When your car is not only your mode of transportation but also your office, a breakdown means a lot more.
That’s why deputies in the Caroline County Sheriff’s Office, as well as fire and rescue workers and citizens throughout Caroline, can draw a breath of relief at the five-year capital improvements plan passed by the Board of Supervisors this April.
After last year’s meager capital improvements budget of $187,000, all of which went toward upgrading courthouse security equipment, this year’s CIP spreads $1.45 million out among several departments to meet a range of urgent needs.
To the Sheriff’s Office goes almost $328,000 for the purchase of 9 or 10 patrol vehicles and associated equipment including lights, sirens, and radio consoles—aid that CCSO law enforcement planner Ted Lambert said “takes a lot of pressure off.”
With an average age of 4.7 years, patrol vehicles have been kept much longer than the recommended three years, causing a spike in maintenance expenses that over time is often not cost efficient.
“When your option is put the money into the [cars] to keep them going or not have anything,” he said, “you have to put the money into them.”
Tight budgets for police equipment—the Sheriff’s Office hasn’t received CIP funds since fiscal year 2012—have also led to the dwindling of the CCSO’s reserve pool of vehicles, which the department can tap into when a car breaks down or is beyond reasonable repair. At times, that reserve has shrunk to only one spare.
“We can have all the deputies in the world, but if we can’t get them from here to you, we’re no good to you,” Lambert said.
The biggest slice of CIP funding goes to county Fire and Rescue, which, like the Sheriff’s Office, has received no equipment or infrastructure funds under the CIP since FY 2012, despite a station in such bad repair that firefighters were barred from its second floor and a fleet that shares an average age with Caroline High School’s current graduating class.
Overall, Fire and Rescue will receive $695,000 for equipment—most notably, $450,000 to purchase a new engine to replace the Port Royal Volunteer Fire Department’s vehicle. At 32 years old, this engine has served the community for more than twice the recommended replacement age of 15 years. Caroline Fire-Rescue Chief Jason Loftus said that he hopes to have the new vehicle ordered within 6 months and in the hands of PRVFD within a year and a half.
First-response engines at the Frog Level and Upper Caroline fire departments are also well beyond the recommended 15 years, both clocking in at age 23, but aren’t yet slated for replacement. If all goes as planned, Frog Level’s vehicle will be replaced next year and Upper Caroline’s in FY 2019.
A second chunk of CIP funds will go toward the purchase of one new ambulance, at a cost of $175,000, to replace the oldest vehicle in the fleet.
Other funds for Fire and Rescue listed in the CIP, such as $70,000 in grant money for extrication equipment, are “not new money,” said Loftus, but projects carried over from the previous year.
These carryover projects include $200,000 in badly needed repairs to the Bowling Green and Ladysmith stations that will make Ladysmith’s second story usable and fix critical issues in Bowling Green’s garage apron and parking lot. The Board of Supervisors in December unanimously allocated funds for these projects to allow Ladysmith Fire to put its plans out to bid, with station chief Steve Melson telling the Board that because of a lack of CIP funds, “now it’s all coming to a head.”
Loftus told the Progress May 5 that the Ladysmith plans are still with an architect but should go out to bid within three weeks. Bowling Green’s plans still must go before the supervisors for approval before the project can move forward.
Other capital improvements slated for next year in the county include $25,000 for the development of up to four new wells west of Interstate 95 and $135,000 for a solid waste truck. Although the wells are considered a capital improvement, they are funded through the utilities budget.
The additional wells are needed, said Interim Director of Public Utilities Joey Schiebel, because “as the county continues to grow, we’re going to have to have additional water capacity.”
“We have to stay ahead of the growth,” he said, noting that when businesses express an interest in moving to Caroline, the county benefits from already having a ready water supply.
Finally, $70,200 will go to the schools for the construction of a fence around the Lewis and Clark Elementary School playground. Schools Supervisor of Construction and Maintenance Geoffrey Honan said that the fence will “keep [students] from getting too far afield” while outside.
In the absence of capital improvements funding over the past few years, several departments have turned to grants or found other ways to pinch pennies to meet their needs.
Fire and Rescue relies heavily on such methods, as does the CCSO, which over the past decade has managed to scrape together almost $1.5 million in grant funds, most of which has not required a county match.
“That’s a lot of money that’s being used for equipment that the taxpayer hasn’t had to pay for,” said Lambert.
Still, for several years, making ends meet has been a challenge.
“Fortunately,” he said, “we’re seeing some light down the tunnel.”