New technology coming to the Grundy County courthouse

GRUNDY – The Grundy County courthouse has been awarded a grant from the Administrative Office of Illinois Courts Technology program.

“Covid brought to our attention some deficiencies of our use of technology within the courts. I am hoping this will improve our efficiency throughout the entire courthouse.” Circuit Clerk Corri Trotter said.

The grant will allow the courthouse to establish new wireless cabling throughout the courthouse, the instillation of two new digital monitors and allow for electronic orders of protection.

The total amount awarded was $77,718.74.

Heartland Business Systems will be installing the new wireless cabling throughout the courthouse.

Trotter began applying for the grant in early February and received notification that the funds were approved on Feb. 24.

Paul Webb, the director of information technology for Grundy had a study done regarding the wireless coverage throughout the Courthouse.

The study determined that of the 18 wireless access points in the courthouse, some needed to be replaced and additional access points needed to be added because of the dead zones in the courthouse.

The new wireless cabling will be installed by the Heartland Business Systems, LLC for the amount of $41,540.13, which is fully funded from the grant.

Two digital monitors will be installed inside the courthouse that will have the court docket alphabetized by party name.

Currently, court patrons have to go between two different postings to determine where they need to report. Once the monitors are installed, patrons will be able to seeing the scrolling docket in the lobby upon arrival. The second monitor will be outside the east and west courtrooms.

“It will be easier for court patrons to determine where they need to be in the courthouse, so they are able to get their more timely, it will decrease the amount of paper we use as we print out the dockets daily,” Trotter said.

The courthouse also will be using the grant funding to implement an electronic order of protection program.

Currently, if an individual wants to petition for an order they go into the city clerks office. This will allow individuals to start the process at home. However, the individual will still need to come into the courthouse to sign their petition, get it filed and complete their testimony with the judge.

“This will be more efficient as they currently have to handwrite their petition and then we have to hand fill out the order,” Trotter said.

“This program will allow for the information that they input into the laptop to automatically populate the order, so there will be less possibility for error,” she said.

The target deadline for completion is the end of July.