The Oneida County Courthouse opened Monday, allowing judges, officials and other employees to tour the building and get acclimated to new surroundings and procedures.
Meets social distancing standards.
That includes proper signage notifying people entering the courthouse the guidelines that are put in place.
Also discussing where distancing markings will be placed inside of the courtrooms. news channel 2's brent kearney is live tonight at oneida county court with what we should expect.
Kristen today was a soft opening of the courthouse.
That means proceedings will still be held online.
But people entering the courthouse will now experience a new normal.
The oneida county courthouse is beginning to come back to life.
Its been closed for the past two months because of covid-19.
Oneida county sheriff rob maciol says today is their soft opening.
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None "sheriff robert maciol, oneida county" the only ones in the courthouse today obviously security staff members of the sheriffs office.
The judges have reported the ones that typically work out of this building and some of their office staff and the chief clerks are in here.
Those entering the court house will now be met with new guidelines posted on the front door.
Masks are now required to be worn inside the courthouse.
Court officials will also take your temperature and ask you a series of questions.
"obviously it's still a building and it's proceedings are open to the public but as we slowly transition to more things happening each day.
The policies are fluid they can change to adapt to what's here.
But at the end of the day we want to ensure that everyone that the policies and procedures that are in place are designed to keep everyone in the building as safe as can be from covid-19."
Jury trials will also see some changes.
Judge bauer and dwyer's court rooms are smaller in size.
Court officials say the courthouses ceremonial courtroom would be ideal for spacing people out.
"me not making the decision the ceremonial courtroom is twice the size of each one of those courtrooms. it has two jury boxes on each side one on each side of the courtroom.
Mcnamara says dates for jury trials including jason davolio's have not been set.
In terms of the courthouse returning to normal, sheriff maciol says no timeline has been set.
But justice will still be served.
It's key to keeping the community safe because without public safety without justice nothing else reallmatterso it'simportant thae continue to do business as best as we can to ep business as usual.
> coming up at 6 i spoke with oneida county district attorney scotmcs means for current and future cases happening in the courthouse.
And some of the issues that they're now working to solve.
In utica brent kearney news channel 2 construction continues on the
In terms of how the closure will affect current and future court cases, Oneida County District Attorney Scott Mcnamara said this..
