BY KEITH LIPPOLDT
klippoldt@gbtribune.com
Barton County 911 Director Dena Popp and Investigator/Office Manager Casey Hubbard addressed the Barton County Commissioners at the Tuesday morning Agenda meeting with details of the Voice Recording System Maintenance contract.
Since 2018, Communications has partnered with the County Attorney’s Office in purchasing a voice logger. According to the meeting’s agenda notes, “the logger is used to create audio recordings from telephones, radios, microphones and other sources.” The information is then stored and may be accessed when and if it is needed.
The cost to renew the contract is $9,553. The 911 office will cover $7,822 and the County Attorney’s office will pay the remaining $1,731. The cost remained the same as last year and will renew Dec. 1, 2024.
“This logger system creates audio recordings from phone calls, radio traffic, basically all sources that come into the 911 center,” Popp said. “This information improves emergency services and aids in criminal prosecutions.
“So basically, what happens is if I get a law enforcement officer that requests a copy of a tape for investigative purposes – meaning they know they are going to be sending it over for prosecution – I will make that tape. I will give the law enforcement agency a CD of the recordings, and then I will go ahead and save it into an organizer that when it gets to Casey’s office for prosecution, it’s already sitting there.”
Popp explained that the system is a time saver in the fact that they don’t have to go back and remake the recording after it’s been requested. If it’s not needed at the time, it stays in the organizer for future use.
Hubbard was also onboard with the contract renewal.
“The voice logger system has been an upgrade over the field system,” he said. “The part that the county attorney pays for is the organizer portion of it, which allows Dena, or 911, to take the files we need for any court purposes. Once it’s put in the organizer, she no longer has to deal with them and I can take them and save them on our end.
“So I think the funding of it, and the extension of the maintenance contract is appropriate.”
Commissioner Donna Zimmerman made a motion to renew the contract and it was seconded by Commissioner Shawn Hutchinson. The motion carried 5-0.
In other action;
• The commissioners designated voting representatives for the upcoming Kansas Association of Counties (KAC) meeting, scheduled for Dec. 3-5 in Wichita. Commission Chair Barb Esfeld was nominated as the voting delegate. Commissioner Tricia Schlessiger was named first alternate and Duane Reif as second alternate.
Hutchinson made the motion to accept these appointments and it was seconded by Zimmerman. The motion passed 5-0.
• Barton County Clerk Bev Scmeidler presented the commissioners a listing of Added/Abated/Escaped/Refund Taxes. These are used to correct assessments and may be requested by the County Appraiser or County Clerk. The total dollars of the batch was not mentioned.
“We have Batch 15 and it was 21 records – 21 of them were personal property and one was a truck,” Schmeidler said. “And in full transparency, I did push these through the other day so that I could continue on with the abstract because there’s no change in taxes.”
Hutchinson made the motion to approve Schmeidler’s report and Schlessiger seconded. The motion passed 5-0.
In Ending Business;
• Esfeld announced the county auction will be held at 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 24 at the Barton County Sheriff’s Office range and training facility at 396 NE 30 Road in Great Bend. Details of the auction may be seen at www.bbauctionks.com.
