Commissioners approve $210,000 in radio upgrades

       Daviess County Sheriff-Elect Gary Allison presented a plan to improve police radio coverage at Tuesday’s meeting of the Daviess County Commissioners.

Allison told the Commissioners that radio coverage was especially bad for hand-held radios in the far north and far eastern areas of the County.   The Commissioners approved Allison’s proposal to put radio repeaters on Washington’s water tower, a Rural Water tower at Painted Hills, and the new Highway Department tower to be built near Alfordsville.  The Commissioners also approved Allison’s request to upgrade hand-held radios and 20-year-old radios in some Sheriff’s cars.  The total costs will be around $210,000.

 In other business, the Commissioners accepted the low bid of $246,931 from Hudson’s Office Solutions to provide furniture for the new Government Center, and they approved a quote for a new 4×4 crew cab truck for the Highway Department.  The low quote from Washington Chrysler came in at $30,451.  A quote from Ueblehor &Sons in Jasper was about $2,200 higher.  An expected quote from Bill Dobson Ford was not received by Tuesday morning’s deadline.

  County Highway Superintendent Phil Cornelius reported the 15th Street Bridge project in Washington running about a week ahead of schedule, if all goes well.  Most of the paving on Hazel Street and 15th Street, south of the bridge is nearing completion.   Cornelius also received permission to move forward with planning on Phases 4 and 5 of the Odon-Cannelburg Road project.

Also, the Commissioners approved a request from Sheriff-elect Allison to establish a 911 Committee to deal a proposed combined county emergency dispatch issues.