EPHRATA — The Grant County Courthouse and other county buildings will be getting new keyless entry systems on their exterior doors, a project that could cost more than $200,000.

County commissioners approved $249,000 for the project, but, said Tom Gaines, central services director, it may cost less than that.

The new keyless entries will use a card system. Gaines said the biggest expense is not the latches but the associated technology and the equipment required to make the cards. Gaines estimated the technology would cost about $100,000, with the rest of the money going to the locks, card makers and other equipment.

The courthouse and annex will get new keyless entries on exterior doors, as will the county’s youth services facility, its public works building and the law and justice building, which houses the Grant County Jail. Offices within the courthouse facilities will get new locks.

“It’s all being paid for with grant funds,” Gaines said. The grant are through the federal CARES Act, designed to help state and local governments address some of the consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak. Among other things, it pays for projects that would help reduce the chance of spreading the coronavirus. The grant will pay for the first phase of a longer project, since replacing the locks and latches on all county properties would cost more than the funds available through the grant. Gaines said county officials want to keep replacing the locks with keys with a keyless system, which would become a continuing capital project.

The new keyless entries will reduce the number of times people have to touch the surface of the door, thereby reducing the chances of spreading any germs on the surface. Gaines said that qualifies the project for the CARES Act funding.

“We’re focusing on exterior doors and some interior doors,” he said.

County officials have long been interested in changing to a keyless entry system, but until the grant was available, switching was cost-prohibitive, he said.

“I don’t know the total number of doors, but it’s a lot of doors,” Gaines said.

In addition, the county’s facilities have been built over the course of a century, and the construction standards varied over the decades. “Nothing is cookie-cutter,” he said.

The lock system’s software will track usage and can deactivate a card. Doors can be locked remotely in the case of an emergency in or around county buildings.

“It gives us a lot more security in our buildings,” he said.