[5/7/04]Building-inspection expertise was put to use by this week’s grand jury as the panel filed a thorough report on its tour of the county courthouse.

After the panel delivered its report to Judge Isadore Patrick Thursday afternoon, one of the jurors explained how the seven-plus page report came to be written.

“We had a couple of engineers,” the juror said of this week’s panel. “One was also a retired building inspector.”

Through that juror’s effort, the report included a review of many of the building’s positive aspects as well as what the report calls “several potentially serious problems that should be corrected promptly for safety of personnel and records.”

The tour included all four floors of the building, including some areas that are normally inaccessible to the public.

Among the potential problems listed for the safety of people were inadequate marking of some emergency stairways and a lack of “a suitable, safe handrail around the outer sides of the central stairway.”

The report noted that the stairway-handrail recommendation had also been made by grand juries that met over 10 years ago, in March 1994 and July 1993.

How and where some older documents are stored might also be re-examined, the report suggested.

“In nearly every department visited, there were old paper records that are the original records of Warren County government activities from decades, even centuries ago,” it said. “Many of these records are in the original leather bindings with cracked, yellowing pages. Some of the bindings were in very bad condition, with torn or broken covers, stains, burns, etc. There was no obvious, standard method of storing these records from department to department, and some of the records were stored on stands or in cases that were, themselves, ancient and obsolete.”

The report recommended that, “If it has not already been done, all of these old records should be backed up using modern backup/retrieval methods (microfilm, microfiche, etc.). At least one copy of the backup/retrieval media should be stored in a secure location away from the courthouse.”

The report included three general and 28 specific findings. Many of the specific findings addressed paint, waterproofing and lighting issues.

As an example of the thoroughness of the inspection, Finding 17, on the circuit clerk’s offices on the second floor, was, “Happy Meal’ toy stuck to ceiling.”

This week’s grand jury was the second of the four to meet this year. The others will be July 19 and Oct. 18.

Grand juries are comprised of about 18 citizens selected randomly from voter rolls. In addition to hearing evidence and considering returning indictments in criminal cases, they are charged with inspecting public buildings and considering reporting on other matters of public interest.

Grand jurors interviewed Vicksburg’s three elected officials, Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace, County Court Judge Johnny Price and County Prosecutor Richard Johnson, their report said.

They also toured the Vicksburg Police Department and noted what they saw as some housekeeping deficiencies there.

“The facility is relatively new, however, there appears to be too much clutter (open boxes of material in floor, old office furniture, etc.) which can easily cause hazards in case of emergency situations (fire, disturbance, etc.).”

Interviewed afterward, grand jurors said the clutter was in parts of the building the public generally does not get to see.

“Instead of, when you’re finished with a box, putting it here, put it back where it goes,” one grand juror said, commenting on how the situation the report described might be addressed. The same juror also said, however, that she was impressed with practically all of the police officers who presented evidence in criminal cases.

“Ninety-nine percent of the officers, you could tell, were well-prepared,” she said. “They didn’t come in stumbling over information, and some of them had multiple cases to present.”

Grand jurors also toured and commented on the sheriff’s office and jail, the youth detention center, the county children’s shelter and the Old Court House Museum.

Among its recommendations were hiring more jail staff and considering building a new jail or upgrading the current one.

General recommendations in the report included that law-enforcement officials use a geographical information system to present to future grand juries the location of accidents and other crimes, and that they upgrade and modernize surveillance equipment used by informants and police officers.