Department heads gave the Commissioners Court their requests for capital outlay items during next fiscal year at a workshop Thursday morning. New copiers and scanners were requested by several departments. MIS which handles the computers for all county offices requested three Dell servers as well as laptops and tablets for several departments.
As is normally the case the Sheriff’s Office and the Road and Bridge Department had the most expensive requests. County Engineer Clark Slacum made his request to the Court for Road and Bridge. He updated the Commissioners that the average age of the equipment in his department is over 12 years old and as a result frequently needs maintenance. A replacement for the department’s Gradall excavator is needed which runs about $250,000. Slacum is requesting 2 new tractors, 2 new dump trucks, 2 new pickups, and a mower behind an existing tractor as replacements for existing equipment. The County Engineer added that this is part of a contingency plan recommended by the Commissioners Court to replace items periodically so that Road and Bridge does not have a large number of equipment breakdown at once to replace.
Sheriff Keith Merritt is requesting 25 new vehicles. Merritt presented a list of current patrol vehicles in his department with excessive mileage or that are down and not serviceable at this time. Sheriff Merritt informed the Court he has ordered and plans to purchase 10 vehicles with asset forfeiture funds from his department at a cost of approximately $325,000. The sheriff is asking the Commissioners to approve funds of about $550,000 for the other 15 Dodge Chargers to be used as patrol cars. Merritt also requested the purchase of an intercom system for the Orange County Jail with an estimated cost of over $42,000.
Mosquito Control Director Patrick Beebe requested a new truck for his department. Beebe also wants to begin to replace annually spray units which have been discontinued. He has six such units for which replacement parts are no longer available. Another request by Mosquito Control was for GPS units to be installed in all their vehicles. Beebe said the units would document which areas have been sprayed and how much chemical was used in those areas to keep down the mosquitoes in the county.
County Judge Brint Carlton analyzed this year’s requests. Carlton stated that many of the items requested were dropped from last year’s budget, but the totals were not as high as he anticipated. The judge added he was pleased with where they are at this point in time of the budget preparations.
Budget workshops are scheduled for the second week of July. More capital outlay requests will be accepted on Monday. The Commissioners will review the Maintenance Department’s budget on Tuesday. On Wednesday the Court will meet with the Collective Bargaining Association of the Sheriff’s Office personnel and will hear from the Texas Association of Counties regarding insurance for county employees.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
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