Public Safety Towers Plan Moves Forward
By Lasca Randels
InkFreeNews
WARSAW — The Kosciusko County Commissioners approved a service agreement presented by Terry Burnworth of Pyramid Consulting in Indianapolis, between the county and J & K Communications Inc. out of Columbia City for the public safety communications project Tuesday, Dec. 8, at the commissioners meeting.
The agreement, in the amount of $2.4 million dollars, includes three new tower sites, all RF equipment, translation between the 700 MHz and the VHF, six new consoles, a new recording system and a minimum of 250 LT devices.
“This has been a long process,” said Commissioner Cary Groninger. “This is really something that is gonna bring our public safety communication up to par to where we can really provide that communication to all emergency services here in the county that we’ve been so desperately needing for a long time, so super excited about being able to continue to move this project forward.”
Groninger said they hope to have the new system up and running by October 2021, with Burnworth agreeing that this timeline is realistic. Burnworth added that he thinks the towers could be started in April
Commissioners also approved a request by Bowen Center CEO Kurt Carlson for additional test site funding.
Groninger said there has been an overwhelming need for testing and Bowen Center has had to staff the site with considerably more people than they initially anticipated.
“It’s something our county desperately needs, to be able to keep that testing going,” Groninger said.
Bowen Center requested $40,000 from the county for additional salaries to man the site. Groninger recommended that County Auditor Michelle Puckett and County Health Department Administrator Bob Weaver work together to determine what would be the best route as far as which fund to pull the money from initially since both departments have CARES Act money that can be used.
Commissioners approved a memorandum of understanding presented by County Highway Superintendent Steve Moriarty. The MOU is with the city of Warsaw for snow removal and road maintenance in order to make sure all county roads are covered.
Moriarty also asked commissioners to approve an acceptance for county highway department road maintenance. He explained that the state has an inventory of roads maintained by each county. Some of the roads maintained by Kosciusko County did not show up in the road inventory, Moriarty said, so the acceptance is for record-keeping and updated paperwork showing which roads the Kosciusko County Highway Department maintains.
“We’ll then go in front of the state and ask them for approval for these roads,” Moriarty said, adding that some are just sections of roads that need to be added on.
The Kosciusko County Highway Department maintains 1,163 miles of road, the third-highest in Indiana.
Bids for county highway department truck body and chassis quotes were opened. The bids received included: Rice Ford Lincoln for a 2020 Ford F550 regular cab at $59,835, sale price $49,792; Kerlin Motors for a 2021 F Series F550 $49,288.86; Sorg for a 2021 Ram 5500 $61,065, sale price $47,388; County Auto Center for a 2021 Ram Chassis Cab $49,041; Brown Equipment Company for a crane, 13 ft. body $99,625; WA Jones for a crane 2021 Model 5500, $99,892; McCormick Motors Inc. for a 2021 Chevrolet Silverado, $55,435.19; and Mike Anderson for a 2021 Grand 5500 4 x 4, $61,090, sale price $47,409.
Moriarty will take these bids under advisement and return on the 15th with his recommendation.
In other issues:
- A preventative maintenance proposal with Core Mechanical in the amount of $10,584 was approved.
- An updated capital assets policy was approved.
- Clinic agreements for 2021 with Warsaw Community Schools and Cardinal Services Inc. were approved.
- Commissioners approved a contract with Ed Ormsby, who will take over as county attorney in 2021.
- A HUB grant 2018/2019 reconciliation was approved.
- A special meeting will be held at 9 a.m. Dec. 15.
- The next regular meeting will be 9 a.m. Dec. 22.