The Reporter newspaper, Camdenton Missouri

The Reporter covers Miller, Morgan and Camden County in Central Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks and is published once per week on Wednesdays.

Published March 25, 2015

City to update 911 system

By Jeff Thompson
OSAGE BEACH - The city will soon be updating its 911 system as well as adding another ambulance to its vehicle fleet thanks to requests from the police chief and approval by the Board of Aldermen.

The board approved Police Chief Todd Davis’s requests last Thursday afternoon, meeting at 4:30 p.m. instead of its usual 6:30 p.m.

The city will be riding piggyback on the shoulders of the Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) in order to update its 911 system at a favorable price.

Davis made the request to sign an “interlocal contract for cooperative purchasing” with H-GAC that would allow the city to purchase items through the Texas-based council with its existing government contracts.

“The Osage Beach Police Department’s communication center is anticipating replacing the center’s 911 system this year and H-GAC currently has an active bid that we would like to utilize,” Davis said in a report to the board. “We can only do this if we are a contracted member.”

Davis noted that City Attorney Edward Rucker had reviewed and approved the proposed contract.

In addition, the board approved a second separate request from Davis to purchase a new 2015 AEV TraumaHawk Type III ambulance at a cost of $141,995 although the cost exceeds the budget’s line item.

“We have budgeted $33,025 for 2015 and intend on utilizing a lease-purchase over five years,” Davis stated.

According to Davis, the ambulance purchase had been placed out for bids by the city and while the American Response Vehicles’ (ARV) bid had been the higher of two bids, it meet with the bid specifications as well as providing positive data on crash testing and seat belt testing.

“ARV also had a slightly better warranty on their (vehicle) conversion,” Todd stated, adding that the company has a 120-150 delivery window while the other bidder - Osage Industries, Inc., with a bid of $133,550 - could not delivery before October.

The police chief noted that while there was no deadline associated with accepting the ARV bid, “... the sooner we order the sooner we can take delivery.”

The board also approved a secondary ambulance request from Davis in the form of a five-year lease purchase plan through Central Bank of Lake of the Ozarks.

According to Todd, Central Bank submitted a bid that contained a 2.10 percent interest rate with annual payments of $30,240.52; the first payment would be due June of 2016.

“Central Bank does include a $500 closing fee, however with the lower interest we will still come out approximately $2,900 ahead in the first year of the lease,” Davis stated.

He also pointed out that Central Bank would be willing to accept bi-annual or monthly payments that could lower the interest rate over the term of the lease.

US Bancorp was the other bidder with proposed three- and five-year lease purchase agreements.