Mike Wolanin | The Republic A view of an emergency operations logo at the Bartholomew County Emergency Management Center in Columbus, Ind., Friday, March 11, 2022.
Columbus City Council members signed-off on an additional appropriation to pay for the city’s share of the Bartholomew County Emergency Operations Center.
Councilors during their meeting on Dec. 17 approved an ordinance on second reading to allocate $80,000 from the city’s public safety local-income tax fund for the purpose.
It was technically the third time council members approved the funding. Because of an advertising error in the lead up to the Dec. 3 meeting, members had to finalize the appropriation again, city officials said.
Eric Frey, executive director of administration, said during the first reading on Nov. 19 that in the last two years $700,000 has been budgeted for the center. However, that figure was “not adjusting for the added cost (emergency management services) have incurred with increasing wages,” according to Frey.
Because of this, the council has had to appropriate some additional funding towards the end of the year as of late. Council President Frank Miller, R-District 4, said council approved a similar appropriation of nearly $35,000 last year.
In order to prevent having to do an additional appropriation next year, the city upped what they had budgeted for the center to $800,000 for 2025.
The city and county are each responsible for paying for half of the operations costs of the center, which provides a link of emergency services between citizens and first responders, including county law enforcement, EMS and the area’s 11 local and volunteer fire departments.
