The Oktibbeha County Emergency Management Agency hopes to add to its dispatch communication equipment to increase the productivity of its remote work, Director Kristen Campanella told the board of supervisors at a special-call budget meeting Thursday morning.
The $60,000 purchase might be fully reimbursable through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, since improving telework capabilities is one of the initiatives it is meant to help during the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, Campanella said.
EMA seeks improvements to its disaster response system every year, and a new “fully standalone communications console” would occupy a separate space in the EMA offices and therefore maintain social distancing among staff, Campanella said.
She would prefer a reimbursement but would like to order the equipment regardless, she said, and County Administrator Emily Garrard said it would be non-refundable if reimbursement turned out not to be an option.
The county has spent about $100,000 in the past four months that could be reimbursed through the CARES Act, Campanella said. The pandemic has been an additional responsibility for EMA this year, since the agency has also responded to severe weather and the risk of the Oktibbeha County Lake Dam breaching.
EMA’s request for a funding boost is one of several the county has to consider when creating its Fiscal Year 2021. The board of supervisors is also considering a request from the county’s juvenile justice system.
In March, Youth Court Judge Quarles asked the supervisors to add $10,000 to the youth court budget with the possibility of receiving $6,000 back by the end of 2020. The Mississippi Supreme Court chose Oktibbeha County to participate in a pilot program that would provide legal representation for parents whose children are in the custody of Child Protective Services.
The supervisors agreed to take Quarles’ request under advisement and revisit the discussion at a later meeting, and they decided Thursday to add the topic to the Aug. 17 meeting agenda.
The board allocated $117,600 to the youth court in the Fiscal Year 2020 budget that passed in September, but the court had already gone over budget by March for sending children to juvenile detention for gun-related crimes, Quarles told the board.
Garrard said Thursday that the youth court budget does not prevent juveniles from getting in trouble, since the funds cover representation and detention after the fact.
“I think anything we can do to prevent juveniles from getting into additional trouble is going to cost us more taxpayer dollars,” District 5 Supervisor Joe Williams said.
The board will hold another budget meeting Aug. 13 with more definite estimates for each county department. The budget will be approved in September, and FY 2021 starts Oct. 1.
Tess Vrbin was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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