Bradford City officials on Tuesday heard from department heads on budget proposals for 2018, including requests for new portable radios and funding a state-of-the-art booking center.
For the police department, Chief Chris Lucco said his proposed budget is about $60,000 more than 2017, with operational expenses increasing by 0.87 percent.
He said that he has control over 20 percent of the budget. The remainder is contractual or fixed expenses, Lucco said, such as salaries and health insurance.
Lucco said the only “true expense” is the state-of-the-art booking center, technology that was installed in May at the police department.
“We have only the secured connection and maintenance fee cost to keep this equipment and that cost is being shared by the two townships and the University (of Pittsburgh at Bradford) reducing our cost to approximately $5,000,” he said.
The center was made possible with a nearly $80,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association.
Lucco said that the center is useful in several ways. For example, inputting a suspect’s fingerprints can reveal information in a matter of minutes, such as who the person is, his or her criminal record and his or her known aliases.
Also at the hearing, city officials heard from fire and ambulance Chief Eric Taylor about big-ticket items, like new radios and new cardiac monitors.
The portable radios are more than 10 years old, he said. “They don’t make that model anymore, and they’re unserviceable,” he said.
The radios are about $1,000 per radio; 21 are needed, Taylor said. If the department works with the city’s police department on a replacement, the price per radio is lowered to just over $900, Taylor said.
Meanwhile, four cardiac monitors are also more than 10 years old, and Taylor recommended replacement. All told, the proposed cost would be $133,299.40, according to the chief.
Other fire department expenses include protective clothing to be around $15,000 and around $4,000 for supplies. Overtime for emergencies also is proposed at just over $10,000.
Both the fire and ambulance proposed budgets total more than $1,878,600.
Next up was Jeff Andrews, who heads the property maintenance department. He requested money to help board-up the eyesore structures in the city.
He said he wants to see the worst homes secured to prevent young people from getting inside.
“We know there are dangers,” Andrews said.
That item would fall under a contractual line item, totaling $2,500. All things considered, the proposed department budget is $184,213.
Rounding out the hearings was Chip Comilla, director of the city Department of Public Works and Parks Facilities.
He said he is looking to replace a dump truck, possibly next year, with liquid fuels money.
Taxpayers won’t be impacted, Comilla said. The cost of the vehicle would be $33,000.
Overall, the departments Comilla oversees total $1,286,257.
“The budget is a work in progress,” Mayor Tom Riel said. “It’s just a compilation of the first draft.”
The city’s 2018 budget will be introduced during a meeting in December, he said.
