Putnam County officials presented a series of requests for new personnel and infrastructure funding during Thursday’s budget committee meeting.
County Mayor Randy Porter said the county is managing a five-year capital projects plan designed to address large, non-recurring purchases through cash payments rather than debt. Porter said the strategy idenitfies needs like roof replacements and mechanical system upgrades before they fail.
“The one thing I don’t like is emergencies,” Porter said. “I dealt with those for a lot of years, I try to plan for these things, now there is going to be times that stuff’s going to pop up that and it’s the reason that we have the capital projects budget is, you know, if it does, we can try to cover those but we try to hit these big ticket items before they become an emergency.”
Porter said the most significant upcoming infrastructure expense is a $2.7 million replacement of the HVAC system at the Justice Center, which serves the court system and the Sheriff’s Department. He said the project will be split across two fiscal years, with $1.7 million allocated for the current cycle to replace a system that has been in operation since 1994.
“It’s got to the point, we have a maintenance contract with Trane to cover a lot of this, but they’re saying they won’t do a maintenance contract on it anymore and if they do, it’s going to be ridiculously high, so it’s it’s time that we replace a lot of that,” Porter said. “We always are repairing something, whether it be a boiler or something to do with it so it’s a constant.”
The committee also heard from Highway Supervisor Randy Jones, who requested $1 million in new funding specifically for asphalt. Jones said that while the department is primarily funded through the state gas tax, inflation has significantly reduced the number of miles the county can afford to pave each year.
“The inflation has caught up with us,” Jones said. “We basically the county funds us with basically our payroll and insurance. That’s the money we get, that’s pretty much what it takes to pay our insurance and our payroll and then our gas tax is usually what we work off of.”
Jones said the department currently maintains 700 miles of road and can pave approximately 13 miles for every $1 million spent if county crews perform the labor themselves. He said the cost of asphalt is currently about $70 per ton when laid by the county, compared to roughly $130 per ton if contracted to an outside company.
“I went to a little orientation one time and this guy, he was not with a paving crew or a selling any kind of product products, he said if you weren’t doing a 40 percent of your roads every year, you are getting behind,” Jones said. “Some money designated to the Highway Department for asphalt would be greatly appreciated.”
Staffing needs were also a primary focus, with County Clerk Wayne Nabors and Property Assessor Steve Pierce requesting additional positions. Nabors said his office completed over 160,000 transactions last year and requested a new part-time staff member to maintain productivity.
“I actually immediately lose an employee for the year in productivity versus 276 available vacation days,” Nabors said. “The County Clerk’s office as well as the other offices are open approximately 247 days a year. This is the busiest office in the county without any doubt.”
Pierce said his office needs to convert a part-time position into a full-time administrative assistant to handle the volume of inquiries resulting from property growth. Pierce said the county has added approximately 2,900 parcels since 2021, which has increased the workload for field appraisers who are currently diverted to answer phones and assist walk-in residents.
Pierce said his office has been overwhelmed with calls about the most recent property reappraisals.
“We just need somebody in there consistently that we can train and they can answer the questions, people that walk in and answer the phones and things like that,” Pierce said. “Most of the things we’ve answered have been misconceptions.”
Sheriff Eddie Farris said his department is seeking funding for a School Resource Officer at the new Early Learning Academy. Farris said the facility’s specific designation prevents the county from using state SRO grant funds for that position.
Farris said the department is also focusing on combating financial crypto scams targeting local seniors.
“We’re almost having to dedicate one investigator just to financial institutions and banks because of the scams and all the frauds going on,” Farris said. “That’s daily. We all know what that is. We hear about the calls and the scamming and so we’re working on that quite a bit.”
Farris also said his office is emphasizing reducing drug-related crime, which accounts for 85 percent of the local inmate population.
The budget committee is scheduled to meet again on June 22 and June 29 to begin making formal motions on the requests before recommending a final budget to the full commission in July.