MonticelloLive

The Monticello City Council met for the second night in a row to listen to budget requests.  Monday night organizations were the topic, Tuesday night city departments were on the agenda.

Including the police, fire, warehouse, solid waste, water, and parks & recreation departments.

All council members were present, except for Raymond Hubbard and Beverly Hudson. 

Police Chief Robert Rosegrant spoke first, representing the Police Dept.  He included a list of police vehicles, complete with mileage, while asking for 2 new police cars ($50,000).  Also in his request were 15 bullet-resistant vests for part-time officers ($10,000 expense), 3 tasers with training for all officers ($4,000), an 2 computers for the patrolmen’s office ($2,000).

Chief Rosegrant stated that the tasers would helpful, “because the majority of our workman’s comp claims this year came from altercations where these could been helpful.”  He also said that just the awareness that officers have tasers should be a calming influence in some of these cases.

Fire Chief Steven Faulkner’s list started with $50,000 for a new rescue truck. The new rescue truck would be a F-550, and would replace the smaller F-350, which is around 10 years old.

Faulkner told the council that we need to replace the 1983 fire truck, engine #5.  The new fire truck which costs around $250,000, doesn’t have to be bought right now, but did ask that the city set aside some of the expense now, in order for it to be available in the next couple of years.

The fire dept. also needs to replace the air packs that are on the fire trucks.  The cost of replacing the 6 tanks that are needed on each of the 4 trucks would cost a total of $80,000, due to not being able to have them repaired due to their age, did say that they could be replaced in stages, based on their conditi0n.

L. M. Wood spoke on behalf of the warehouse dept.  Wood’s list included;

Waterwell housing/tank maintenence, with repairs, fencing, gate, and scales—–$61,500.

Sewer lift station on 425 south/gate and fencing—–$16,000.

Metal roof on lab at sewer pond—–$4,000.

Skid Steer (bobcat tractor)—–$46,500.

Equipment trailer—$4,500.

310-J Backhoe (replace one that is 20 years old)—–$63,000.

Excavator (Track-hoe)—$51,200.

Paint Conrad Tower water tank ($42,000 set aside)—–$110,000.

Sidewalks for 425 south (partially set asside)—–$75,000.

The solid waste dept. needs a new “bin truck” to replace their current truck that is 10 years old, and has needed over $13,000 in repairs this year.  The new truck will cost approximately $150,000.

Water department’s list included $2,000 for meter reader hand-held computer training and terminal service, and $335 for an office printer and computer memory.