Overton County getting new equipment to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act during public county meetings.
County Executive Steven Barlow said the county is getting microphones and speakers for the courthouse and county services building where public meetings are held. Barlow said the subject came up after a citizen reported the county because they could not hear what was being said at a budget meeting.
“We want everybody to know what’s going on and we don’t want anybody to think that we’re talking low on purpose or trying to hide something,” Barlow said. “We want true transparency going out.”
The county also recently appointed Maintenance Worker Tracy Pennington as the county’s official ADA coordinator. Barlow said Pennington will work to make sure everything is up to standard with the new system and monitor handicap accessibility throughout the county’s buildings.
“(Pennington) was making sure everything was up to standard and we didn’t know we were having an issue in that small of a room for people not to be able to hear,” Barlow said.
Barlow said the county approved an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice in early February giving the county ninety days to install the audio equipment. Barlow said he hopes to have the new system in place in the next couple weeks.
“We want everybody to not have an issue with understanding what’s going on,” Barlow said. “We want everybody to be able to hear.”
Barlow said the county was able to get the courthouse’s old audio system working but there were multiple issues with the equipment. Barlow said Pennington started working with the county last year after working in maintenance and ADA compliance for about twenty years in Clay County.
“When he first started, he was going around looking at the ADA forms and stuff,” Barlow said. “Now he was there doing that, but he wasn’t a formal, like voted in as our ADA compliance guy.”
