UPDATE (2:45 p.m.) — Pender Clerk of Court Elizabeth Craver said there are three confirmed positive cases among employees in her office — one discovered on Thursday, one on Friday, and a third on Saturday.
“It’s nothing big. We are just trying to prevent any type of issues and spreading it further with the public, and [the closure] is giving us a chance to get our office clean. All of my clerks will be tested because I don’t feel like it’s safe for the public to come in there if we have someone in there that’s positive and not know it,” Craver said.
Some employees were tested on Friday, according to Craver, while the remaining will be tested on Monday.
BURGAW — Judge Kent Harrell ordered the closure of the Pender County Clerk of Superior Courts office following positive Covid-19 tests of two employees.
It is unclear how the closure has affected court proceedings in the county, as efforts to reach Harrell and Clerk of Superior Courts Elizabeth Craver were unsuccessful on Friday. But Pender Health Director Carolyn Moser on Friday said two employees had tested positive — one Thursday and one Friday, from her understanding.
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“Our office is closed until further notice,” an automatic message on the office’s phone line said early Friday afternoon.
In response to initial rumors Friday morning, Port City Daily reached out to Burgaw Town Clerk Kristin Wells, who said her office remained open — it was the Clerk of Courts office that had closed because of positive Covid-19 cases, according to Wells.
Moser said Judge Harrell has been responsible for writing the procedures on how the Pender court system handles Covid-19 cases, and made the decision to close the clerk’s office after a short discussion with her health department. But she said it seemed clear that the office needed to close.
After her office was consulted, she said “we called over there and it was already a decision they had made.”
Judge Harrell made news in Wilmington earlier this week when he ruled against the city’s short-term rental regulations, calling them ‘void and unenforceable.’
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