SIDNEY -- Court officials met with the Cheyenne County Commissioners Monday sharing cost-saving and efficiency with the new computer system.

The remote conferencing system allows defendants as well as many court officials to appear in a court preceding without the cost and time of travel.

Judge Derek Weimer, Cheyenne County Court Clerk Magistrate Chelsie Sparks, and Cheyenne County Sheriff's Deputy Ron Kissler accompanied District Court Clerk Mindy Wiegand at the Cheyenne County Commissioners meeting April 15. 

"We wanted to take a moment to, not only transfer the ownership of the equipment in the courtroom, to just kind of do a brief review of everything that's happened since COVID, and thank you people, and just -- what an amazing thing that its been how the efficiency of our courts has been improved the money that's been saved; those types of things," Wiegand said.

She thanked the commissioners for their support in developing a more digitally efficient court system.

Judge Weimer said with the new system Cheyenne County can use attorneys from other parts of the state without the cost of travel. He added he has held proceedings from Lincoln, via Zoom. 

Sheriff Adam Frerichs said the county has saved on fuel costs with the reduction in transports since implementing more remote options.

"I want to give you guys some cost savings. We all kind of heard what this project costs, but if you take the savings in fuel, the overtime savings and the transports -- I used a very conservative number for our transports -- I used $50 a transport. I figured a tank of gas to go and get somebody. We know that's not the real cost because you're still paying an employee. You're still paying the overtime, whatever is involved. But even at just using a conservative $50 a transport, transports in 2022 saved $7,950 to the taxpayers. In 2023, $7,400 to the taxpayers. So if you take all of the savings in fuel, overtime, transports per year, that's $38,450, and I know that it's more than that because I'm using extremely conservative numbers," Frerichs said.

He said the sheriff's department is saving 2,200 gallons of fuel per year by implementing Zoom court appearances.