County panel recommends school fire alarms, voting machine contract subject to grant funds

Dec. 22—The Cumberland County Commission's Financial Management and Purchasing Committee earlier this month approved bids from various county departments or recommended action to appropriate committees and/or the full commission.

Several projects require bids, ranging from fire alarm system upgrades at two schools, video surveillance upgrade at the jail and a voting machine contract.

In the case of voting machine upgrade, the committee accepted the recommendation of Administrator of Elections Jill Davis to accept the contract proposal from MicroVote Infinity Voting Machines subject to receipt of a state grant.

That funding is needed to bring the county into compliance with a law passed by the Tennessee General Assembly requiring all counties to have a paper-based voting system. MicroVote meets that requirement.

"We have been with this company since 2006 and have built a great relationship," Davis wrote in a letter to the committee. "MicroVote is known for customer service and they serve Cumberland County well."

Davis' recommendation comes after the election commission attended a vendor fair in Nashville and determined MicroVote was the best voting system for the county, "easy to use and 100% accuracy."

The installation of fire alarms for county schools was an item deferred from the October meeting and after reviewing for installation of alarms for four schools from Roberts Electric Co. of McMinnville and Fleenor Security Systems of Knoxville, the Roberts proposal was accepted, with a catch.

Funding for the alarm system upgrade for Pine View Elementary at a cost of $17,800, and Phoenix School at $9,820 is already in place and the bids approved.

The price tag of $297,000 for Cumberland County High School and $245,000 for North Cumberland Elementary is being deferred to a later date for funding.

Two bids were reviewed for heating and air conditioning upgrades for county schools, and the price tag of $2.4 million in a bid from Stone Service Corp. was recommended.

The other bidder was CHC Mechanical Contractors Inc. of Cookeville.

The committee approved on recommendation of the school board a contract with Pro Cleaning of Crossville in the amount of $1,291 for twice-a-week service at Pleasant Hill Elementary School.

Approved was the bid of $46,200 from Flynn Sign Co. for digital signage for the Community Complex.

That includes installation and the bid approval was based on the recommendation of Complex Manager Don Moody. He based his recommendation on past service and maintenance on other projects with Flynn Sign.

Final agenda item action was approval of a video surveillance system for the jail at the Justice Center. Montgomery Technology Systems, a regional company, will install viewing stations, video cameras to replace existing cameras, software and will conduct training.

Because the bid came in higher than appropriated funding, Finance Director Nathan Brock told the committee Sheriff Casey Cox would make up the difference, using funds from the Tennessee Department of Transportation contract with the county.

In that contract, county inmates do litter pickup along state highways and I-40.

In making the motion to approve the bid, Commissioner John Patterson noted that the upgrade could save on overtime costs accrued when the present system fails and requires more personnel to monitor the jail.

Final action of the committee was a late item added to meet scheduling in time for the December meeting of the full commission and involves roofing issues at the courthouse.

County Mayor Allen Foster recommended the committee approve the proposal from Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates of Indianapolis, IN, for this phase of roof work at a cost of $39,500. The recommendation then went to the Buildings and Grounds Committee for review and was approved earlier this week by the County Commission.\

Michael Moser may be reached at mmoser@crossville-chronicle.com