Cost of acquiring, remodeling and outfitting the Allen County Critical Response Center, 410 N. State St., was $558,358, Angie Murphy, 911 dispatch director, told county commissioners Tuesday morning.
The county paid $185,000 for the former Heartland Rural Electric building. Remodeling and equipment costs ran $373,358.
A Kansas Emergency Management grant for $143,202 — approved but not yet received — will leave the county cost at a smidgen over $415,000. Murphy said that might be reduced by another pending $63,223.90 grant.
Commissioners said the county’s share was reserved ahead of time in its budget.
Murphy said Friday morning’s storm, accompanied by winds estimated at more than 70 miles an hour, caused no major damage at the center, which houses 911 dispatchers and Emergency Management Services offices.
“The cable running up the antenna came loose,” she said. By noon the cable was reattached with metal straps. “The only way it’d come loose again is if the tower fell,” Murphy said she was told.
COMMISSIONER Dick Works encouraged reduced use of the commissioners’ education fund, budgeted at $5,000. About $1,400 has already been spent this year for mileage and expenses for out-of-town meetings, County Clerk Sherrie Riebel said.
“We need to cut back, same as we have with employees who haven’t gotten any raises for this year,” Chairman Gary McIntosh said, adding commissioners should be tight-fisted with all expenditures.
Commissioners will start constructing the 2011 budget in June. It then will be published, with a public hearing in mid-August.
In a money-saving vein, Bill King, director of Public Works, said his crew would mow only along the l00 miles of hard-surfaced primary roads and probably cut undergrowth at intersections of the 900 miles of rock roads in July. No other attention will be given secondary roads.
“It’s going to be a long summer,” he said.
AN EAGLE MED helicopter will fly from Chanute and transport a “patient” from a mock accident scene in Elsmore Saturday morning, part of an exercise planned for Allen County ambulance crews and first responders in the southeast part of the county.
Jason Nelson, ambulance director, said a second session was scheduled for 11 a.m. at the Allen County Airport.
