Funding for library, tech center, GRC also announced; council hears request for purchase of new garbage carts, pays insurance
State Senator and Greensboro native Bobby Singleton was in attendance at the first Greensboro City Council meeting of 2024 Tuesday night. Singleton was there to announce a number of significant appropriations to public projects. First, he invited Carolyn Hemstreet and Dianne Lewis, director of the Hale County Library, up to announce a $10,000.00 appropriation for the library. He then announced an appropriation of $30,000.00 to the John Owens Technology Center to replace the facility’s public computers, as well as $5,000.00 to purchase new heating units for the Greensboro Recreation Center and $7,000.00 to fund senior citizens’ programs at the GRC.
He then invited Mayor J.B. Washington to stand up, and presented him with a $100,000.00 check for the repair of Highway 69 Park in Greensboro, which, Sen. Singleton noted, has been out of commission since sustaining significant storm damage last year. He said this funding could be used to repair fences and other damage and to get the park back in working order to provide a recreational space for the town’s young people. Any surplus, he said, could be used toward the town’s other parks.
During the council’s monthly department head reports, Streets and Sanitation Superintendent Aaron Evans said his department only had about eight spare garbage carts for city sanitation customers. He explained that many of the city’s aging garbage carts need to be replaced due to wear and damage, but the department has only a few left to go around.
Evans said this expense had not been a part of his budget requests for the department in the coming year.
Washington asked Evans how many the city needed to purchase.
“We need about 200…all we’ve got is eight,” he said. “Two hundred. A hundred and fifty. Anything [we] can get.”
City Clerk Lorrie Cook said she would check with the supplier from which the city sourced its last garbage cart purchase and figure out an estimated cost.
Police Chief Willie Lewis said his department had been having issues with their radios, and asked the council to consider purchasing a new radio system which he said would be more cost-effective and efficient.
Lewis said the city’s current system of Motorola radios costs about $1500 apiece for a unit. Lewis said Hale Co. Sheriff’s Department and Moundville Police Department, as well as Hale County E-911, were also considering making the switch to a new company called 911 Net, with “radios” that operate over the internet rather than over traditional radio waves. This makes the radios more reliable, Lewis said, and each unit costs around $375 rather than $1500. The new system would cost around $2400 a year to operate once the radios were purchased. Lewis said he was requesting 10 car radios and 10 handheld units in all, but the department could start with the 10 handheld units and phase in the car units. He also said they would keep the old radios on hand as a backup even if the department ends up moving to the new system.
The council approved a contract with Avenu Insights for delinquent business license discovery and collections. Cook said that, in April or May, the company would begin to investigate and contact potentially delinquent business licenses from companies doing business in the city. In return, Avenu would get to keep half of what they collect. Cook said the majority of the city’s license revenue would already have been collected by the time Avenu steps in.
“Most of what they’re collecting is going to be ones that are out of town, or insurance [companies],” she said.
The council approved a request to declare January as Human Trafficking Awareness Month in Greensboro, and made plans to adopt a proclamation to that effect at their next meeting.
The council also approved two annual insurance premium payments. The first was to the Alabama Municipal Workers Compensation Fund. This year’s premium will be $24,496.00. Cook said that this was a considerable decrease from the around $60,000.00 the city had been paying for the past three years, noting that the city’s premium had gone back down after a claim caused an increase.
The second payment was for $118,246.00 for the city’s AMIC policy, which provides liability insurance for municipalities in the state of Alabama. This payment will cover the city’s liabilities, with an extra rider covering cyber liability. Without the cyber coverage included the premium would have cost $115,746.00. Cook said that coverage, in the past, had been included in cities’ policies at no extra charge, but that increasing claims in recent years meant that the coverage now cost extra.
Cook reported that the city’s attorney had a meeting planned this week with a representative of Yellowhammer Networks, LLC, which plants to build broadband infrastructure and provide internet service to this part of Alabama under a federal contract. Cook said the attorney had a number of issues to discuss with Yellowhammer before signing off on any agreements with the city.
The council approved a request by Dianne Lewis, director of the Hale County Library, to release the city’s annual budget appropriation for the library. For 2024, the council had budgeted $4,000.00 towards the library. Cook also announced that there would be a home repair loan and grant seminar on Thursday, Jan. 18 at 5:00 p.m. at the Greensboro Recreation Center (the former National Guard Armory building). The seminar, hosted by Judge Marvin Wiggins, is intended to connect area residents who were affected by the January 2023 tornadoes with USDA disaster relief resources before the Feb. 3, 2024 application passes.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, Pride Forney announced that the Friends of the Hale County Library’s annual lecture series would begin on Thursday, Jan. 18 at 5:00 p.m. with a lecture on poetry by Casey Roberts. She also asked the council about the possibility of using the Hale County D.H.R. parking lot for a revamped Hale County Farmers’ Market, which she said would begin in May.
Cook said that particular parking lot belonged to Hale County, and the county commission would have to approve its use.
