Aldermen Vote To Purchase New Police Radios

Aldermen Vote To Purchase New Police Radios

By David Howell

Editor

WATER VALLEY – City aldermen voted unanimously to spend $36,638 that has accumulated in a special state fund to purchase new police radios before the end of the month after learning they would lose the money otherwise. The money accumulated from an assessment tacked on to each ticket written by Water Valley police and was earmarked for radio upgrades.

“We have to use it to lose it,” Mayor Larry Hart explained at the June meeting last Tuesday. Hart was referring to what has been dubbed the Great Scrape of 2016 after the Legislature opted to swipe numerous special accounts where money accumulated from special fees for specific uses in an effort to balance the budget at the close of the 2016 Regular Session in April.  

“The legislation was to sweep the money out of these accounts into the state’s general fund,” Hart told aldermen before the expenditure was approved to fund the purchase of 10 handheld radios and six mobile radios that will be installed in the police cars along with a control station. The radios will operate on the Mississippi Wireless Integrated Network (MS-WIN), which will allow the Water Valley Police Department to communicate with all fire departments, ambulance crews and law enforcement agencies in the county. 

Aldermen voted in February to purchase similar radios for the Water Valley Fire Department, which also utilize MS-WIN, the statewide radio trunking system that uses a network of towers across Mississippi. The police department currently uses a Motorola digital radio system, MOTOTRBO, and will be the final agency in the county to make the change. 

Other business discussed at the meeting included:

• Entered the state contract price for asphalt at $69 per ton into the board minutes in preparation for road paving this summer. A bid from Tri-Lake Asphalt in Oxford for $36 per ton for hauling and laying asphalt was also accepted. A second bid from J.C. Cheek for milling old asphalt in the amount of 95 cents per square yard was also approved.

“What roads are we going to pave?” Ward 2 Alderman Fred White asked.

“We will get this in the record where we can determine the cost. That is going to run it a little over $100 a ton to buy it, haul it and lay it, so we won’t do a lot,” Hart explained.

• Approved the minutes from the May meetings.

• Approved the Municipal Compliance Questionnaire from the State Auditor’s office, an annual task. 

• Approved a request from Board Attorney John Crow to attend the state’s municipal convention.

• Approved a resolution authorizing the municipality to apply for a Small Municipal Grant. The mayor explained the city applied for the grant from the Mississippi Development Authority last year and was not approved.  The grant funds sidewalk rehabilitation. 

“We will be applying for it again, it doesn’t mean we will get approved,” Hart explained.