Published: July 16, 2008 01:40 am      

Laptops for HCSD cars pondered

County Commissioners worried about associated costs

The Henderson County Sheriff’s Department will have to wait awhile before getting approval to purchase laptop computers for patrol vehicles.

The Henderson County Commissioners Court took no action Tuesday on a bid for 21 computers, balking at a $14,868 annual fee for wireless service and a $5,670 annual maintenance agreement. The cost of the laptops and the additional fees would be covered this year by a $97,598 grant.

“Our grant will cover everything we need this year,” county purchasing director Sherrie Carmichael said.

In October, the county received a $274,043 grant package from the Governor’s Division of Emergency Management through the Homeland Security Grant Program. In addition to the funds for the laptops, the county received $130,000 for a portable communication light tower, $40,000 for communications equipment and over $6,400 for medical first aid responder supplies.

Henderson County Sheriff’s Department Asst. Chief Deputy Tony Allison said at the time the department would mount the computers in its patrol cars.

“It will make the officers much more efficient and make our response time a lot better,” Allison said.

Allison said the laptops would enable deputies to file reports in the field rather than return to the sheriff’s office in Athens or the substations in Chandler and Seven Points.

Henderson County Judge David Holstein said the matter of the laptops should be taken to the Information Technology Committee to study the effects and cost of adding the additional computers.

“There are some issues that need to be addressed,” Holstein said.

Pct. 2 Commissioner Wade McKinney, who serves on the IT Committee, agreed.

“Given that there are nearly $21,000 in annual maintenance costs after its set up, there are quite a few things that need to be discussed before I’m ready to move on it,” McKinney said.

Pct. 4 Commissioner Jerry West said he is opposed to purchasing laptops that cost about $1,500 each.

Josh Brock of the IT department said the sheriff’s department picked the laptops because they were resistant to the intense Texas heat, dust and other conditions usually damaging to computers.

“The conditions aren’t different for a sheriff’s department vehicle than in a private vehicle,” West said.

“The difference is, these will seldom be removed from the vehicle,” Carmichael said.

Holstein said commissioners voted last year to apply for the grant, but beyond that, nothing has been approved.

“The court approved that we enter the grant application process. The grant application process was completed. Now we’re doing the economics on what it’s going to cost,” Holstein said.

“Approving this is jumping the gun,” McKinney said, “because we haven’t been able to do due diligence.”

In other action commissioners:

• approved a request from the Family Peace Project for the use of inmate labor;

• approved an interlocal agreement with the city of Berryville for animal control assistance;

• approved allocating the unused portion of capital credits from electric cooperatives within Henderson County for use by the county; and

• approved payment of bills in the amount of $405,668.