A scan and a smile

Courthouse worker brings touch of South

Aug. 5, 2005

DAWN DE BUSK\Frontiersman reporter

PALMER - A former Louisiana resident followed her new husband and fellow volunteer firefighter to Alaska, where she landed a job she loves.

A people-loving Southerner, she prides herself on making everyone who walks through the door smile.

Simple enough.

Except, the job she's held for the past 18 months is as a security guard at the entrance of the Alaska Courthouse in Palmer.

"It's not a happy place to come to unless you're adopting a child or picking up a marriage license," said Peggy, a Wasilla resident who declined to give her last name because she's been harassed in the past.

Many residents are surprised when they come into the courthouse and see security like what you'd expect at the airport, she said.

"Take everything out of your pockets," she says, as she shakes and realigns a purse going on the X-ray scanner, called Rapiscan, used to view the items tucked into people's bags, purses and briefcases.

Simple things like tweezers, large fingernail clippers with a file that swings out, and pepper spray are off limits in the courthouse.

Within a 40-minute time span, co-worker Dion Brown asks at least four people to return Leatherman knives to their vehicles.

A senior citizen explained he was hard of hearing, and when he was asked again to leave his pocket knife in his car, he paused for a moment.

"Oh yes, it's right here in the basket," he said.

"I love elderly people," Brown said. "They come in here with their John Deere hats and three Leathermans. To them, it's tools. To us, it's weapons," Brown said, explaining how it's usually people from the younger generation who get really upset about being given the option of returning dangerous items to the vehicle or throwing them in the trash.

Not being allowed to carry a Leatherman tends to make some Alaskans' blood boil.

Peggy related a funny story of how karma took over for her.

A woman going through security was asked to take the knives out of her purse and put them in her vehicle. She threw a temper tantrum, yelling at the Guardian Security employee and tossing the objects from her handbag across the conveyer belt. She left the courthouse cursing, and must have used the bathroom before going back through security.

Peggy noticed a few sheets of toilet paper hanging half out of the lady's pants. Hoping to save her from an embarrassing moment, Peggy tried to get her attention.

"The lady turned on her heels and screamed, 'What Now?' I said, 'Have a nice day,' " Peggy said, bursting into laughter.

"My goal is to have them smile by the time they round the end of the table," she said.

Even the professionals - district attorneys, lawyers, couriers and law enforcement officers - encounter tough days. Still, Peggy tries to cheer them up with easy banter and her smile.

"We know them by first name. That's how I was brought up - to call people by their first name," she said.

She also makes an effort to make children entering the courthouse more comfortable.

"Whenever, we bring kids through, we get on their level first," she said, adding that sometimes the wand must look like a big paddle.

"We don't want them to be scared of uniforms," she said.

The 49-year-old volunteer firefighter knows about wearing uniforms. She met her husband at the National Firefighter Academy in Maryland.

During the last six months, Peggy's been helping the Ladies Auxiliary provide food and water to Mat-Su Central Fire Station squad.

"I am just enjoying being a fire battalion chief's wife," Peggy said.

Dawn De Busk can be reached at 352-2252 or dawn.debusk@frontiersman.com.