Smokers: keep your butts off the courthouse grounds

Signs like this on each side of the courthouse lawn announce the no-smoking policy, but cigarette butts are a problem on the courthouse lawn anyway, according to Sheriff's Deputy Rodney Guinn. (T-G Photo by John I. Carney) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

Bedford County Board of Commissioners' law enforcement, workhouse and fire committee decided Tuesday night that stricter enforcement will be more effective than signs in discouraging people from dropping cigarette butts on the courthouse lawn.

Smoking is not allowed anywhere on the courthouse lawn except for a designated smoking area (with a waste receptacle) on the west lawn. Deputy Rodney Guinn of the Bedford County Sheriff's Department had requested that the county post signs about the penalties for leaving butts on the courthouse lawn. But County Mayor Eugene Ray said that writing a few tickets for littering would prove more of a deterrent than signs, and the committee agreed. The county already has signs on the courthouse lawn about the non-smoking policy.

In other action Tuesday night, the law enforcement committee deferred action on a study of installing a video link between the jail and the courthouse. Such a link would allow jail inmates to be arraigned without leaving the facility. Such systems are claimed to save transportation costs, eliminate some security issues and help with courtroom overcrowding issues.

The committee hopes to piggyback on the county school system's bid for video equipment, and it's hoped that a re-bid of the county's telephone and data services will assist the process of making a connection between the courthouse and the jail.

A new coordinating committee to study courtroom capacity and security issues will hold its first meeting on Friday. It's hoped that better coordination of existing court dockets and courtroom facilities can help to alleviate some overcrowding problems at the courthouse.

Both the county courthouse and the jail are thought to be over capacity, but commissioners say the county is not in a financial position to borrow money for a new jail and justice center.

The committee also decided to study the concept of buying insurance to cover the county's health care costs for jail inmates. County Finance Director Robert Daniel noted that the county had to spend $108,000 on health care for a felon being kept in the local jail; that money will be reimbursed by the state, since felons are considered state prisoners even when kept in county jails. The county also ended up spending $230,000 on care for a prisoner who attempted suicide. It later turned out that prisoner, due to a parole violation, was also the state's responsbility. But county officials said the same types of expenses could easily be incurred on behalf of misdemeanor offenders, who are the county's responsibility.

Commissioners said buying an insurance could be a way to make those medical expenses more predictable and manageable.