The Blaine County Commission has decided to again go out for bids on an expansion of the Longdale Fire Department.
The construction was previously advertised for bids, but the numbers came in prohibitively high, as the work is being funded through a grant from NODA, the Northern Oklahoma Development Authority.
The new parameters of the construction eliminate wiring the addition for electricity but include the building, concrete work and overhead doors. The bid particulars are detailed in a legal notice in the classified section of this edition of the paper.
Other items out to bid include 12 months of ballot printing; six months of consumables such as culvert pipe, road rock and grader blades; and a powered ambulance cot loading system for Canton-Longdale EMS.
The request for bids was approved during the regular meeting on May 11.
Also discussed was the use of the newly implemented P-card system. This is essentially a debit card various departments and specific employees may use for authorized purchases such as travel, classes and training. The cards have built in limits and are tied to specific accounts.
Blaine County Sheriff Travis Daugherty asked about changing the policy on card usage. He detailed a situation where Blaine County had been offered the chance to purchase SUVs from the Bureau of Indian Affairs at $8,000 each but could not proceed because use of the card for vehicle purchase is not part of the current policy. The state auditor’s office told the sheriff if it were part of the policy, the purchase would have been appropriate.
“With the wear, tear and accidents we put on these vehicles, it would have been great to get these low mileage Tahoes at this price,” he told the commissioners.
The commissioners, though, were not convinced.
“We are all scared of the Pcards right now,” said Brandon Schultz. The cards are newly implemented and the treasurer’s office is still working out the payment system.
Both Daryll Hicks and Tracy Matli agreed. Matli said “We’re too new to the process. We’re not ready to change it.”
Daugherty agreed that waiting might be prudent, but he asked the commissioners to consider looking at it again at a later date.
Another item from the sheriff’s office was the purchase of a body-scanner security system for the jail. Although it has not been a big problem in Blaine County, several other jails have had issues with inmates smuggling illicit items into the facility inside their bodies. Those contraband items include handcuff keys, standard keys and in one instance, backed up by a body scan printout, a hand-held weight.
The cost of the scanner at the state contract price is $172,625, payable in yearly installments of about $30,000.
The sheriff said he isn’t asking the county to foot the entire bill. “Just meet me somewhere,” he said. The scanner in question is preferred by Logan, Custer and Payne counties, but a similar system in use at Oklahoma County Jail is essentially the same price on the state contract.
The commissioners tabled the matter, meaning they would come back to it on a later agenda.
The board agreed to several other matters, including graphics for a Longdale fire truck for $1561; replacing 10year-old bunker gear at Longdale at a cost of $3,880; and a fire bed, nozzle and graphics on a Longdale engine at a cost of $10,460.
Each fire department is allocated a portion of the half-cent sales tax collected in Blaine County and earmarked for those departments.