The Crown Victoria is no longer available as a police cruiser, so the city would have to pay rising maintenance costs to keep the current cruisers or purchase new ones.
Officials in the city’s municipal garage and the police department made the decision to make the Caprice the next generation cruiser for Middletown, said Cindy Strayer, Middletown’s purchasing agent.
“(The Caprice) is rear-wheel drive, has a high ease of serviceability, overall handling and ergonomics is impressive, and dealer support and service is readily available,” she said. “References from departments currently using the Caprice were also considered, as well as the high marks given to the Caprice by the 2012 Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Evaluation Program, which helps to set a standard in the industry.”
The city will purchase the vehicles from McCluskey Chevrolet in Cincinnati, but did not go through a bidding process since the price was below the Ohio Department of Administrative Services Cooperative Purchasing Program bid from Byers Chevrolet in Columbus.
Senior funding contract
Middletown Area Senior Citizen’s Inc. will soon be receiving the property tax money voters agreed to give them this past November.
City Council agreed to be the pass-through agency for the senior organization when it approved to put the 5-year, 1-mill property tax levy on the ballot. Council is considering its contract, and will vote on it later this month.
The levy was asked for by Middletown Area Senior Citizens to help pay down the mortgage of its senior center on Central Avenue.
Middletown voters overwhelmingly approved the levy on Election Day this past November. The levy is projected to raise around $700,000 a year and costs the owner of a $100,000 home $30.63 a year, or $153.15 over five years.
The building was built in 2007 for around $4 million, but the balance of the organization’s mortgage is around $3.6 million. Refinancing was not an option because the value of the building was almost $1 million below the balance of the mortgage.
South Main Street improvements
City Council, or at least five members of the board, will consider later this month to proceed with the South Main Street improvement that includes pavement rehabilitation and adding roughly 45 decorative lights.
Mayor Larry Mulligan and his brother, Councilman Joe Mulligan, own property along South Main Street and recused themselves from the discussion and vote last week.
The repaving project was planned to happen last year but it has seen a few delays. It’s set to move forward this year with R.A. Miller Construction projected as the general contractor. The company had submitted the lowest of four bids, which were received and opened in May 2012.
The project includes pavement rehabilitation, repairs on the concrete sidewalk, curb, an handicap ramps at all intersections, and the addition of decorative street lighting within the historic district from First to Ninth avenues. The lighting, which the American Legion Post 218 on South Main Street objected to last year, will cost property owners a collective $137,000 in assessments. More than 60 percent of the property owners, however, approved the petition by the South Main Historic Neighborhood Association for the decorative lighting.
The property owners who did not repair curbs, gutters and sidewalks will be assessed a collective $140,000 for that work, according to the city.
R.A. Miller’s contract will be for just more than $742,000, which is around $32,600 less than the original bid due to fewer proposed electrical conduits needed.
After an Ohio Public Works grant and the assessments, the city’s share for the project is around $230,400.
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