The Consumer Credit Counseling building on Dudley Avenue will be utilized soon as a drive through facility for county offices. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)
PARKERSBURG — The Wood County Commission entered into a short-term lease with Consumer Credit Counseling on Dudley Avenue to operate a drive-through facility for county offices during the COVID-19 response.
On Thursday, the commission unanimously approved the lease at $1,200 a month. Officials hope to have the facility up and running in a couple of weeks or so.
The commission wants to utilize the four drive through lanes at the building, a former banking facility located at 2435 Dudley Ave. in Parkersburg as a mobile courthouse facility to handle a number of the regular business transactions that people have had to come down to the Wood County Courthouse to do.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact people’s daily lives and the need for “social distancing” continues, officials wanted a place where people could conduct business with the county while protecting their employees.
The commission closed the courthouse this week to public foot traffic. All of the county offices are still staffed and people with business to conduct can call in and ask questions, go certain things through e-mail and fax or through email.
People could utilize the drive through lanes to conduct those, thus cutting down on potential face to face contact.
“It is a month to month lease,” County Administrator Marty Seufer said.
The actual staffing is still being worked out but it could be as few as one person to a few people, depending on the need, Commission President Blair Couch said.
“If someone needs something from the assessor’s office, (the person at the facility) will call it in to (the assessor’s office), scan it, e-mail it or fax it back and deliver it through the tube to someone (in the drive through lane),” he said.
The circuit clerk’s office deals with a lot of paperwork. It would utilize the banking drawer in the lane closest to the building to put out a large amount of paperwork.
“The whole contingency of having this facility is if the pandemic goes on for a couple of months,” Couch said of needing to conduct county business while also maintaining social distancing efforts for people to protect both their employees and the public.
“We are creating a drive through courthouse for people,” Couch said.
Officials said ways to streamline the transfer are being worked on by the county’s information technology people.
Even with Gov. Jim Justice’s stay at home order, some business needs to be conducted. Filing a domestic violence petition through the circuit clerk is a life and death situation, Couch said.
“We should be able to do that through a drive through to limit social interaction,” he said.
Officials aren’t sure how long the stay-at-home order will be in effect and people will need some kind of access where they can still do what needs to be done, they said.
“This seemed like a quick and easy way to be able to conduct business,” Couch said.
County offices will still be staffed and people can conduct business over the telephone, by e-mail or through traditional mail service, county officials said. If something requires someone to have to come in, they can still call the respective office and see what can be done to cut down on the likelihood of having to come in to do something.
If people have to drop something off, a representative from that office can come out to someone’s car, get the paperwork and take it inside, process it and bring out a receipt.
Commissioner Bob Tebay said the new facility will not be able to handle title searches or records in the county record rooms.
People will still need to make appointments to access those records at the courthouse so officials can control how many people are in one space at a time, officials said.
The drive through facility is another step in helping to maintain social distancing efforts in the meantime, officials said.
“God forbid if someone really wants a marriage license a month from now and the courthouse still isn’t open,” Couch said. “This would be a way to handle that transaction.”
Contact Brett Dunlap at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com