STONE HARBOR – Stone Harbor Borough Council reviewed capital requests from its public safety departments for the 2019 budget. Business Administrator Jill Gougher pointed out that the requests have not been acted on by council.
Along with standard elements like software upgrades and other relatively modest capital requests, the two major public safety departments, Police and Fire, had some big-ticket items.
Fire Chief Roger Stanford presented the largest item, a replacement fire pump truck which carries an estimated price tag of $595,000. Stanford noted that the current vehicle is 18 years old, three years older than the 15 years the National Fire Protection Association established as a guideline for retiring an engine.
Another large-ticket item involved $280,000 for conversion to the state’s standard 700 MHz radio system. Stanford said that mutual aid departments were making the shift, as will the Stone Harbor Police Department in preparation for a switch to the new county dispatch operations.
Police Chief Thomas Schutta presented the other half of the radio expense with a capital request for $180,000. In addition, Schutta requested funds for a new CAD system consistent with that used by the county communications center, $105,000, and replacements for no longer supported breath test and fingerprint machines, $50,000 for both.
A last major expense item was a request for $320,000 for security cameras that would be “installed in public areas throughout the borough,” including the entrance and exit points.
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