Emergency dispatch will have a new base of operations, and touch-screen voting machines will have a suitable space for storage, following the city’s sale of the former Southern Printing building to the county Tuesday.

In their regular meeting Tuesday, Warren County supervisors unanimously directed board president Carl Flanders to sign a letter stating the intentions of the county to purchase the building for $230,000 to provide a new space for the E-911 Dispatch Center and house 91 state-allocated voting machines.

The price included an estimated $5,000 cost to the city of having its building crews perform all maintenance and electrical work to outfit the building for charging the machines and providing new equipment with circuitry.

Its immediate fate with the city remained in doubt throughout a 2-hour-long regular session, one in which the agenda was approved without mention of the county offer for the building.

About 15 minutes before the city board voted to go into executive session to discuss action forms pertaining to personnel issues, Flanders arrived in the meeting room and, upon the entrance into closed session, asked the board to consider the issue.

After a approving a hastily constructed motion to consider it, the board emerged from closed session and voted 2-1, agreeing to the county’s offer.

South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman dissented, sticking by his position that the price should be closer to the $389,000 figure that an appraisal had stated.

After the meeting, county administrator John Smith said supervisors waited to request putting the issue on the city board agenda until late in the day Friday to make sure renovation cost figures were verified. That update never came from city buildings and grounds officials, Smith said.

According to the city clerk’s office, requests to appear on the city board agenda must be made 24 hours in advance of a regular scheduled meeting, but that can still vary, depending on whether the item will be acted on or merely discussed.

The two government entities have been in negotiations over the property since November, when it became apparent that reliable climate-controlled storage would be necessary to house the first shipment of machines. They arrived last week and were temporarily stored in the county-owned Old Justice Court building at Farmer and Grove streets.

At the same time, officials with the joint city-county dispatch operation began eying the bottom floor of the 10,000-square-foot building as a replacement for its tight quarters in the basement of the Warren County Courthouse.

Voting machines are expected to be moved into the building’s upper floor for storage in advance of June 6 elections. The county will have to purchase 53 more to maintain a presence of 138 machines at 22 polling stations with six spares, with partial reimbursement for the additional machines is possible through the federal Help America Vote Act.

Warren County will get some help with the purchase, thanks to legislation signed by the governor today.

The county will receive $395,986 as part of the bill that dispersed about $21 million extra for machines in addition to those provided as part of the federal act.

In other business, the board: