Despite a lengthy 31-item agenda on Tuesday the Commissioners Court handled its business in about an hour. The Commissioners approved the purchase of four Konica copiers for different departments at the Courthouse. The department heads had the same story for each copier. Their current one is over ten-years old, it stops working when it gets warmed up, and it is so old parts are not available to fix it when it breaks down.
Two of the new copiers will cost about $4,430. The copiers for the County Auditor and the Elections Administration will be purchased for $6,486 and will have a scanning function. The purchase of a fifth copier for the Treasurer’s Department was tabled for consideration until next week’s Commissioners Court meeting.
The county’s Transportation Department was approved to purchase ten radios for new vans it expects to receive September. The radios will cost $40,197.
A recent inspection of the Transportation building determined the facility was not up to code because the entryway security was defective. Transportation Director Janell Dischler was approved to purchase a new security system for the entry at a cost of $3,710. Dischler was also approved to purchase a new $1,225 public address system for the Transportation Building.
The Uninterruptible Power Supply or UPS system routes the 911 calls and is a part of the critical infrastructure at the Emergency Operations Center for the county. Commissioner Barry Burton’s recommendation to purchase backup batteries and updating the maintenance agreement for the UPS system was approved by the Court. The Southeast Texas Regional Planning Commission will reimburse Orange County for both purchases. The total cost will be $31,736.
Justice of the Peace Rodney Price from Precinct Four was approved to purchase a replacement desktop computer. Price indicated the current one does not function properly and is out of date. The new computer will be purchased for $726 using funds from a technology line item.
The Commissioners heard from Julie Reid with Nehemiah’s Vision connected to First Baptist Church of Vidor on the rebuilding projects they are doing. Reid informed they have 22 active projects repairing and rebuilding homes following Tropical Storm Harvey. The group has had 446 volunteers working ten thousand hours to help with the recovery. More volunteers will be coming to Orange County in the summer to work with Nehemiah’s Vision.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
Social Media