Commissioners receive financial update
Montgomery County’s finances are pretty much where they should be at this time of year.
NORRISTOWN >> Montgomery County’s finances are pretty much where they should be at this time of year.
Thursday’s Board of Commissioners’ meeting began with a financial update for the county for the second quarter.
Dean Dortone, chief financial officer for the county, presented the commissioners with a 15-slide update reviewing the 2019 revenue budget performance from Jan. 1 to June 30, as well as a review of the expenditure budget and the 2020 budget process.
“The first six months, at the end of June, we finished off with about 68 percent of our revenues being collected, that’s about $288 million. It’s typical for around this time of the year. Real estate taxes are primarily collected by the end of June and we’ve taken in about 95 percent of the real estate tax revenue, so that’s a good part of what’s here,” explained Dortone. “On the expense side, we expended about 47 percent of the overall budget, which is in line with what we would anticipate.”
Dortone said a version of the 2020 budget can be expected by November.
Additionally, commissioners approved an ordinance presented by Dortone for a regional streetlight program.
The Delaware Valley Regional Streetlight Procurement Program provides municipalities in Bucks, Chester and Montgomery counties joint competitive pricing to complete energy efficient street lighting projects. The financing is $1.2 million and 100 percent of the loan costs would be paid by the municipalities to the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission.
“What is so great about this for the taxpayers and municipalities is that not only do these lights save a huge amount of energy, but because the bulbs last so much longer, they reduce quite a bit of maintenance work that municipality employees have to do literally to change light bulbs. So every municipality that participated in round one of this program, the new program paid for itself within 8-12 years depending on how big the municipality was and how many lights there were. These programs are a win-win all the way around,” commissioners’ Chairwoman Valerie Arkoosh said about the program.
Resolutions
Commissioners approved six resolutions Thursday beginning with the authorization of the emergency replacement of sump pumps at One Montgomery Plaza. The pumps had to be replaced following a Feb. 13 power outage in which water had gotten into the building’s electrical equipment. The pumps had burned out from overuse after about six inches of water had gotten into the lowest level of the building. The cost of the repair was $29,630.
The second resolution approved by commissioners was the designation of Hatboro Police Department as a member of the Countywide Booking Center Community. The resolution allows Hatboro Police to operate as a booking center where defendants are processed following arrest.
“Montgomery County is very large so for a local police department to go all the way to Eagleville, it can take up a lot of time and manpower and this really allows those smaller police departments to save money and manpower,” said Maureen Calder, first assistant solicitor for Montgomery County.
Commissioners also approved the entrance into a cooperative pricing agreement with the Educational Services Commission of New Jersey to procure competitively priced contracts for goods and services for things such as flooring, carpeting, grounds equipment, office supplies and more.
In addition, commissioners made new appointments and re-appointments to the Montgomery County Workforce Development Board, the Montgomery County Citizen Advisory Committee of the Office of Children and Youth and the Valley Forge Tourism and Convention Board.
Awards of Contract
Nineteen awards of contract were announced at Thursday’s meeting:
• Contract award for Public safety for roofing to Premier Roofing Services LLC in the amount of $152,712.55
• Contract award for the Sheriff for training to Montgomery County Community College in the amount of $32,000
• Contract award for ITS for archiving services to Foveonics Imaging Technologies, Inc. in the amount of $500,000.
• Contract award for ITS for software to CivicPlus in the amount of $40,876.71.
• Contract award for Human Resources for a consultant to Trion Group in the amount of $179,568.
• Contract award for Human Resources for a consultant to Lincoln Financial Group in the amount of $76,000.
• Contract renewal for ITS for a technical consultant to Civica North American Inc. in the amount of $72,512.36.
• Contract renewal for the Planning Commission for appraisal services to multiple providers.
• Contract renewal for copy paper with W.B. Mason Inc. in the amount of $110,000.
• Contract amendment for the Planning Commission with Boles Smyth Associates Inc. in the amount of $277,425.96.
• Contract amendment for the Planning Commission for household hazardous waste collection to MXI Environmental Services LLC in the amount of $87,379.97.
• Contract award for Assets & Infrastructure for construction to Loftus Construction Co., Inc. in the amount of $960,000.
• Contract award for Assets & Infrastructure for engineering to Gannett Fleming Inc. in the amount of $239,906.21.
• Contract award for Assets & Infrastructure for vehicles to New Holland Auto Group in the amount of $163,139.
• One award of contract, 44 contract renewals, 17 amendments and one rate adjustment for Health and Human Services.
• Award of contract for Southeastern PA Regional Task Force for equipment to Television Equipment Associates Inc. in the amount of $77,422.
• Contract award for the Southeastern PA Regional Task Force for vehicle upgrades to ESI Equipment in the amount of $57,000.
• Contract award for Southeastern PA Regional Task Force for trauma kits to Griffin Logistics LLC in the amount of $56,363.
• Contract award for Southeastern PA Regional Task Force for training to WMDTech LLC in the amount of $66,390.10