The Town of Decatur Board of Aldermen held their Budget Hearing on Tuesday, Sept. 2, where they reviewed the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Two key discussions of the evening were setting aside money for a future generator replacement for the town’s water well and approving the police department to get quotes on two new vehicles.
After a recommendation from Public Works Director David Anderson, officials added a new line item to save money to purchase a new generator for the water well. Expecting the current generator, which was purchased after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, would need to be replaced within the next couple of years, the town would save close to $50,000 in that amount of time to go towards a new generator.
Quotes for Police Vehicles
Police chief Clay Garvin requested that the board to give him permission to begin getting quotes for two Chevrolet Tahoes so they could be presented to the board during their special session on Sept. 9 to approve the budget.
Garvin told the board that purchasing the vehicles would be dependent on the board approving the budget, and any purchase would take place in October. He also shared that he was currently interested in purchasing two Tahoes from Chicago Motors, which they’ve quoted him $50,000 for both vehicles, plus $7,163 for lights to be installed on one of the vehicles. And after striping both vehicles for $2,000, the total cost on both would be around $59,000.
He added that he’s going to continue looking and get more quotes so he could get the number down as low as possible.
“I don’t want to get real close to $60,000. I’d like to keep it as far under that I can so that we have a little room in case we have something else come up,” Garvin said.
The reason for his urgency, according to Garvin, the number of vehicles available for purchase begin dwindling at this time of year.
“This is the time of year where everybody’s budgets are being approved, and their plethora of vehicles start dwindling,” said Clay.
After the discussion, the board approved Garvin getting quotes for two vehicles.
Other discussion and actions:
-Garvin introduced new police officer, Jeff Nicholas, to the board.
-The board discussed the need to hire retired MDOT engineers in the area for their consultation on major road paving project to ensure proper specifications, such as asphalt depth, were met. The board agreed to increase engineering fees in the budget by $1,000 for consulting.
-Approved adopting the tax levy, which did not increase.
-Set a special called meeting for Sept. 9 to approve the budget.
-Approved recessing until Sept. 9
