EATON — Ohio Supreme Court Justice Judith French recently presented Eaton Municipal Court with a grant totaling nearly $200,000 to go toward upgrading its case management system.
According to interim Deputy Clerk Sharon McKee, former clerk Bertha Kalil played a key role in helping secure the grant prior to her retirement.
The grant totalled $198,528.
“On behalf of the entire staff we want to thank our former clerk for her hard work in the application process to make this technological grant possible,” she said. “We (also) want to thank Justice Judy French for being with us and all those responsible from the Ohio Supreme Court that had a hand in selecting Eaton Municipal Court as a recipient of the technology grant.”
Judge Paul Henry echoed McKee’s thoughts.
“She spearheaded this from day one and stayed on it all the way through. I would be remiss if we didn’t let the people know that she is the one who spearheaded this thing from the get-go” Henry said of Kalil. “I’d like to thank the Supreme Court for their generosity. This is a lot of money that we’re getting here and it’s for a big project.”
McKee said the process has already started in bringing the court’s computer system up to date. She added, the system should be fully functional by the end of the year.
“We look forward to being able to facilitate the exchange of information and warehousing of data between our court and the justice system partners,” McKee said.
McKee said the last update to the court’s system was 2003.
The Ohio Supreme Court has awarded a total of $2.9 million in 2019 technology grants to more than two dozen counties covering 47 projects.
In the past five years, the Supreme Court has awarded more than $14 million in technology grants. Projects have included case management upgrades, public online access to records, systems to file and pay fees, hardware upgrades, security equipment and a variety of other projects.
“The whole purpose of the grant program is to make the courts more efficient and more accessible,” Justice French said. “With a new case management system I am certain that is going to be the case here in Preble County.”
