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By GARY PINNELL
SEBRING — New employees, road projects, computer upgrades. A million dollars here, two million there. Pretty soon, the sum is $38.3 million, the difference between the Fiscal Year 2005-06 total budget of $114,388,005, and the Fiscal Year 2006-07 total budget of $152,697,345.
Highlands County department heads were asked how they spent the money.
First, said Budget Manager Tim Mechling, 18-20 percent was added to the general fund to cover fixed-cost increases in health insurance, property insurance, fuel and equipment.
Other increases:
Most of that $500,000 went to eight technology projects, said Bob Jamison, the senior director of business services.
“The clerk of courts provides computer services to about 600 users – the majority are county employees, a few are municipal police and law enforcement. We upgraded those services to improve security and data storage capacity, reduce computer
downtime and improve network speed,” Jamison said.
“The major portion of that was spent on GIS conversion, which the county asked us to do for them,” said Raymond McIntyre.
A geographic information system is computerized mapping. Layers of maps are created, like water sources, fire hydrants, streets and landowners.
“That money is still sitting there, waiting for the project to begin,” said Penny Phillipi, housing director.
“Sebring Parkway was a big chunk in that increase,” said Ramon Gavarrete, the county engineer. Phase II of the downtown loop will extend from Highlands Avenue past the high school
He got permission to hire five new employees, but because of a lack of engineers, they haven’t clocked in yet. He’s still looking for an engineer with a traffic background and a Computer Aided Design draftsman.
Two other projects include redesigning the intersection of Hammock Road and Lakewood, to solve turning problems – “It’s very congested today, and it’s just going to get worse,” Gavarrete said – and Sparrow Road, where drivers turn into Lakeshore Mall. “We’ve had a very limited right of way, but with the Heacock Insurance building going in, we’re able to get additional right of way.”
Soon, Gavarrete said, he’ll start engineering the sheriff’s new law enforcement building, a $13 million project.
Some departments made do without a budget increase, or less:
They spent the extra $10,000 on sandblasting, repairing and repainting dumpsters, fuel and contract workers to sort the 13 tons a day of recycled goods that comes in.
County Administrator Carl Cool, Major Mark Schrader of the sheriff’s department, Mary Foy of the Human Services Department, and Jim Polatty of Highlands County Development Services did not return calls before press time.
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