911 consultant contract before council
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MARYVILLE, Mo. — The Maryville City Council on Monday will consider an ordinance that would award a contract for consulting services related to the creation of a consolidated 911 dispatch center, likely to be located in a proposed new Maryville Public Safety police and fire headquarters.
Intermittent discussions about the feasibility of a consolidated 911 operation have taken place between the city and Nodaway County since the mid-1990s. But the idea has languished due to funding and staffing concerns as well as jurisdictional friction between Public Safety and the Nodaway County Sheriff’s Office.
However, with the election of Sheriff Randy Strong in 2016 — a longtime Maryville police detective — tensions between the agencies eased, and serious discussions about a consolidated 911 facility have been moving forward for several months.
According to a staff report by City Manager Greg McDanel, Nodaway County currently has two dispatch centers — one operated by Public Safety and the other by the Sheriff’s Office — that together provide telecommunications services for four law enforcement agencies, 11 rural fire and rescue districts and one countywide ambulance service.
The other two agencies served by the current system include the Northwest Missouri State University Police Department, which operates a third dispatch center on campus, and the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
911 calls made inside the city limits are routed to Public Safety, while rural calls and those originating from other incorporated Nodaway County communities are handled by the Sheriff’s Office.
The last feasibility study conducted with regard to a combined 911 center took place in 2001. In addition, a planning task force subcommittee under the auspices of the Northwest Missouri Regional Council of Government revisited the issue in 2008. Neither effort yielded results.
Late last year, however, after discussions with the County Commission, the City of Maryville issued a request for proposals in an effort to find a consultant that, according to McDanel, would be tasked with providing “insight on the most cost-effective, technically sound, organizationally and politically inclusive approach to consolidating public safety communications.”
Three bids ranging from $20,000 to $38,000 were opened Feb. 14, and municipal staff is recommending the council accept the middle bid of $22,000 from Bellvue, Nebraska-based SCG Consulting Services.
Under the terms of an agreement with the county, Nodaway would provide $10,000 for the consulting services with the city paying the $12,000 difference with revenues from its General Fund and Public Safety budget.
In other business, the council will consider approval of a proposed state block grant agreement that would provide $25,500 in federal funds, supported by a $2,800 local match, for repair of the runway lighting system at Northwest Missouri Regional Airport, which Assistant City Manager Ryan Heiland said has been malfunctioning over the past year and a half.
Heiland said the lighting system, activated via radio by pilots as they approach the runway, sometimes shuts itself off during an aircraft’s final approach or fails to come on altogether.
Over the past year, he said, airport consultant Jviation and an electrical contractor have worked to isolate whatever is causing the malfunction and now believe the culprit is a faulty lighting regulator installed inside a junction box.
The $14,000 repair contract is to be awarded to Strukel Electric of Girard, Kansas. Jviation will be paid a similar amount for consulting and support services.
In other airport matters, the council on Monday is expected to approve a pair of ordinances effectively closing out last year’s facility upgrade, which included reconstruction of most of the runway and a taxiway.
Heiland reported the total cost of the project at $3.6 million, 90 percent of which came from federal transportation improvement grants. The city’s 10-percent match was financed using a low-interest loan administered by the Missouri Department of Transportation.
Remaining issues before the council include:
• A re-written “Taxicabs and Vehicles for Hire” ordinance that will bring city regulations into compliance with state law and allow for the operation of “Transportation Network Companies” like Uber and Lyft.
The reworked ordinance continues a non-refundable $25 background check fee and implements a $25 application fee plus an additional charge of $5 per vehicle. Vehicle-for-hire drivers must also pay a $20 operator’s fee.
• A public hearing related to proposed annexation of Maryville Industrial Park property just east of town owned by the Maryville Industrial Development Corp.
• An ordinance annexing property owned by City of Maryville adjoining newly constructed Horsepower Drive near the Kawasaki Motors manufacturing plant.
• An ordinance annexing property owned by Jason Brown and Roxann Powell along South Depot Street between East Halsey and South Avenue.
• A request from Burny’s Sports Bar to hold the 31st annual World Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade, scheduled for 3:17 p.m. on Saturday, March 17.
• Proposed execution of an agreement with All-Lines Leasing for the lease of cleaning equipment for the Mozingo Lake Recreation Park recreation center. Cost is $5,403 a year for three years plus a one-time $150 documentation charge.
• Flooring/painting and concrete work change orders related to construction of the Mozingo Lake Recreation Park conference center totaling nearly $33,000 in increased project costs. City staff has recommended cutting golf course equipment expenditures, in the form of leased truckster-type vehicles, from $55,000 to $20,000 to cover the one-time expenditure.
• The reappointment of Michelle Drake and the appointment of Robert Phillips and Todd Stagner to three-year terms on the Mozingo Lake Advisory Board. A fourth appointment, reserved to the Northeast Nodaway R-V School District, will be announced later.
• An ordinance executing an amendment to a ground-lease agreement with the Boulders Inn & Suites hotel at Mozingo Lake Recreation Park. The agreement states that the city will retain transient guest tax and sales tax revenues from the project in the form of a comparable fee.
