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PARKERSBURG — The Wood County Commission is looking at ways to improve security at the Wood County Courthouse.

Over the recent months, county officials have commented about the level of security they are seeing at other county facilities around the state compared to what is in place at the Wood County Courthouse with metal detectors and other measures in place.

Representatives of the Wood County Sheriff’s Department, the Assessor’s office, the County Clerk’s office, the Prosecutor’s office and the Wood County 911 Center were all on hand to discuss the different concerns.

Commissioner Jimmy Colombo said the Wood County Courthouse does not have the level of security that other counties have, according to conversations with the other Wood County commissioners.

“I don’t know if that is true, but I imagine it is pretty close to it,” Colombo said. “I think we should initiate a plan (within the near future) that we can grow into a more secure courthouse.”

The Wood County Justice Center which houses the Wood County Sheriff’s Department and the Wood County Magistrate Court; the Shaver Judicial Annex which houses the Wood County Circuit Court and parts of the Judge Black Annex which house the Family Court and the Wood County Prosecutor’s office all have controlled points of entry with metal detectors and personnel on hand to handle any potential problems.

Colombo asked officials there if they have experienced anything that made them question security measures that are in place.

Assessor John Kelly said in the time he has been in the office over the past year he had one instance of someone getting rowdy with his people and he had them call for assistance and within a few minutes they had three officers from the Parkersburg Police Department respond and the people causing the problems were escorted out.

“We are not going to play games,” he said. “(Those kinds of instances) are very few and far between.”

Kelly was concerned with increasing security too much as he wanted people to be able to have access to the county offices to conduct the business they need to.

“This is still the people’s building and we need to make sure the people have access to it,” he said.

Kelly asked for some additions to the office that would allow for personnel to be able to alert the authorities quicker if needed. He felt something like a large metal detector could be viewed as a deterrent for people coming into a building.

Colombo said that for many people the metal detector would be something they would get used to using to the point that after a while they would hardly notice it anymore.

Kelly talked about his time as a state delegate in Charleston at the state capitol building and how he went through a metal detector every day. There were people the officers manning those stations knew and would usually motion them through, whether they set off the metal detector or not.

“There were times during the Legislature where I carried a firearm inside the Capitol building,” Kelly said.

Colombo also talked about cameras that are around the courthouse and other county buildings, but officials indicated that the feeds for those cameras were not always monitored every second during business hours. There was talk if the feeds to those cameras could be sent to the Wood County 911 Center and have it monitored.

Wood County Prosecutor Pat Lefebure said camera footage would provide evidence for his office to use in convicting someone, but it may not stop a determined individual from wanting to immediately harm someone.

Officials mentioned a couple of ideas about controlling access to the building as well if different offices might come together and split the cost of having a security officer in place. The courthouse did have something like that in place for a time where a court officer was in place on the main floor, monitoring camera feeds from inside the building and could handle situations.

“His presence made a big difference,” said one of the deputy county clerks.

Commission President Blair Couch said he wouldn’t be opposed to doing that again.

However, officials said there have not been enough qualified people available who could handle those duties as well as all the other duties expected from the sheriff’s department and their court personnel.

Couch said there are a number of people within the courthouse who have concealed-carry permits and who can handle firearms.

Colombo commended many of the officials in the courthouse who would protect the people in the courthouse.

“I know they will physically do everything they can to protect their staff,” he said. “I know that is true.”

Commissioners said they would like to have a meeting with all of the elected officials soon to be able to go over their concerns in more detail and ways they can go about addressing them.

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com.