The Carroll County Quorum Court approved an appropriation ordinance of nearly $327,000 at its regular meeting Monday, July 18, to purchase 50 hand-held radios for first responders.
The purchase is part of an ongoing upgrade of the county’s emergency communications system. District 1 Justice of the Peace Jack Deaton said after the meeting that the hand-held radios won’t be utilized immediately but that purchasing them now makes sense because of a scarcity of equipment.
“These are the ones we will be eventually issuing out,” Deaton said. “We’re just buying them ahead. As hard as it is to get equipment right now, we’re trying to grab all the stuff we can ahead of time. Once they come in, they’ll be locked up and kept there until the radio system is completely done. Then we’ll hand those out.”
The majority of the hand-held radios will eventually be used by the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office, Deaton said.
Federal funds received by the county in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are being used to help fund the communications upgrade, Deaton said, although inflation and a scarcity of materials are adding to the time and expense for completing the project.
“We were hoping by this fall,” Deaton said about when the upgrade might be completed. “It’s going to go into next year, it looks like. We’re having a hard time with the towers. We’re still waiting on metal for one of the towers to be built. Everything is backlogged on us.”
The quorum court voted 11-0 at the July 18 meeting to approve the appropriation of $326,959.98.
Also at the July 18 meeting, the quorum court voted 10-1 to shift Mike McKelvey, director of the county’s Office of Emergency Management, from a part-time to full-time employee. An ordinance approved in February already would have made that change effective with the final pay period of this year but Deaton said that timeline needed to be moved up.
“Mike’s stepped up and is taking care of the radio problems right now,” Deaton said. “He has a lot of catching up to do, and it’s definitely going to be a full-time job.”
“This needs to be full time,” said District 2 JP Chuck Olson. “There’s enough to do, and somebody needs to take responsibility to do it.”
District 4 JP Duane Coatney cast the lone dissenting vote after saying his constituents are unhappy with the county’s spending decisions.
“My constituents, they’re always griping because we spend so much money on this, and the roads is not repaired,” Coatney said. “We’ve got a ratty courthouse and they think we should be putting more money into our infrastructure than radio towers and EMS and all this stuff. I speak with my constituents.”
“If your constituents dial 911, do they expect somebody to show up?” Deaton asked.
“They’re not worried about that,” Coatney answered. “They’re worried about getting to town, paying to buy groceries.”
District 10 JP Larry Swofford pointed out that the communications upgrade is mandated by the federal government.
“We’re fixing to spend in the millions of dollars to do that,” Swofford said. “And anybody that doesn’t think there needs to be somebody that’s in charge of that, it goes without saying.”
District 3 JP Harrie Farrow said the communications upgrade is vitally important, even if might not seem to be a priority for some county citizens.
“Constituents are looking at their everyday needs, but sometimes they don’t know the bigger story and the background and the history,” Farrow said. “It’d be a dereliction of our duty to not take care of the radio situation. It’s been something that’s been needing to be done for a long time. … This is something we have to do for the safety of the whole county. It’s one of our main responsibilities is to make sure that emergencies and everything are handled properly. Nobody wants to see a situation where everything’s just falling apart in that department. So you might want to try to explain it to them a little differently and make sure they understand the background.”
“They tell me how to vote and that’s how I’m going vote,” Coatney replied.
In other business at the July 18 meeting, the quorum court approved a resolution reappointing Chryl Hoyt to an additional three-year term on the Western Carroll County Ambulance District commission; approved an ordinance increasing the number of board members for the Lake Forest Acres Subordinate Service District from three to five; approved a resolution appointing Terry Plumlee to the Eastern Carroll County Ambulance District commission to complete the term of David Stoppel, who resigned; approved an appropriation ordinance to transfer $129,243.50 received from the state to pay a one-time stipend of $5,000 each to eligible law enforcement officers as mandated by an act of the state legislature; and approved a supplemental appropriation ordinance to earmark $90,000 for fuel for the road department as well as transferring an additional $25,000 from the road department’s vehicle fund and $23,467.14 from the sheriff’s office vehicle fund to be used for fuel for the respective departments.
The quorum court also heard reports from Ted Hostetler of Mennonite Disaster Services, veterans service officer John Contreras and Carroll County Airport manager Alan Hoos.
The quorum court’s next meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. Monday, Aug. 15, at Southern Heights Baptist Church in Berryville.
