Court clerk asks for improved safety for district, county court offices
Published 10:48 pm Thursday, October 22, 2026
Cuming County’s Board of Supervisors will look at ways to improve safety for employees in the district and county court offices after meeting with Clerk of District Court Jeanette Norton during the Tuesday, Oct. 13 board meeting.
Norton said those two offices lack secure work areas behind the counters. Currently, those offices have counters with swinging half doors attached. Those doors have no locks and can’t stop anyone from walking past the counter into the offices’ work areas.
Other offices in the courthouse have counters plus full doors with locks so no one can enter the work areas without permission. The sheriff’s office has a half door secured by a bolt, but Norton said she didn’t think adding bolt locks to the court offices’ swinging half doors would work.
She said office personnel would like to keep the counters but somehow rework the areas to include a secure door with a keypad to prevent people from walking past the counter. She also mentioned the possibility of putting glass barriers on the counters between the work areas and where the public would stand.
The board agreed to investigate options for those offices.
Also last week, the county board:
– Heard a progress report on the new Elkhorn River bridge south of Wisner from Highway Superintendent Chris Howser. He said the recent rains have put the project a few weeks behind schedule. The bridge abutments were to be poured last week and once they cure crews will set girders and start building the bridge deck.
Howser also told the board that DuraSet is being used instead of fly ash in the cement mix for the concrete. He said that cement mix is new for the county but that the state has approved its use. Because the county doesn’t have experience with that mix, he will ask if the one-year warranty can be extended.
– Heard from Sheriff and Emergency Manager Tim Schultz that the draft interlocal agreement for Cuming and Stanton counties to share an emergency manager is done and is being reviewed by attorneys.
– Approved forwarding three grant applications on to the Louis & Abby Faye Dinklage Foundation for its consideration: One for post-secondary scholarships for students within Bancroft, West Point, and Beemer; one for $3,000 for the West Point youth soccer program’s new soccer field, and one for $2,000 for The Bridge’s Cuming County Survivor Crisis Response Program.
