BENTONVILLE -- Benton County's Finance Committee continued working on the 2015 budget Thursday night, agreeing to provide another $95,000 for rural ambulance service.
The justices of the peace approved the money for the ambulance service provided by the Northeast Benton County Fire Department. NEBCO officials said the money will buy two cardiac monitors and batteries, at a cost of about $65,000, an auto-pulse unit for $15,000 and one power assist cot for another $15,000.
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2015 Budget
Benton County’s justices of the peace continued working on a 2015 budget Thursday night. The budget is scheduled to be discussed at the Committee of the Whole meeting on Tuesday and approved by the Quorum Court on Dec. 18.
Source: Staff Report
Fire Chief Rob Taylor said the equipment will allow the service to put a second ambulance into service beginning Jan. 1 on a part-time basis. Taylor said the department will have the second ambulance in service for about eight hours a day, three days a week in phase one of the department's plans.
By 2016, the department hopes to have the second ambulance in service five days a week. Taylor said the service plans to eventually have two ambulances in service 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The justices of the peace were discussing possible revisions to revenue projections at press time. The Budget Committee began working with estimates calling for $63.8 million in revenue. With transfers out of the general fund and a reserve required by law the county expects to have $55.7 million to spend. Initial budget requests totaled about $45.5 million, including capital items, but excluding raises and new personnel. That left about $10.2 million in reserve. With the initial budget requests approved, the remaining surplus was about $894,000 at the beginning of Thursday's meeting.
Along with the money for NEBCO, the committee recommended setting aside another $500,000 for a project at the Benton County Sheriff's Office to remove what the county is calling "microbial growth" from the walls. The building exterior has already been sealed, County Judge Bob Clinard told the committee, Thursday, and the county expects to open bids on the remediation work Tuesday.
The Budget Committee earlier endorsed giving employees 1 percent cost-of-living increases, with more money set aside for merit increases, and a $50 monthly contribution to employees health plan. The panel voted to include $647,000 from the general fund and road fund to pay the cost of raises in departments covered by those funds. Merit raises could range up to 5 percent for individual employees.
Brenda Guenther, comptroller, said raises for employees cost about $294,000 for each 1 percent increase, with about $215,000 coming from the general fund.
The justices of the peace also agreed to include 2 percent raises for elected officials. Raises for justices of the peace were still on the agenda for Thursday's meeting.
The initial budget request included nine new employee requests, costing about $436,000, which were approved by the committee. An additional employee for the Election Commission also was approved during the budget process, which would cost another $43,000.
The capital requests approved include five road graders for the Road Department. Jeff Clark, public services administrator, is asking to begin buying five road graders every year and selling them on a five-year rotation.
Officials have said they can buy the new graders with a guaranteed buy-back plan that after five years would reduce the cost of each grader from about $300,000 to $65,000.
The department is also asking for a new excavator, backhoe tractor and a mini excavator, along with eight trucks. After the trade-ins for the used vehicles being replaced the request totals about $1.5 million.
The county also is planning to buy two fire trucks to be put into the rural fire service fleet.
The Sheriff 's Office and Jail have several vehicles on the capital items list along with a phone system. The Sheriff's Office is asking for $220,000 for vehicles with other funds paying about $450,000 for the rest of the requests.
The Information Services Department has a plan to spend $196,000 to upgrade the data process system. If approved, the plan will save $595,000 in other IT projects that will no longer be necessary, according to officials.
On Thursday, the panel approved another new vehicle for Marshall Watson, public safety administrator. The Chevrolet Tahoe with equipment will cost about $38,00 and the county expects to receive about $10,000 in trade for the vehicle now in use.
The justices of the peace also recommended a possible increase for Ozark Regional Transit. The justices of the peace voted to include $15,000 for the service, the same amount as they budgeted for 2014. Additionally, the committee approved setting aside another $49,000 to be used as matching money if the transit service obtains funding from some of the smaller cities in Benton County. The justices of the peace excluded Rogers, Bentonville, Bella Vista and Siloam Springs from those that could participate in the matching funds.
NW News on 12/05/2014