Council grants additional money for 911 repairs

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Dealing with what 911 he classified "a spate of bad luck," county 911 director Dave Costin reported several pieces of damaged communications equipment to the Putnam County Council on Tuesday.

Among the mishaps have been lightning striking the beacon on top of the main communications tower in March, a bent antenna on the tower last month and lightning striking the Bainbridge water tower, damaging a relay antenna placed there.

All told, repairs and replacements had Costin in the unenviable position of requesting an additional $20,000 for his budget.

While council members were not happy with the news, the added expenses are all beyond the control of Costin and his staff. They also constitute necessary repairs.

Council voted unanimously to transfer the money from the rainy day fund.

Costin said the lightning strike on the beacon is especially troubling, as it marks the fourth or fifth consecutive year the light has been struck by lightning.

Not wanting another repeat of the situation, Costin is using part of the money to purchase a longer lightning rod, believing the old one to be insufficient.

The council approved a pair of other moves regarding matters beyond anyone's control.

The commissioners requested an additional $1,500 for the purchase grave plaques for veterans. The county pays $100 toward each plaque for deceased Putnam County veterans.

The normal yearly budget is $1,500, and $2,200 has already been spent in 2013.

Council unanimously passed the measure.

The coroner's office requested a transfer from its office supplies fund to equipment rental. The money will be used to pay Bittles and Hurt Funeral Home, which transports bodies for the coroner.

Besides the normal budget issues, the council also revisited a matter from the May meeting, reversing its initial decision.

At that time, the council voted 5-1 to spend $46,000 to purchase a geographic information software (GIS) mapping system. The State of Indiana had already agree to fund half of the $92,000 expenditure.

However, the May decision was somewhat surprising because the money was taken from the rainy day fund. In prior meetings, an opinion was presented from a state official that the money could be drawn from the hazardous waste fund.

It looked like this would be the course of action until Gene Beck made the motion to take the money from rainy day. Only Parker opposed the motion.

Parker reported this week that he and Beck had spoken about the matter, agreeing that if the GIS were funded out of hazardous waste, then hazardous waste money that normally goes to Operation Life would be drawn from rainy day.

The Operation Life funding has been a bone of contention with the State Board of Accounts previously, so Parker said it would address both issues.

Council passed the motion unanimously, with $46,000 from hazardous waste going toward GIS and $40,000 from rainy day going to Operation Life.

Furthermore, Parker said the funding that goes to Operation Life needs to be addressed in 2014 budget hearings.

"When we meet about budgets this fall, we need to deal with Operation Life," Parker said, "because four or five years ago, they were supposed to stairstep down (the level of county funding)."

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