911 commission accepts financing options

Tuesday, July 7, 2009
By GEOFF RANDS/Staff writer

The county centralized emergency dispatch building on South Odell Avenue as it appeared Monday morning, June 29. The south wall has since been added to the structure.
(Eric Crump/Democrat-News)
[Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

At its meeting Tuesday, July 7, the Saline County 911 Commission accepted recommendations from its finance committee for financing the Saline County 911 Dispatch Center and the equipment that will be housed inside it.

Commission members voted to accept two proposals for financing from Government Capital Corporations: one for the dispatch center and one for the center's equipment.

The cost for the equipment was previously budgeted at $1.75 million, said commission President John Fletcher, but the estimate was discovered to be $300,000 too high because the figure included maintenance on the equipment, which is part of the commission's service agreement with Commenco Inc.

The payment options discussed during the meeting of the finance committee Monday, July 6, were based on the first payment being made six or 12 months from the date of the financing's finalization, said Fletcher.

"We are now looking at actually doing it on closing, so that would lower the payments fairly sizably," he said.

This would change the annual payment for the equipment from approximately $400,000 to $320,000, and change the annual payment for the building from approximately $200,000 to $198,000, said Fletcher.

The commission approved Saline County Ordinance No. 2009-0706 and Saline County Ordinance no. 2009-0707 for the lease-purchase for procuring the equipment and for financing of the dispatch center, respectively.

The commission also passed a resolution allowing it to take out a loan against the certificates of deposit held in the State Bank of Slater if the commission needs those funds.

Contact Geoff Rands at marshallreporter@socket.net

Comments

Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. If you feel that a comment is offensive, please Login or Create an account first, and then you will be able to flag a comment as objectionable. Please also note that those who post comments on marshallnews.com may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.

Gumby, you'll be glad we have it, if you ever need it!!! Hopefully you never will.

-- Posted by Takealoadoff on Thu, Jul 9, 2009, at 8:14 AM

gumby

i really dont think that you are aware of all the requirements that have to be met on getting this 911 dispatch center operational. there is a time limit on when it has to be running and the taxes are not filling up the bank to pay for all that needs to be payed for right now!! i cant say for sure but i would be willing to bet that the construction companies working on the dispatch center arent willing to WAIT for the money to get there either !! just a thought !

-- Posted by themonsterinme on Wed, Jul 8, 2009, at 12:16 AM

Why didn't the 911 Board wait until they collected enough taxes to pay for building this ridiculous costing building, before building it?? I would think that it would have saved alot of money in interest. It couldn't have taken that long to save up the money if your not paying interest or staff? The entire project seems like it has gotten out of control. I wish the entire plan would have been disclosed before this thing was put on the ballot to vote for. I don't think the people would have given the board an open check book just to blow money.

-- Posted by Gumby on Tue, Jul 7, 2009, at 5:26 PM