Pulaski County Council Approves Funding for Health Department Generator

Posted on Author WKVI
Pulaski County Courthouse
Pulaski County Courthouse

The Pulaski County Council approved the purchase of a generator for the health department.

Terri Hansen had been asking for a generator for the department for several years. After working with county maintenance director Jeff Johnston, Hansen said they are ready to make the purchase.

“Jeff Johnston, I talked with him a couple of times and he said the generator that would run our office is about $2,900. I’m asking for an additional in equipment for $3,500 for the generator and for any cost for the hookup,” said Hansen.

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Pulaski County Council Discusses Salary Ordinance Amendment at Sheriff’s Department

Posted on Author WKVI
Pulaski County Sheriff's Department
Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department

The Pulaski County Council discussed a salary ordinance change request with the sheriff’s matron, Carrie Avery, Monday night.

The situation is unique in that a dispatcher and his wife work at the department and officials want to move one into the chief dispatcher role. That would create a nepotism law violation. To get around that, Avery went before the county council to request that they approve the creation of co-assistant chief deputy positions and put the pair into those roles.

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Pulaski County Council Approves Appropriation for New Ambulance

Posted on Author WKVI
 
 

The Pulaski County Council approved an additional appropriation for the EMS for the purchase of an ambulance and new cardiac monitors.

EMS Director Nikki Lowry requested $88,000 in an additional appropriation in order to pay for the new ambulance. The insurance company will be paying $82,000 to the county after totaling the ambulance that was damaged in a fire on Feb. 7 at Wagner’s Towing. The cost of a new ambulance is approximately $150,000.

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Pulaski County Commissioners Approve Purchase of New Ambulance

Posted on Author WKVI
 
 

The Pulaski County Commissioners approved a quote for a new ambulance during their meeting on Monday night.

EMS officials announced last week that the ambulance damaged from a February fire and subsequently repaired did not pass state inspection so it was totaled by the insurance company.

During this week’s meeting, EMS Director Nikki Lowry presented the commissioners with four quotes for a new ambulance. They approved a quote from Arrow in the amount of $130,700. Since the insurance company totaled the truck, an $82,000 settlement will go toward the purchase of a new ambulance.

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Pulaski County Council Discusses Appropriation for Fuel at Airport

Posted on Author WKVI

The Pulaski County Council continues to iron out financial details since taking over the financial aspect at the airport.

When the decision was made to make Bud Widner a full-time employee, that meant that Wagner had to cease purchasing items under his own name and the county had to reimburse Widner for those items to ensure that all equipment was county owned. That was done for liability purposes.

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Pulaski County Justice Center Equipment Needs Discussed

Posted on Author WKVI
Pulaski County Sheriff's Department
Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department

Pulaski County Maintenance Director Jeff Johnston presented the county council members Monday night with several issues with the Justice Center.

Johnston explained the issues.

“The air units on the rooftop of the Justice Center are 17 years old and they have 15 year life spans. Four of them have already failed and the fifth one is failing now. We’re replaced four this year. We still have seven that are about to give it up. We’ve got three water heaters in the upstairs room, one of which failed its inspection from the state. We’ve replaced it but another one started leaking out of the bottom. Those machines are also past their life span by about seven years. We have two water softeners in that same room that are also leaking out of the top and they’re getting ready to go as well,” said Johnston.

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Pulaski County Commissioners, Council Discuss County Home

Posted on Author WKVI
 
 

The Pulaski County commissioners and the county council met in joint session last night where one of the topics was the future of the county home.

In previous meetings this year, Maintenance Director Jeff Johnston presented the county boards with a preliminary structural condition assessment of the county home conducted by American Structurepoint, Inc. The repairs needed are extensive and are estimated between $500,000 to $1 million. With that, the government entities are wondering what should be done.

