Hancock Judicial Center plans to closes while county in red
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With the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in Hancock County, the local circuit court clerk’s office and the entire Judicial Center have laid out plans for potentially closing to the public if cases don’t decrease.
Hancock County Circuit Court Clerk Mike Boling said that if the county remains in the red on the state’s incidence rate map that the public will be barred from entering the Judicial Center after new guidance from John Minton, chief justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court.
“What we’re going to do is each Thursday we are going to take a look at the state’s map,” Boling said. “Each Thursday I’ll look at it and if we are in the red we will close down the courthouse to all in-person activity, which means no drivers’ license, nothing except an emergency… Kind of like it was when we were in lock-down back in the spring.”
Starting November 5, each Thursday he’ll look at the map and whether the county is red will determine if the courthouse will be open the next week or not. “This Thursday I’ll look at it and if we are not red then we’ll stay open for the following Monday through Friday,” he said. “But if we’re still in the red this Thursday then we will close to all in-person traffic Monday through Friday of next week.”
The only exception to the closures will be driver’s permit and road testing. “As long as the state police testers are available to come we are going to try to continue to have those on the second and fourth Fridays of the month,” he said.
If the courthouse closes to the public it will stop in-person court cases too, he said, but many of those are still being done virtually from the previous lock-down. “The only court that’s really going on in person has been district court, so when we shut it’ll primarily just be for district cases. The others are doing Skype and Zoom and all those things.”
If there’s any confusion, Boling said the best thing to do is simply call the office to find out if they’re there. Due to working split 50/50 shifts, his office’s phones aren’t answered between 7:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. and between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. in order to help the limited staff catch up on paperwork.
“Now, if we are open and you’re unavailable to come in between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. to renew your driver’s license, we can make an appointment for before 9 a.m. or after 3 p.m. if need be,” he said.
Mail-in renewal is also available by printing out a form from drive.ky.gov and sending it and the payment in. The new license will use the previous photo and other information. For questions call the clerk’s office at 270.927.8144.
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