By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
Tuesday, May 12, 2015, 1 a.m. — The Bardstown City Council’s Finance Committee met Monday afternoon for more review of the city’s proposed $47.6 million fiscal year 2015-16 budget.
The loss of a Bardstown Police cruiser Sunday while stopping the driver of a stolen pickup truck means the police department budget will be adding to the request for four new police vehicles.
Mayor John Royalty also told the committee that the department’s officers have been dealing for some time with a well-known reliability issue with their Glock .40-caliber handguns. The department has 12 weapons that are disabled currently, and will likely need to purchase new weapons to replace the defective ones.
CONTRACTOR VS. IN-HOUSE. The finance committee spent considerable time discussing the merits of moving some cable TV system maintenance back in-house rather than contracting it out.
The city’s cable TV system contracts with an outside provider to conduct frequency “sweeps” of the cable system. The sweeps are used to check the cable TV system’s performance, and insures subscribers are getting high quality TV images.
The city currently pay a contractor $100,000 each year to perform this maintenance. Councilmen Bobby Simpson and Fred Hagan both asked if it would be cheaper to move it in-house and eliminate the contract service.
Jeff Mills, the city’s electrical engineer, told the committee there was little cost difference between paying a contractor vs. moving the work in-house. Public Works Director Larry Hamilton said that over a five-year period, there would be cost savings if the work was done by city employees instead of a contractor.
Councilman Roland Williams said he would prefer to give jobs to local people rather than pay an out-of-town contractor to come and do the work.
Royalty said if the analysis supported moving the work in-house, then it would be worth doing so. “We’re trying to find the biggest bang for the taxpayer’s buck,” he said.
Mills noted there would be some capital expenditures necessary to equipment a new employee to conduct the sweep operations.
MOSQUITO SPRAYING EQUIPMENT. The proposed budget also includes funds to buy a truck and equip it to spray for mosquitos in the city.
The state’s Department of Agriculture has performed the spraying operations in the past, but they have become increasingly busy, Royalty said. The spraying operations will reduce the potential for West Nile virus and other mosquito-borne diseases, he said.
The committee took no final action at its meeting Monday. More discussion on the budget is on the agenda for Tuesday’s regular meeting of the Bardstown City Council.
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