February 1, 2024, Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.

I attended the February 1, 2024, Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.

All commissioners were present.

The first agenda item was Decision on Justice Center and Sheriff’s Office security – Elliott Data Systems.

Matt Buydos from Elliott Data Systems was present with their bid proposals.

The proposal for the door systems was originally $86,920.55, but Presiding Commissioner Skelton felt that the Camden County Maintenance Department could perform the physical maintenance of the door system. This reduced the cost of this proposal to $77,197.55.

Similarly, the proposal for the camera systems was over $40,000, but Skelton again proposed the county save money by having their Maintenance Department maintain the physical condition of the cameras. This left the camera proposal at $21,325.33 for camera and hardware updates to the existing system.

There was a question of where this money would come from?

The County Auditor said there is money in the LEST Buildings budget line and there should be ARPA money left over that could help pay for it. Camden County also might claw back ARPA funds from other organizations that didn’t end up using their allotted amounts. There is also over $200,000 left in the Capital Improvement Fund from the sale of county property.

The representative from the Maintenance Department mentioned that the county is going to have to pay for repairs in the showers at the County Jail. The epoxy is coming up in the shower pans and walls. They have a repair estimate coming up in a few days.

The Commission voted unanimously to approve the amended door and camera proposals and consider that ARPA funding might be used to pay for them.

The second agenda item was Howe Engineering Work Order for Willow Creek Road.

This is a work order to replace the box culvert bridge that is currently being held up by sheet metal with a steel girder bridge.

Presiding Commissioner Skelton questioned why the work order included a $6,000 cost for the bidding process. It also allocated $65,000 for the bridge design and $40,000 for its construction.

Commissioner Williams talked about building bridges out of condemned railroad cars. That has apparently become a popular building material for bridges.

This agenda item was tabled for further review. Perhaps because nobody was present from Howe to answer any of the Commission’s questions.

The final agenda item was January 2024 Tax Abatements.

The Commission approved these abatements unanimously.

After the agenda was complete, Commissioner Williams mentioned that an elderly couple visited the Commission Office and pointed out that the county needed to install a handrail by their office. Someone said that Veregy was supposed to have installed handrails over there as part of their $5 million renovation project and everyone had a good laugh about the chances that Veregy would ever finish that part of the job.

And that was that.