Posted on Wed. Jul. 18, 2012 - 12:31 am EDT

Fort Wayne will divide a nearly $10 million cost for a new emergency radio system between cash and financing.


The City Council on Tuesday unanimously supported a plan to finance $5.6 million for 1,604 new emergency radios over seven years. The city will ask the council next week to appropriate $4.3 million in unused income tax revenues to pay for its half of the radio system.


The vote comes nearly a month after the council approved the purchase, despite some members’ concerns there wasn’t a set plan for how to pay those expenses at the time.


Valerie Ahr, deputy city controller, said Tuesday the city has since decided to pay cash for its half of the system costs – Allen County is paying for the other half. She said there were concerns about paying cash for the entire purchase because of the strains that would put on the city’s existing cash balances.


Instead, she said Motorola offered a good deal that allows the city to make seven fixed annual payments at 1.61 percent interest to cover the costs. She said there is no upfront financing cost and no penalty for paying the debt early. She called the financing package an “attractive deal.”


The annual costs will be included in the city’s annual general fund operating budget, Ahr said. The project will cost both governments $17 million combined to update the radio system that is used to respond to 911 emergency calls. The radios are to be delivered by the end of the year.

Levee cost updates

City staff updated the council on a project to repair about 1,200 feet of levee along Edgewater Avenue just west of the Tecumseh Street bridge. The council last month approved a $620,000 budget for the work, but the lowest submitted contractor price for the work was $813,051.50.


Mario Trevino, with city transportation engineering, said the largest reason for the high price was that the contractor believed it would take more time to install Scour Stop to the base of the levee than the city estimated. The product is a plastic mesh that goes on top of the clay to help stop erosion. It allows grass to grow but prevents trees from sprouting. This will be the first project to use the product in Fort Wayne.


While the council took no official action on the update, the city said it must go forward with the work. The project must be finished by the end of the year to meet U.S. Army Corps of Engineers requirements.


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