The Newton Board of Aldermen has agreed to spend $4,550 to purchase five body cameras from Watch Guard for the police department.
The aldermen considered two bids, the Watch Guard quote for five cameras and a $7,095 quote from Digital Ally for 10 body cameras.
Police Chief Randy Patrick said the Watch Guard body cameras are “top of the line” and will be able to withstand anyone trying to rip the body camera off the police officer’s uniform.
Because of that, he said that Watch Guard was a much better product than the Digital Ally cameras and recommended Watch Guard even though the bid is much more expensive.
“Those cameras (from Digital Ally) are very flimsy and could easily be ripped off during an altercation and damage the cameras,” Patrick said. “The Watch Guard cameras has a super magnetic magnet on those cameras. If you rip that camera off, you’re ripping the whole shirt off.”
Patrick also said District Attorney Steven Kilgore has an account with Watch Guard and will make it easier to purchase five more cameras to match the city’s investment. The cameras are tamper proof, and he said that the board is welcome to watch the video of any incident on camera.
Board Attorney Brian Mayo said the city could accept the more expensive bid, but they had to say it was a superior product to the other bid. He also noted that the money to purchase the cameras will be coming from drug seizure funds, which is not accounted for in the budget.
The city will also accept a $3,500 bid from PSI to install a new computer system. Patrick said it is a much cheaper quote than their current computer system provider.
Patrick also recommended a 2007 Dodge Charger be removed from surplus property and put back in service after the vehicle was repaired for “$13.”
Also within the police department, Alex Perzetti was terminated as a part-time police officer.
In other business, the city approved opening a checking account with the purpose of depositing any spring sports registration fees. Parks and Recreation Director Jay Powell said they are in the process of refunding registration fees for baseball and softball since the season was canceled due to coronavirus outbreak.
Powell said they are contacting each family to let them know about refunds. He recommended that they open the account so that they could handwrite the checks instead of entering over 100 addresses into the city hall bookkeeping system to issue refund checks.
The board also approved a $1,279.95 maintenance contract for the city hall elevator.
D&H Construction was paid $27,026.33 on the city hall project. Suncoast Infrastructure, Inc. was paid $123,818.26 for the final payment on the sewer project.
The city introduced a Municipal Franchise Ordinance to allow the city to get a 3 percent reimbursement on Mississippi Power’s fees. If passed, this would have to be approved by voters to allow for the 3 percent collection. Currently, the city is collecting 3 percent, and if it is not approved again, the city could lose a portion of its annual revenue.
The city purchased land from Spirit Realty for the construction of city streets in the amount of $6,500.
Four Newton school students were recognized with resolutions honoring their performance on the ACT. These resolutions will be presented at a later time when the coronavirus situation has subsided.
The city rejected two bids on a truck and two Crown Victorias and will rebid them with minimum bids of $2,500 on the truck and $3,500 on the Crown Victorias.
City Hall was closed on April 10 for Good Friday.
The city hired Joseph Johnson at $11 per hour for the street department.
Public Works Superintendent Fred Snow said they have replaced all of the downtown lights with LED lights.
