The Crawford County Council met on Tuesday evening for their monthly meeting. The agenda featured mostly budget updates from several departments with no new business or old business being discussed. Here are some of the focal points from the meeting:
-Sheriff Jeff Howell stood before the Council with his budget report featuring passionate discussion. Howell reported the CCSD has two recruits in the Academy in a 16-week program that pays them a salary. The discussion was had that bulletproof vests needed to be upgraded and the cost to purchase 8 news vests would be expensive at $1500 each. Sheriff Howell stated that he was looking into grants to help offset these costs. The Council asked if Howell had an idea of the budgeting for jail maintenance as some upkeep on the 20-year-old facility was needed and the Council was informed it all depended on what the Sheriff’s Department received from applied grants. A large focal point was how shortly-staffed Dispatch has been with only 5 full-time and two part-time employees as the CCSD would ideally like seven full-time employees. It was noted how overworked dispatch is and how much overtime the County is paying out while being short-handed. Also mentioned during Sheriff Howell’s report was the upcoming need for around $140-$150K worth of telecommunications upgrades for the normal phone systems and the equipment and technology that record the emergency calls.
-Discussion was had about the replacing of the lights in not only the jail but the entire Judicial Complex including the County Courthouse. This would be all new and LED lighting that would greatly improve the grounds. The Council agreed they would look into this in a “two birds, one stone” manner as the Jail and the Courthouse both needed an upgrade for their UPS (Uninterrupted Power Source) that keeps things working until the generators have kicked in.
-The Crawford County Highway Department Superintendent noted that everything in their mid-year budget reports was okay and upcoming paving projects would start in July. The department would also be receiving a settlement in the neighborhood of $65K for the total loss of a dump truck earlier in the Spring. With this money and with money already in the budget, discussions were had about the purchasing of a replacement dump truck with the Highway Department and the County looking at where to get the best deal.
The Crawford County Council meets on the second Tuesday of each month at 6PM at the Crawford County Courthouse.
