May 17, 2024
By: Dwayne Page
If or when the county budget committee asks the county commission to adopt a bond resolution to build a judicial center the project description may be broadened to include expenditures for possibly a new fire truck and two new ambulances.
During its meeting on Tuesday night, the budget committee voted 4 to 2 against forwarding a recommendation to the commission to adopt a bond resolution not to exceed $65 million for the construction of a judicial center at this time. But before that vote, the budget committee voted unanimously to include in the bond resolution a total of $910,000 ($425,000 for a new fire truck and a total of $485,000 for two new ambulances) to be funded from any excess proceeds or interest income from the bonds.
The reason for the move was to keep from having to spend so much from the county’s capital projects budget in 2024-25. That fund is designated for capital outlay expenditures such as building improvements and purchases of county vehicles, etc.
Steve Bates, the county’s fiscal agent/financial advisor, warned the budget committee that if all the capital projects funding requests were left in the budget for 2024-25, the fund would be “going into cash” (reserves) by $1,087,873.
To avoid that, Bates suggested that the fire truck and ambulances be funded in the bond resolution along with construction of the judicial center. That would remove a total of $910,000 in spending from the capital projects fund along with cuts of $184,890 for EMS sleeping quarters and a generator for the new Liberty Fire Hall which are not being funded. That puts the total 2024-25 capital projects expenditures at $1,518,158 with revenues exceeding spending by $7,017 for the year and a projected fund balance of $1,660,974 by June 30, 2025.
“You might want to consider taking some of these expenditures out of capital projects and adding them within the bond resolution in the event you don’t need all the money you are going to borrow for this judicial center,” said Bates. “I think we will earn enough interest income and to the extent you have some monies left over you might be able to pick up these costs without taking this (capital projects fund) into cash. You would leave the project description in the bond resolution broad enough to capture anything you would have had to deplete your cash for just as a back-up. If there should not be enough money left over, we could always come back and amend the budget and put it back into capital projects. The bond resolution project description can be for construction of the judicial center, county buildings, and emergency response vehicles,” said Bates.
Again, the budget committee Tuesday night, voted 4 to 2 not to forward to the county commission a recommendation for adoption of a bond resolution for the judicial center and other projects at this time.
Other capital projects funding requests remaining in the proposed 2024-25 budget (yet to be approved) include the following:
*Another $100,000 in seed money for the future development of a new public safety building to house a fire truck in the Wolf Creek community putting the total amount of seed money set aside at $250,000
*$640,000 for 75 new county fire department portable radios under the new Tennessee Advanced Communications Network (TACN) system should the county’s regional application for funding through the FEMA Assistance to Firefighter Grant not be approved.
*Four new sheriff’s department patrol cars totaling $165,000.
*9,964 for the cost of purchasing and installing a new mobile radio for an ambulance being bid out this year.
*67,142 local grant match for an ambulance funded by a Community Development Block Grant