BY SARAH STEPHENS
ELMORE/AUTAUGA NEWS
The Elmore County Commission at their last regular meeting in June, appointed Conrad White to the Central Elmore Water and Sewer Authority Board.
In other business:
The Commission approved accepting the Investing in Alabama Counties (IAC) recommendation to reject all bids for digitization of records, personal protective equipment, and COID-19 testing.
COO Richie Beyer said new bids will be let at a later time, when information is updated.
A Joint Project with Commission, City of Wetumpka, ALDOT, and Board of Education was approved to install a traffic signal and right turn lane at the intersection of Chapel Road and Alabama Hwy 14.
“Over a year ago a joint request was sent to ALDOT to do a traffic analysis and signal warrant study for this intersection,” said Chief Operating Officer Richie Beyer. “The Board of Education has an entry and exit point for their school bus traffic off Chapel Road near this intersection. Added Board traffic, along with the growth along Chapel and on the Coosa River Parkway, has created a situation where the signal is warranted. We met with ALDOT earlier about a potential partnership project that would put ALDOT in a position of doing the installation with their labor and equipment if the city and the county and the board were able to come up with the funds to pay for materials and the signal. I am not sure if this will be accomplished before school begins but if you are in a position to give approval for this, that will start the process to get it in place as soon as possible. Also, it includes adding a small, right turn lane coming off Chapel on to Coosa River Parkway and will supplement the yield. There are roughly 1,200 vehicles making that movement at peak times of the day creating part of the issue with cars backing up.”
The Commission will put in $40,000, Wetumpka roughly $35,000 and is also signing the agreement for the continued maintenance. The Elmore BOE will put in $75,000.
Chairman Troy Stubbs said he lives on Chapel Road and can attest to the traffic in the area, and the many wrecks that have occurred.
The Commission approved a motion to authorize Chairman Troy Stubbs to execute a construction agreement to widen, resurface and stripe on Marion Spillway from Ingram Road to SR 143.
Beyer explained, “This item and the next two are complimentary to resolutions that you adopted at your last meeting to move these COVID funded transportation projects forward through the NPO. Unlike some of our other construction projects that go through the NPO and wait until closer to the construction times and letting, because of these special funds ALDOT has sent us the agreements and asked us to execute the agreement. These are also slated for the next calendar year, so it is not too far ahead of schedule but normally it is about six months out and we are getting ready to execute these.”
The Commission approved a motion authorizing Chairmen Stubbs to execute a construction agreement to resurface and stripe on First Avenue from SR 143 to Balter Road (Site 1) and on Baltzer Road from First Avenue to Flatwood Road (Site 2.)
The Commission approved a motion authorizing Chairmen Stubbs to execute construction agreement to resurface, strip and widen to complete the bicycle/pedestrian accommodations on Chapman Road from SR-143 to the Millbrook City Limits and intersection improvements at Chapman Road and Airport Road.
The Commission approved the Consent Docket, which includes:
Approval of Travel Memorandum
Approval of proposed plat for Daisy Lane Right of Way.
Approval of proposed plat for Thornhill Ridge Plat No 1.
The Commission then approved Personnel Notifications, which include:
Hire of Morgan Ballard, Equipment Operator 1, effective June 13 and subsequent resignation effective June 20.
Promotion of Cameron Compton, Corrections Officer to Deputy, effective June 21.
Notification of resignation of Lee Ann Rhodes, Dispatcher Tier II, effective July 1.
Resignation of Nathaniel Tuck, Captain, effective July 1.
Hire of Jana Woodall, Collections Clerk (replace R. Hanks), effective June 21.
Reports to Commission:
Richie Beyer: “We are continuing to work on the FY 2023 budget development. We have completed most of our department head meetings. We’ve got a little bit of work left with our IT and facilities to get those programmed and we are also working through our ARP allocations. We had a meeting with our IAC staff and going over the different elements and trying to make sure that we broke that down into what will fall in FY 2023 and what will fall beyond that in the 2024 cycle.
“We are continuing to finalize the rebuild and ARP 2023 plan. Part of that are these road projects will occur in the coming year as well.”
Beyer said that meetings will begin with commissioners in the coming weeks concerning redistricting.
“This is the last week that Waste Management said they will be collecting all the cans out in the county. We are unsure they will get all of them collected by the end of the week. We are working on a program for citizens that want to get that out of the way, where they can drop them off at the collection facility during our normal hours. If we collect all those at our property, we can use some of those at our other facilities.”
Commissioner Henry Hines: “The big thing is Arrow Disposal will be delaying their service. It will be delayed until Tuesday starting the routes as Monday is a holiday. Everything is going well. Arrow is doing an excellent job of following up on complaints.”
Commissioner Bart Mercer: “In relation to our ongoing effort to expand Broadband in the county, we’ve done many things that are within our power to promote the expansion of Broadband. We conducted a Broadband Accessibility Study which we have put to use. We have also installed the hotspots across the county that are still being used. But our county is very limited in what they can do as far as working with a provider to facilitate infrastructure in the county being installed. This November there will be a constitutional amendment on the ballot where citizens can decide if they want to give counties the ability to partner with a provider for the expansion project. In preparation for this, we want to bring together a group that will be called Elmore County Broadband Task Force that will be led by ECEDA. This group’s purpose will be to put the plan together so Elmore County will be in the best position possible so if the Constitutional Amendment does pass, we will be able to work with our providers to realize as many fiber expansion projects in the county as possible. We will continue to work with ECEDA on this project. This is a large issue for everyone across Elmore County and the state.
“The second thing I have is in relation to our unemployment rate. The month of May Elmore County had an unemployment rate of 1.9 percent. Just as a reminder, industry standards are four percent for full employment. The state of Alabama average was 2.4 percent. There are two numbers that came out of this report that were very encouraging. There were 238 more people employed this month than last month. We had 362 additional people that entered the work force.”
Commissioner Desirae Jackson: “Just a reminder we have a community clean up day on July 9. We will target the following roads including Crenshaw Road, Cane Road, Copeland Road, Chapel Road, Cobbs Ford Road, and Alabama River Parkway. The time will be between 7 a.m. and Noon.
Chairman Troy Stubbs:” I appreciate all of the Commissioners and the hard work they do on a regular basis along with our staff and emergency personnel and our first responders.”
Stubbs said that storms can be common through the summer months, they can arrive and depart quickly, but do a lot of damage in a short period of time. He also encouraged everyone to consider water safety over the summer to avoid tragedies. He reminded everyone that the Wetumpka YMCA has a new swimming pool and are working on future opportunities for swimming lessons.
