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Cass County commissioners approve CDL training, excavator purchase and shared dispatch agreement
Summary
The Cass County Commission on June 24 approved three resolutions: a CDL training agreement for the Road and Bridge Department, purchase of a John Deere excavator to speed ditching work, and a cooperative dispatch gateway agreement with South Metro Fire Protection District.
The Cass County Commission on June 24 approved three resolutions to bolster road maintenance and 911 dispatch capacity.
The commission voted unanimously to approve Resolution 26-60, authorizing a commercial driver's license (CDL) training agreement for the Cass County Road and Bridge Department. Travis Stafford, speaking for Road and Bridge, said the department "hadn't had the influx of employees" in the past and has been training CDL drivers in-house; because of recent hiring and workload it will send employees "down in Nevada at the training school" to speed certification and increase efficiency.
The commission also approved Resolution 26-61 to buy a John Deere excavator equipped with a rotator and a V-bottom ditching bucket. Stafford said the machine is intended to accelerate ditching and maintenance work across the county, noting the department is responsible for about "1,000 miles of roads, 2,000 miles of ditches" and that the excavator should help the county "get caught up a little bit quicker."
On public-safety infrastructure, the commission approved Resolution 26-62, a cooperative agreement allowing Cass County to use the dispatch alerting gateway run by South Metro Fire Protection District. A representative of the fire district described the system as an automated 911 dispatch capability that lets call takers keep processing calls while dispatching units simultaneously, rather than pausing to coordinate by radio. The representative said, "We saw our call processing times go from 47 seconds to 13 seconds" on a medical call, and commissioners described the arrangement as a more efficient option offered at little or no cost to participating agencies.
Each resolution was moved, seconded and carried by a 3–0 vote. The meeting opened and closed a public-comment period with no speakers, included brief commissioner communications wishing departing employee Jimmy Gillespie well, and adjourned without a closed session.
