The Fannin County Courthouse was deep cleaned and sanitized at a cost of $70,059 after multiple employees exhibited symptoms of COVID-19, which prompted a court and courthouse closure through Monday, July 13.
“They brought the latest technology with foggers,” Chairman Stan Helton said during a Board of Commissioners meeting Tuesday, July 14. “They were all wearing the equipment that’s necessary, I call them moon suits, and as they did the foggers all through the courthouse area, they had people who after the fog, if you call it, had been on the surfaces for an appropriate time, then they were wiped. The floors were vacuumed, and then they set up a number of these fans all through the courthouse to circulate the material, the fog as you will, throughout all the ventilation systems, which I understand has kind of been the Achilles heel of places like the nursing homes and extended care facilities to get into those areas.”
The courtrooms on the second floor of the courthouse closed Tuesday, July 7, after Chief Superior Court Judge Brenda Weaver amended her third order extending the declaration of judicial emergency to include a mandated closure and deep cleaning of all judicial offices.
This order also closed judicial offices in Gilmer County as well. Similarly to Fannin County, Gilmer County closed their entire courthouse for deep cleaning through Restoration 1 out of Dawsonville, Georgia.
According to Gilmer County Commission Chairman Charlie Paris, the cost to clean the Gilmer County Courthouse was $5,550.56 for disinfecting, which included a wipe down of several sections of the courthouse and a fog/spray. An additional cost of $457.25 was paid to disinfect the county’s Road Department, which resulted in a total cost of $6,007.81.
Helton explained that CARES Act funds may be available to help off-set the cleaning cost to Fannin County.
He said, “The good part of this, if there is a good part, is that the CARES Act that Congress passed and the funds have gone to the state and initially the state of Georgia put these funds available, a certain percentage, to the four largest counties in the state, those with 500,000 or greater. Since this time, the state has agreed to make funds available to the smaller counties, including Fannin County and this expenditure that’s extraordinary, and emergency, we will be able to get these funds from the state.”
Post One Commissioner Earl Johnson was glad to hear the county could be reimbursed.
“The best news I’ve heard is that we’ll be able to recoup our money from the state,” Johnson said. “That’s very good information, and very good news because at first the price tag will knock your head off. … This is an area where I have zero expertise with how much it’s supposed to cost or should cost. I know if the county did nothing and more people got sick, then that would be a very big problem.”
Fannin County Post Two Commissioner Glenn Patterson said, “We take the safety of our citizens as important, and of course to do that we have to also take the safety of our employees. They do a great job in so many facets to the courthouse and how it goes, and it would be a tragedy to have an epidemic break out there of all places. I appreciate the information, and breaking it down to certainly explain everything that went on, and I’m good with it myself.”
Johnson asked what the protocol moving forward would be, and Helton explained that it is up to elected officials to decide if masks will be required in their respective departments within the courthouse. Helton said the commissioners office is now utilizing masks.
Employees will have their temperature taken daily as they enter through the front of the courthouse.
Helton said, “We have to be careful in the future and no one should feel at fault on this if they actually brought this in. It’s an invisible enemy, and this is something that’s not just a county or state, it’s a worldwide issue. We had to tackle this real quick.”
Members of the public who enter the courthouse will be encouraged, but not required, to wear masks.