Dale County Commission talks maintenance, money

Whether hiring another maintenance employee could save money being spent outsourcing was a question at the Dale County Commission work session April 9.

The answer, in a word, is “no,” according to Dale County Commission Chairman Mark Blankenship.

“There has been some question about whether we are contracting out too much,” Blankenship said. “There have been some questions that maybe we weren’t doing all we could do with the people that we have.”

Blankenship said he researched maintenance department costs going back to the year 2013 and presented the information to the commissioners.

In 2013 there were five employees in the county maintenance department. Because of retirements, currently there are three, Blankenship said.

“At one time our (maintenance) budget was $657,456,” he said. “This year’s budget is $522,000.

“That decrease is largely because of the previous renovation of the courthouse which was money being paid out of the General Fund, he explained. “Now we are paying the cost of the courthouse out of the Capital Funds but with that being said, note that there has been about 12 percent pay raises since 2013, in addition to other cost increases so that the budget is still a very, very good budget.”

Blankenship said that he had looked at every invoice that was paid out of the maintenance department’s budget for electrical and plumbing. “The only thing that I excluded is heating and cooling because we certainly do not have anybody (on staff) with a license to do that,” Blankenship said. “And there is no entity around here that does in-house heating and cooling.”

Blankenship said that county financed contracted work was $36,882 in 2013. It was $25,474 in 2018 which included material, parts and about 60 percent of that amount is labor.

Blankenship said that in 2013, the contractors used for maintenance work were Sanders Plumbing and Electric, Ozark Plumbing, Mike Tyre, Robert Edmondson Electric, Roto Rooter and Will B. Dunn.

In 2018 contractors used for maintenance worker were Sanders Plumbing and Electrical, Media Electrical and Plumbing and Mike Tyre.

Blankenship said that he has reviewed applications received in the event that the county opts to hire another maintenance person. “Based on the applicants I have reviewed, a new maintenance employee would cost us roughly $58,672.

Blankenship said the contracted maintenance department cost for 2018 was $25,474. “If you take 60 percent of all we are contracting out because that is essentially the labor cost, that’s only $15,282.”

Blankenship told the commission that he is also hesitant to hire another maintenance department person because of the rising cost of housing juvenile offenders arrested in Dale County. The county incurs the housing cost of all juvenile offenders arrested in the county, regardless of where they are from.

Another financial concern is the cost of funding school resource officers, Blankenship said. “We are currently funding four at roughly $55,684 each year but have been asked by the Dale County Schools to increase that funding to five for the next budget year.  

“Dale County cannot continue to fund these officers from our limited general fund budget without additional funding,” he said, adding that he has asked State Rep. Steve Clouse for legislative support in funding the SROs.

After the commission meeting Blankenship said that he has discussed the matter with DCS Superintendent Ben Baker. “We are all asking for the new (state) education budget to address additional funding for these officers,” Blankenship said. “We don’t want school leadership to be in the position of picking between providing technology for our children or paying for resource officers.  We are all in agreement and are requesting that state legislators consider making a line item in the education budget for school resource officers. 

“My concern is our employees are going to suffer because we are funding these other things and we are not going to be able to fund employee raises,” Blankenship said. “That’s the real reason that I am hesitant for us to move forward with this maintenance position until we know exactly how we are going to be dealing with the juvenile issue.”

In other business, the commission announced a special called meeting meeting Thursday, April 18, at 10 a.m. in the county government building to discuss an economic development issue.

The next regular meeting of the Dale County Commission is Tuesday, April 23, at 10 a.m. in the county government building in Ozark. A work session is immediately followed by a voting meeting.

All meetings are open to the public.