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Pulaski County Council Reviews Additional Appropriations and Transfers for Issues at Justice Center

Posted on Author WKVI
Pulaski County Sheriff's Department
Pulaski County Justice Center

The Pulaski County Council discussed several additional appropriation and transfer requests on Monday night. A couple of requests from the Pulaski County Justice Center were discussed at length.

Sheriff Michael Gayer spoke at the Eastern Pulaski School Board meeting so Matron Carrie Aaron and Sergeant Fred Rogers represented the sheriff’s department where they explained an $80,000 additional appropriation. Sergeant Rogers said the money is needed to pay past bills that have been due – some for many years. For example, according to Sergeant Rogers, the fuel bill hadn’t been paid since September of 2013 while other vendors for a variety services have been waiting since 2011 for payment.

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Pulaski County Commissioners, Council Discuss Airport Manager

Posted on Author WKVI

The Pulaski County Commissioners and the county council members met in a special joint session Monday afternoon to discuss a change in operations at the airport.

County Attorney Kevin Tankersley told the joint board that it was brought to his attention that Airport Manager Bud Wagner has several pieces of equipment in his name at the airport that are being used for work. He pays for the fuel and is paid back as pilots fuel planes. The landline telephone is also in his name as well as the internet service. Wagner is also not employed by the county.

While this is already against normal policy, he’s not being reimbursed for the use of these items.

Tankersley asked the joint board to make sure that he is an employee and that he receives benefits like all other employees. He also suggested that the county or the airport board purchase those items that Bud owns that are in use at the airport or buy items that are county owned. Tankersley also suggested that the airport pay for the fuel and create an account for the fuel in the county’s name.

The commissioners approved a motion to make Bud Wagner an employee. He will work 35 hours a week and receive benefits. The council will decide what to do with the equipment purchases. The council members will discuss what to do to adjust the airport budget to reflect these changes.

Pulaski County Council Discusses Summer Intern Pay for Prosecutor’s Office

Posted on Author WKVI
Pulaski County Courthouse
Pulaski County Courthouse

The Pulaski County Council approved an additional appropriation for the prosecutor’s office for a summer intern.

Prosecutor Stacey Mrak stressed that the money is not coming from the general fund even though it is appropriated money. She explained that the money is coming from the pre-trial diversion fund which can be used at the discretion of the prosecutor. The money needed to be transferred to another line item in the budget for payroll purposes.

The additional appropriation was for $2,700.

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Pulaski County Council Approves Money Transfer for K9s

Posted on Author WKVI
Deputy Travis Clark with K-9 "Gil" (L) and K-9 Deputy Ryan Austin with K-9 "Terror"
Deputy Travis Clark with K-9 “Gil” (L) and K-9 Deputy Ryan Austin with K-9 “Terror”

The Pulaski County Council approved, by a majority vote of 6 to 1, Sheriff Michael Gayer’s request to transfer funds to pay for the two K9s at a cost of $25,165.38.

The payment of the K9s had to be done a different way than initially proposed but Auditor Shelia Garling, the sheriff and representatives from the State Board of accounts told the council that they could take the money out of the user fee of the law enforcement continuous education fund to the continuing education fund.

The dogs are in service with one officer and K9 working the day shift and the other officer and the K9on the night shift to give 24 hours of continuing coverage.

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Pulaski County Officials Considering Payroll Software

Posted on Author WKVI

Pulaski County CourthouseThe Pulaski County Council and Commissioners want more information about a proposed electronic payroll system for county employees before committing to the expense. They have several options to consider, including electronic swipe cards and fingerprint recognition keypads for employees to clock in and out. Auditor Shelia Garling says such a system would much more efficient than the manual time cards and reports the county is currently using. The data will first go to the auditor’s office for review before it is sent to Adaptasoft to process payroll, taxes and direct deposits. Garling says this will alleviate the hassle of processing paper payroll reports and would cut down on the time department heads spend compiling that information from time cards. She told the council she would like to have the software in place by Oct. 1 if possible. The council and commissioners plan to discuss options more thoroughly in a joint session before making any decisions.