By Erin Smith
The Bladen County Board of Commissioners held a preliminary budget meeting on Tuesday evening. This was the first glimpse of the budget requests made several of the county’s agencies. Commissioner Russell Priest was unable to attend the meeting.
Bladen County Manager Greg Martin told the board county staff have not yet received the preliminary budget requests from the Bladen County Board of Education and Bladen Community College.
“As you all well know the school system is not legally required to submit a budget request until May 15th,” said Martin.
He began the evening by reviewing the 2017 audited fund balance with the board. Martin said the unassigned (available) funds are $14,489,089 million. He explained these funds used to be referred to as available but it is now called unassigned. The total fund balance is $24,921,522.
After reviewing the fund balance, Martin discussed the projected budget for this fiscal year.
“We’ve had large capital projects — roofs at DSS and the roof at the Community College were budget this year. We had an item related to litigation that was large,” said Martin.
He said the balance at the end of the fiscal year will require $803,000 coming from fund balance. Martin stressed these are strictly estimates at this time.
Next, Martin reviewed personnel requests and other issues with the board. Requested personnel for the upcoming budget year include:
an Environmental Assistant which is projected to be shared by both Housekeeping and Emergency Services;
The Bladen County Sheriff’s Department has requested three Sheriff’s Deputies, six School Resource Officers, four detention officers, and two telecommunicators;
a shelter attendant was requested for the Animal Control;
a part-time Emergency Planner for Emergency Services;
reclassification of a part-time nutrition coordinator to a full-time position;
a Health Educator I for the Health Department;
DSS has requested a Human Services Evaluator and a Computer Support Technician II, and
Cooperative Extension has requested a part-time office support position.
Total salary for all of the requested positions is projected to be $956,453.
Commissioner Ophelia Munn-Goins asked if the additional School Resource Officers will bring the number of School Resource officers at each school to one per school. Martin replied yes.
Kip McClarey and Martin presented the board with a summary of Jail Operating Costs of the next fiscal year. 
“You all know we anticipated increased costs related to meals, health care and those types of expenses related to caring for the number of individuals that are incarcerated. However, Kip (McClarey) found out there are other operating costs that we really didn’t anticipate to the extent that they appear to be showing up,” said Martin.
McClarey informed the board that with the operation of the new jail, the county now has four new contracts that it has not had in the past. He added there have also been some amendments to existing contracts such as pest control.
The new contracts for the jail include $8,5000 for building management, $29,000 for fire protection, $10,338 for HVAC systems maintenance, and $25,000 for surveillance system for a total of $72,838 in additional costs. Next, he discussed the contractors.
McClarey explained the contractors were selected by Bordeaux when the building was constructed and the warranty on the building will expire in July. The first contract McClarey presented was for HVAC services with Brady Trane of Raleigh. McClarey said they monitor all of the HVAC systems to ensure they are operating properly and notify the county when there is a system failure.
The second contract McClarey discussed is CSI Smart Building System monitoring. He explained this system will post an alarm to the control room in the guard tower and let law enforcement know when a system malfunctions or fails. McClarey said it can also show trends and history of how the building is operating and how equipment is holding up.
The third contract presented was with Montgomery Systems who monitors the jail security system. McClarey explained that jail has automated door locks and this is the system Montgomery System assists in maintaining.
“It is important to the security of this building,” said McClarey of the contract.
The final contract for the Commissioners to mull over is with Williams Fire Protection to monitor the fire alarm system. They monitor the pressure on the heads fo the sprinkler system and if they are activated they will notify the jail staff.
Bladen County Commissioner Charles Ray Peterson asked, “Why do we need someone to monitor it?”
McClarey explained that the building is what is called a “smart building” and the monitoring helps to control costs and monitor the condition of the equipment and how it is performing.
He explained that if an alarm is triggered, whomever is monitoring the panel can see it at the control station. McClarey also said Joey Blackburn, who is helping with maintenance on the building, will receive the same alarm and the company will also receive the alarm.
McClarey also explained that each of the systems are called proprietary systems meaning these companies retain all rights to those systems. He recommended to the board that the county remain with these companies for at least the first year.
There is also a proposal to house misdemeanants in the jail. The county has allotted 40 beds to house inmates from other counties. The costs to those counties will be $40 per day per inmate. This will cover meals and medical care.
There is also a proposal in the preliminary budget to improve the county’s paging equipment to Alpha/Paging for the fire service for $100,000. Captain Jeff Singletary told the board there are times when pagers get blocked sometimes by units responding to calls on the same system. The Alpha/Paging system can help alleviate that, according to Singletary.
The system will also firefighters to get texts on their pagers. Singletary said currently there is an Alpha/Paging channel that covers Bladen County. There was a question regarding the VIPER system and Singletary noted the VIPER system is a voice system.
No votes were taken during Tuesday’s meeting. The Commissioners meet again Tuesday, April 3, 2018, at 6:30 p.m. in the Commissioners Meeting Room at the Bladen County Courthouse.
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