County addresses 911 signage replacement
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By Carmen Ensinger
The Greene County Board voted to move $20,000 from a properties account to a tourism account and that money will be set aside for 911 sign replacement.
Board member Christy Lake explained the situation.
“In the budget last year, they were supposed to move $20,000 from a properties account to this tourism account but it never got moved,” she said. “We have this problem on how we are going to maintain these 911 signs that were given to us. So, we decided we are going to use the money out of this property account along with money in the defunct hotel/motel tax account they collected a long time ago but we no longer collect.”
It will be up to the individual townships within the county to report any missing signs. Board member Joyce Clark said they came up with an idea to make this task easier.
“We are going to provide a map to each township with only their township road addresses on it so they will know specifically which signs are reported missing,” she said. “All the road commissioners have to do is to report the missing sign address to the reporting point, which is the highway department. Any private citizen who notices a sign missing can also report it as well to the highway department.”
Board member Andrea Schnelten said she hoped the county was going to get quality signs.
“My biggest problem with the signs is the way they are constructed,” she said. “If we are going to be getting new ones and putting them in, I would rather they be quality ones that are going to last a while.”
The cost of replacing and installing each sign should cost around $140.
“We know this is only a short term answer to a long term problem,” Lake said. “But we hope that this money will fund the sign replacement for at least the next four years until we can come up with another funding source.”
Last month, the county put out for bid a tandem truck and snowplow and spreader. The county received bids on the truck but none on the spreader. The board approved accepting the high bid from Kane Township on the truck in the amount of $24,100. They also approved readvertising the snowplow and spreader with a minimum bid of $5,000. Bids are due by Jan. 7 before noon to the county clerk. Bid opening will be at 1 p.m. on Jan. 10. Bidders may be present to raise their bid.
The board passed the budget for next year by a 6-1 vote. The only abstaining vote was Schnelten. After the meeting, Schnelten was asked why she voted no.
“The reason I voted no was because they didn’t answer or even address the questions I presented to them when the budget was first hung,” she said.
The board approved the purchase of a lift for the used ambulance it purchased at a cost of $49,000.
“The company contacted Marc Clark at Boyd Hospital directly offering him this demo unit at a reduced price,” Board Member Earlene Castleberry said. “This will save us money because when we do buy a new ambulance the vendors buy their lifts from this same company and there is a markup so this will save us money.”
Castleberry said there is money in the tax levy to pay for it. Researching the cost of an ambulance with a lift, they run around $250,000 whereas one without runs around $189,000. The lift comes with a six-year service contract. It can be removed if the ambulance is sold and installed in a new ambulance. This will make all three ambulances now have a power-lift.
The board also approved the towing of a disabled ambulance from Cy Thompson’s Garage in Roodhouse to the Highway Department at a cost of $60.
“The ambulance has been sitting there for months because the transmission went out and we decided not to repair it again,” Castleberry said. “We put it out for bids but didn’t get a bid on it and we figure if we put it at the highway shed and put a for sale sign on it perhaps more people will see it. Other than the transmission there is nothing wrong with It..”
