ROSSFORD – City Council took the first step toward finalizing a three-community dispatching and records
management system.
The proposed ALERT system would upgrade dispatching and provide for better management of records.
Rossford is partnering with Walbridge and Lake Township in purchasing the system.
The cost to purchase and implement the system will be $126,500; Rossford’s share will be $59,916, said
councilman Daniel Wagner, who chairs the Public Safety Committee. The annual maintenance and licensing
fee will be $30,324; Rossford share will be $12,897.
City Administrator Ed Ciecka said that the city could withdraw from the arrangement at any time.
Council gave the proposal, which was unanimously approved by the public safety committee, a first reading
Monday.
Ciecka said that Rossford’s legal counsel was drawing up the three-party agreement, and Walbridge and
Lake Township had yet to read it.
In other emergency service action, the council approved spending $92,146 to remount the body of a 2007
ambulance onto a new gas-powered chassis.
The city was looking at replacing the diesel ambulance, which would have cost upwards of $200,000, Wagner
said. The diesel has had multiple problems and is the subject of a class-action lawsuit.
Ford will pay $4,500 toward the cost of the remount, Wagner said.
The ambulance needs work that should be done soon, so he advised the bid awarding the work to Burgess
Ambulance Sales be passed Monday. It passed unanimously.
Council also approved buying salt again through the state purchasing program.
Ciecka said the state is moving on its salt purchases earlier than usual this year because of the toll
the harsh winter has taken.
Public Works Director Tyler Kolb said that Rossford has about 250 tons of salt on hand. The city plans to
buy 1,100 tons, which would give it somewhat more than the 1,200 tons Kolb said he likes to have on hand
to begin the winter.