Thursday, February 1, 2007

Commission discusses cell phone package

by Kenneth Lassiter

Cell phones were the main course on the county commission’s plate Monday in another long meeting that included three interviews for the emergency management director position.

Commissioners met with representatives from Verizon Wireless and Cingular Wireless Monday in an effort to consolidate and save on cell phones used by county employees. The county currently spends $23,000 combined for the use of 53 phones and personal data assistants by county employees on plans by both Verizon and Cingular. The sheriff’s department is the only county department using Verizon Wireless for a county-funded calling plan.

Kellie Reese of Verizon met with commissioners to discuss service through Verizon. Reese pointed out a new tower is planned for erection in the south central part of the county within the next year. Commissioners as well as county counselor Jan Hayes pointed out the difficulties in getting Verizon signal service around the courthouse and in other areas of the county. Undersheriff Jeff Herrig said the company’s coverage is “spotty” in Oskaloosa and nonexistent in the eastern part of the county. Commissioner David Christy said the eastern section of the county is in most need of cellular service.

Reese quoted the county a cost of $19,502 annually for the use of 46 phones and five Blackberry PDAs with unlimited broadband Internet access available on the devices for an additional $1,166 annually and 100 text messages monthly for an annual cost of $645. The total of annual costs from Verizon was $21,315. Christy told Reese he liked Verizon’s dollar figures but they meant little if the county didn’t have the needed coverage. Reese said she couldn’t really argue that point.

Commissioners asked if Verizon could put antennas on existing towers built for Cingular Wireless in the county. Reese said Verizon works on a different signal system than Cingular so co-location on towers built for Cingular wouldn’t be possible. After a couple of minutes of further discussion, Reese departed.

Kirk Vernon of the sheriff’s department, who has worked on the cell phone issue on behalf of the county with Verizon, said the decision to move forward comes down to cost, coverage and customer service. He said Verizon has the edge in customer service while Cingular has an advantage in coverage. He said he hadn’t seen costs from Cingular.

Jill Young and Bruce Davenport of Cingular were the next appointment on the county agenda and had a prepared PowerPoint presentation on Cingular’s system, which also has some coverage holes on the eastern side of the county. Young said Cingular could group the county employees into usage groups depending on the number of minutes needed by the employee and those minutes would be pooled together for use by that group.

Denise Locklin of auxiliary services, who had worked with Cingular on behalf of the county, said she and Young had discussed a business shared plan that would cost the county $1,070 per month. Davenport said that wouldn’t work as that plan capped the amount of phones to 40 and the county needs more than that number. Young and Davenport gave commissioners a preliminary figure of $1,907.47 per month for a combined 23,850 minutes of cell phone access for the county pool. Locklin and County Clerk Linda Buttron pointed out that annual cost of $22,889 wasn’t much less than the $23,000 already being spent by the county annually on cell phone use. County officials said they only needed about 13,000 minutes combined. Davenport said he and Young could refigure the costs for the lesser amount of minutes and about 60 phones or devices with text messaging included on roughly 35 of the devices and give commissioners a firmer annual cost.

Christy moved to table the issue until Cingular returns with a cost figure and the motion passed unanimously.

Commissioners sat down with emergency management director candidates Brian Ebert, Joshua Magaha and Doug Schmitt for job interviews in executive session Monday. Commissioners met with each of the three candidates for a minimum of 45 minutes. Hayes, Daryl Chess, fire chief of county district No. 8, Ron Davis, fire chief of county district No. 12 and Paula Phillips of Douglas County’s emergency management department sat in on the interviews. Two other candidates, Dennis Pearson and Jeff Davis, withdrew from the search, which leaves the county with eight candidates for the job, including the five interviewed Jan. 22.

A sanitary system for a potential development on former Corps of Engineers land was also discussed Monday by commissioners and health department director Eileen Filbert. Filbert reported the Corps had given 135 acres of land at the junction of K-92 Highway and Quail Run Road to Camp Adventure for use as a camp for disabled children. Camp officials asked about the adequacy of the wastewater system to handle playing host to campers for 14 weeks in the spring and summer if and when the camp would be ready. Filbert said a check of the system indicates it couldn’t handle that capacity so improvements would be needed.

Filbert said the county would recommend the camp hooking into the system of nearby Lake Shore Estates as the best option. She said plans are still in the early stages so she would keep tabs on the issue.

In other business Monday, the commission:

• Signed vouchers and tax change orders. Commissioners also signed cereal malt beverage permits for Lake Perry Yacht and Marine and Grantville LLC – Petro. A letter of support for the Jefferson County Service Organization was also signed.

• Heard an update from George Pogge, road and bridge superintendent. Pogge said Douglas County opened the three Lecompton Bridge bids last week but no decision had been made as of Monday. He said he expected the decision on the bid to be made Wednesday.

• Met with Pogge and Hayes in executive session for 15 minutes to discuss matters of non-elected personnel.

• Heard an update from Filbert. Filbert plans to attend the National Preparedness Summit in Washington, D.C., in February. The expenses will be paid from state money.

• Signed a service award for Tim Dooley, ambulance department, for 25 years of service. Awards were also signed for Deborah Jackson, Meghan Fowler and Kathy Burgess of the health department and John Shipley of the ambulance department.

• Heard an update from Tani Ruff of the ambulance department. Commissioners approved a voucher reimbursing former ambulance director Don Haynes for $300 he paid for the DirecTV bill for the department. The money to reimburse Haynes came from a donation from the Perry Lake Association for county efforts during Fourth of July events. Commissioners also approved a voucher for $79.95 for Video Professor training videos the county has received. Ruff said further service from the company has been cancelled. Commissioners authorized the ambulance department to fill a part-time billing help position in the department. Commissioners approved paying for $27 in vegetable trays used for the county’s benefit fair and $5 for candy used at the department for Halloween. They instructed Ruff that the expenses should be avoided in the future as no other county departments use county funds for similar expenditures. Ruff noted the expenditures were authorized by Haynes.

• Denied a voucher submitted by economic development for the department’s entire 2007 budget allocation. Commissioners decided instead to allocate the usual quarterly amount to the department.

• Heard an update from Karen Weishaar, deputy register of deeds, regarding activity in that department. Weishaar reported the office processed 5,859 transactions and recorded 18,376 pages of documents in 2006. The office’s total revenue over the year was $349,278, which includes $242,062 in mortgage registration tax.