York County Courthouse, county offices to be open Thursday, Jan. 9 (a federal holiday for presidential funeral)

​YORK – The York County Courthouse, as well as all county departments/offices, will be open Thursday, Jan. 9.
Thursday, Jan. 9, was recently declared a federal holiday as it is the day of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
The county’s employee handbook says the county follows the protocol of recognizing federal holidays – meaning they are closed on those days.
This week, York County Commissioner Chairman Randy Obermier asked all the elected officials and department heads to attend the board’s meeting, so they could have a discussion about whether or not the courthouse should be closed with an alternative of being offering a floating holiday to county employees.
“I am looking for some sort of consensus on what you want to do,” he said. “The handbook says we follow state statutes, to honor federal holidays, but there are questions among different counties in the state as to whether they will be open or not. I’d like to get a consensus if we should instead use that as a floating holiday – we would be open like normal and employees can use the holiday when they want before the end of 2025. Would that be a bad idea? Should we be open or closed? There is the question.”
York County Clerk Mary Melby said one question raised is whether the county will need to pay time and a half if people work on the holiday itself – that was being looked into.
The department heads were asked what they thought. York County Highway Superintendent Harvey Keim said he felt “it would be cleaner if you just closed on the 9th as it is the actual federal holiday.”
Allison O’Neill from York County Court noted she and her assistant would have to have that office open because it is mandated by the state and there were already hearings scheduled. “We will have to be here and the courts will have to be open whether or not you decide to close the courthouse.”
Sharilyn Steube agreed. The clerk of the district court said she and her staff would also have to be present and working, “as we fall under the same guidelines.”
“And swear-in day for two commissioners is scheduled for that day as well,” Obermier said. “My guess is that we do the swearing in that day regardless.”
O’Neill said the state was providing a floating holiday for her office.
“It doesn’t really matter to us,” said Nick Wollenburg, director of the York County Veterans Service office (and the same in Fillmore County). “The Fillmore County Courthouse will be open that day and I will be working down there. They are offering a floating holiday.”
“I agree with Harvey in that it would be cleaner to be closed but with the court situation, I’d advocate for a floating holiday,” said York County Attorney Gary Olson. “Right now, we do have to have court.”
It was noted that if the courthouse would be closed and locked, O’Neill would have to go up and down, back and forth, from the second floor to the first floor, to let people attending court in the front door of the courthouse.
“We would have to do that, yes,” O’Neill said. “Now, it’s not a full day of court and it is juvenile court, but we still have hearings to hold.”
York County Assessor Kurt Bulgrin said he’d be in his office anyway, “I have plenty to do, but I see both sides of it.”
It was noted the DMV office (a state agency) would be closed on Thursday.
“I think the floating holiday is best and if they want to take Thursday off, they can,” said Commissioner LeRoy Ott. “The court situation makes everything different.”
“I like the floating holiday, as in the rest of the world it is just a regular day,” said Commissioner Andy Bowman, “and this would be an additional eight hours of vacation for employees. Everyone planned on working a full week and for some this wouldn’t be a benefit because they probably will have to pay for daycare regardless.”
“I’m a fan of the floating holiday,” said Commissioner Daniel Grotz. “It is a normal business day for the rest of the world and we are accountable to the taxpayers to allow them to do business, as they had already planned on.”
“So the consensus is to stay open and do a floating holiday,” Obermier said. “I do like the idea of the courthouse being open and I think a lot of people would like to take the holiday sometime during the year when it’s warm out.”
They agreed to the floating holiday and the courthouse will be open on Thursday.