Three requests for ARPA funds approved by board

The Montgomery County Sheriffs Office, emergency management agency, and auditor’s office are receiving a boost from the county’s leftover American Rescue Plan Act funds.
At the regular supervisors meeting April 4, the supervisors heard requests for items from the three entities. Sheriff Jon Spunagule spoke to the supervisors first, seeking $28,000 for new taser guns.
“Our taser contract is coming up in June. We’ve got tasers that are going out. I’m requesting the purchase of nine new tasers that will outfit all of our deputies. The total for the tasers is $27,057, and includes nine handles. Each gun will come with two training cartidges and a duty cartridge,” Spunaugle said. “My request for $28,000 will allow us to purchase 18 extra cartridges, so everyone will have two extras. They don’t expire so it’s something we won’t have to buy. The cartridges are only single use,” commented Spunaugle.
The department has been carrying tasers for the past 10 years, and they are marked for updating every five years. Also, there may be some trade-in value for the existing tasers.
“I don’t have a figure yet because I don’t know how many of ours are not any good. I know for sure that two are inoperable, so the trade-in value will be determined on how many are still good, and that the company will actually take,” commented Spunaugle.
Supervisor Donna Robinson asked if the sheriff’s office would be better off not doing a trade-in. Spunaugle said they were still considering the option.
“We’ve talked about keeping a couple back. We did that with the first set of tasers we had. We kept two and did not trade them in. However, we’ve left them for five years, and when we went to use one, both of them turned out to have been corrupted,” Spunaugle said.
Spunagule added tasers were very important for the deputies and were one of their most valuable tools, and the new set were rechargeable, replacing the current battery-operated tasers and saving an expense to the county on batteries.
The supervisors approved the request from the sheriff’s office for nine new tasers.
Montgomery County EMA coordinator Brian Hamman spoke before the supervisors next. Hamman was seeking  $25,000 to reprogram and re-flash the county’s radios in the field. Hamman said the expense was not unexpected.
“This was something we knew right away was going to happen, because we were one of the first ones to go live under the new emergency system. The big push to get them reprogrammed now is because under Gov. Kim Reynolds’ new school safety initiatives, all the schools have radios in their facilities, or will shortly,” Hamman explained. “This will get all of their talk groups, all of their channels, and all of our radios across the county in synch. If something happens, we’ll have the frequencies and the talk groups if we need to use them. We’ll be able to communicate back and forth with the school. Each building will have a radio.”
While Hamman said he would have liked to wait another year for reprogramming and re-flashing, due to the school initiative, it couldn’t wait. Also, Hamman said the radios would not require any new hardware.
Hamman’s request for reprogramming and re-flashing the county’s radios was also approved as-presented.
The final request was from County Auditor Jill Ozuna, seeking $54,347 for nine Unisyn VoterScans, to replace the existing scanning systems which are 10 years old and outdated.
“There were problems with them jamming last year. They’re also slow, and bulky, making them difficult to move. The new ones are collapsible, and the best feature is that they have almost eliminated any ability for ballots to jam. The screens are also bigger, and the results are rapid. If there’s a problem with a ballot, it spits it right back out, and if there’s no problems, it will accept it immediately and tells the operator it was accepted successfully. The lock box is also much more accessible,” stated Ozuna.
Ozuna said the costs included servicing, training, software, and the first year of warranty maintenance. If ordered, the machines would be delivered in August or September, the staff would be trained, and they would be ready for use in the November city and school elections.
“With our machines being more than 10 years old, and with the rapidly changing technology, it’s recommended not to keep voting machines more than eight years, if possible. Our current machines have definitely met that lifespan,” said Ozuna.
The supervisors approved Ozuna’s request for voting machines as presented.
One project remaining to be approved through the ARPA committee was a request from maintenance supervisor Dan Wright for new windows to the courthouse attic. Ozuna said she had spoken with Wright and he was still seeking window quotes.
Lastly, the supervisors approved moving the A

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P.O. Box 377
Red Oak, IA 51566
Phone: 712-623-2566 Fax: 712-623-2568

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