Bartholomew County is investing in high tech devices designed to automatically detect if anyone entering a public building is running a fever.
The Bartholomew County commissioners voted unanimously Monday to spend $18,353 to purchase two high-accuracy temperature screening kits. Once assembled, these devices will set off an alarm if someone attempts to come through an entrance with a high body temperature, Commissioner Larry Kleinhenz said.
One machine will be located at the security check-in at the front entrance to the Bartholomew County Courthouse, county administrator Tina Douglas said. The other will be placed at the back door of the county’s four-story governmental office building at Third and Franklin streets. The back entrance is the only one that county employees are allowed to use when they arrive at work every morning, Douglas said.
The device will detect one person with a fever even if he or she is one of 30 individuals attempting to enter the building at the same timer, Kleinhenz said.
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Once the alarm is activated, a county employee will immediately be summoned to manually check the temperatures of all individuals trying to enter the building, Douglas said.
The devices are being purchased from and installed by Security Pros,LLC of Memphis, Indiana, Douglas said. They are the same company the county chose to install cameras and security locks at the entrances, Douglas said.
The cameras at the county office building will reveal every person entering the building when the alarm goes off, while courthouse security is already stationed at the front entrance of the courthouse, county officials said.
Among other things, these devices may give some peace of mind to all county employees who were ordered back to work on Monday, county officials said. However, the commissioners said they know many contagious individuals with COVID-19 show no symptoms such as a fever for several days.
“We feel that this method of screening people is probably going to be around for a while, based on what our health department and hospital officials are saying,” commissioners chairman Carl Lienhoop said. “That has prompted us to enter into this purchase.”
Security Pros Director of Business Development Chelsey Hester said adding this type of equipment is evidence of what will be different on the other side of the pandemic.
“Our goal is to help facilities find a new normal, so that operations and flow into buildings can continue as normal, instead of having to have a nurse at each entrance,” she said.
