Benton County closing front door to courthouse, installing metal detector

IFJuly 23, 2015: When RAGBRAI had a noon stop in Vinton, the south-side front door of the courthouse was open.

A procedure once reserved for only the biggest county courthouses in Iowa is trickling down to at least one more.

Starting Monday, all visitors to the Benton County Courthouse in Vinton will be restricted to the west entrance and will have to go through a metal detector, reports the Cedar Valley Times. The north and south doors will be restricted to emergency exits. The article does not say what, if any, extra costs will be incurred from the added security (or the metaphorical effects of slamming the front door shut).

According to a Quad-City Times article reprinted in the Sioux City Journal, in summer 2014 only 10 courthouses in Iowa had metal detectors including Woodbury which had just started that August.

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