the elevator and bottom floor.
Sheriff David Thompson explains how the changes will help his office and their operations.
"When you have victims that come in here that we need to talk to, and they need to tell their story, we don't need to general public running through these offices out here while we're trying to talk to them," says Thompson.
Sheriff Thompson says work on those changes should hopefully start sometime next week.
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