Daniel Prince
Supervisor says several funding options are available if legislature request falls through
The expansion of the Union County Detention Center received a green light from Union County Council, despite its heftier than expected price tag. At Tuesday’s meeting of Union County Council, council members unanimously voted to approve the jail addition. As previously reported, the council had approved $7.1 million in funding for the three-unit, 63-bed addition to the detention center; however, the low bid came back at $8.6 million. Supervisor Phillip Russell said he had done some more research into funding options at council’s request at the finance committee meeting last week, and he told WBCU News after the meeting that the county has several ways to pay for the project. Tuesday’s vote was to allow the low bidder to proceed with the project, as the county faced a March 31st deadline to allow the project to proceed or not. Russell said council will decide at a later meeting exactly how the additional money for the project will be spent. He said he is hopeful that the state delegation will come through with a $1.5 million allocation, but even if that doesn’t happen, the county will be able to pay it.
County Council also unanimously approved $25,000 to go toward a grading project at the Cudd Industrial site, a 73-acre property located across the street from Gonvauto on Highway 18. The plan is to grade the area for a 200,000 square foot pad. The estimated cost of the grading project is $1.5 million, with the majority of the funding coming from grants. The $25,000 from the county will come from the economic development fund. This is the first step toward developing the Cudd property, which according to the master plan could eventually have space for up to four buildings. The eventual plan is to have a concrete pad and perhaps even a spec building on the property for industrial recruitment.
Part of the funding for the Cudd project comes from utility tax credits donated by Lockhart Power. Andrena Powell-Baker represented Lockhart Power at Tuesday’s meeting as she presented the county with a check for $200,000 in utility tax credits to go toward the Cudd site project. Powell-Baker explained about the tax credits at the meeting:
(audio below story)
She said this represents the second-largest donation of utility tax credits by Lockhart Power to the county.
Also at the meeting, Bonham Fire Chief Scott Austin asked for and received approval to move ahead with the purchase of a Pierce pumper truck for his department at a cost of $482,000. Austin said the fire district board approved the purchase at their meeting last week. He said it is the culmination of several years of work and savings. Austin said they have $330,000 in the budget for the truck now, and they will receive more revenue in July. He said there it is expected that the truck will not be ready for delivery until 2025 if purchased now, and by that time if there are no major breakdowns of existing equipment, the department should have enough money saved so that it will not need to ask the county or taxpayers for any additional funds. If they do run short, any amount needed should be minimal, Austin said. The new engine will replace one the department recently sold on the Govdeals site. He said that truck was beginning to have some rust issues and some problems with the pump. Supervisor Phillip Russell said the fire truck world has gone crazy in recent months. He said where you used to be able to get a new truck in 6-8 months, it is now 2 years, and where costs would rise 3-6% in a year, now you see 3-6% increases in a quarter. Dr. John Flood noted that the Monarch Fire Department purchased a similar truck about a year and a half ago, and its cost was at least 10% lower than the cost of this new truck. Council gave unanimous approval to the fire department to go ahead with the purchase.
We’ll have more from Tuesday’s meeting in a future newscast.