The Platte County Commission this week authorized the use of federal funds to make video courtrooms more accessible in the county.
At the Tuesday, May 31 administrative session, held at the Platte County Resource Center in Kansas City, the county approved a contract with TreanorHL for $38,750 to renovate an area in the county law enforcement center in Platte City to create dedicated video courtrooms.
County officials say the expanded access to video courtrooms will provide better access to the courts, reduce potential exposures to COVID-19 and increase safety by reducing inmate transportation to and from court appointments.
Platte County is set to receive about $20 million in federal funding through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Plans have been under way to identify the areas where these funds could be used to renovate facilities to make them safer for county employees and the public.
District commissioner Joe Vanover has headed up the committee to identify these potential ARPA projects.
“Video conferencing is not just for business executives anymore,” Vanover said. “Having inmates appear in court by video conference is safer because no one catches COVID-19 over the internet. If other jails increase video conferencing, jail overcrowding can be reduced for all of us. This project is important enough that we want to start it before the full evaluation of facilities and operations is completed.”
In early May, commissioners engaged Trainor to draft a list of potential capital projects at a cost of nearly $200,000.
Vanover said because it was such a large amount of federal funds, commissioners wanted a full account of existing facilities and what needed to be done to make those facilities safer for county employees and the public.
According to director of facilities Daniel Erickson, who has also participated in committee meetings on how to best spend the federal funds, the video courtroom facilities was a top priority and so county officials felt comfortable beginning with this project before a comprehensive list of projects is approved.