SELMA, AL (January 8, 2026) – The Black Belt Community Foundation (BBCF) announces the opening of its 2026 Arts and Community Grants Cycle, with applications opening January 20, 2026, and closing February 6, 2026, at 5:00 PM (CST). Through this annual grant cycle, BBCF will award Arts Grants ranging from $500 to $3,500 and Community Grants ranging from $500 to $5,000 to support community-led projects across the foundation’s 12-county service area: Bullock, Choctaw, Dallas, Greene, Hale, Lowndes, Macon, Marengo, Perry, Pickens, Sumter, and Wilcox counties in Alabama’s Black Belt region. These grants support projects that strengthen, uplift, and empower communities across Alabama’s Black Belt. Eligible nonprofit and community-based organizations are encouraged to apply. New organizations that have not previously applied for BBCF arts or community grants are required to attend a Grantseekers Workshop prior to submitting an application. Returning grantees may apply directly through the online grants portal. These Zoom sessions are scheduled for January 20 and 22, 2026, with both days offering the convenience of an early afternoon session at 12pm and an evening session at 7pm “These grants are a key part of how we support community-led work across the Black Belt,” said Chris Spencer, President and CEO of the Black Belt Community Foundation. “Opening the cycle early gives organizations the time and flexibility they need to plan thoughtfully and put resources to work in ways that reflect local priorities.” Applications will be submitted online through BBCF’s website here: https://blackbeltfound.org/grants/ , by clicking the “Apply Now” tab, once applications open on January 20, 2026. Following the application deadline, proposals will undergo a review process, with final funding decisions approved by the BBCF Board in early spring. All applicants will be notified once decisions are finalized. The 2026 grant cycle will conclude with an Arts and Community Grants Awards Ceremony on April 25, 2026, in Selma.
Lorenzo French, Chairman of the Greene County Democratic Executive Committee gave this list of candidates who qualified for local office in Greene County for the upcoming May 19, 2026, primary election.
Some of these candidates are unopposed, which means that they will not be on the ballot in the May primary and that they will go directly to the November General Election ballot as the candidate of the Democratic Party. If they do not have opposition from the Republican Party or an independent candidate, then they will be automatically elected or reelected to their position.
This list of Democratic candidates for local office in Greene County, are shown below. A separate list of statewide candidates including Governor, Legislators, Judges, U. S. Senator and Congress will be available from the Alabama Secretary of State.
Sheriff:
Johnathan Benison
Delanglo M. Hall
Beverly Spencer
Commission: District 1
Garria Spencer
Michael E. Gaines
Larry D. Smith
Commission: District 2
Tennyson Smith
Kelvins Scott
Commission: District 3
Latasha Johnson
Jacqueline Stewart
Trey Diveley
Williams Mack III
Commission: District 4
Allen Turner, Jr.
unopposed
Commission: District 5
Roshanda Summerville
Welsey Hodges
Revenue
Commissioner
Arnelia Shay Johnson
unopposed
Board of Education
District 3
Veronica Bookie
Richardson
Cheryl Morrow
Board of Education District 4
Leo Branch
Willie Ester Davis
Board members receive recognition from schools and Central Office
The Greene County Board of Education held its regular meeting on January 20, 2026, in the Central Office auditorium. All five school board members were present. It was National School Board Recognition Month, so each of the Board member was honored with gifts from the schools and Central Office staff. This included a healthy edible bouquet of flowers, composed of fruits, from Acting Superintendent Darryl Aikerson, a globe and other gifts. In addition to the gifts, the Board also heard reports from the acting Superintendent, CFO on finances and other staff on curriculum and programmatic matters. The Board also approved minutes of its recent meetings on December 15, 18, 30 and January 5, which involved selecting a new Superintendent. Ms. Martin, Curriculum Coordinator reported on the Alabama Numeracy Act which requires that all students from K to 5th grade learn basic math skills and are able to do and solve basic math problems. The act, which is similar to the Alabama Literacy Act, requires students to have basic math skills and understanding by 5th. Grade. The act provides math coaches and summer math camps for students who need additional assistance and support in math. There are math coaches assigned to Eutaw Primary School and Robert Brown Middle School, with financing from the State of Alabama, under the Numeracy Act to assist students in Greene County meet these requirements. The Board held an Executive Session to discuss personnel and legal matters. The Board made the following Personnel changes: • EMPLOYMENTS (CLASSIFIED) Williams, Shirleria RBMS CNP • RESIGNATION(S) Eubanks, Brandi RBMS Teacher Elementary • VOLUNTARY TRANSFER Davis, Linda RBMS to GCHS CNP Cook • RESPONSE TO INTERVENTION STIPENDS (RTI) McGee, Pamela EPS Teacher PK-3 Durrett, Carla EPS ARI Reading Coach.
The Board also approved these Administrative Service items, as recommended by the Acting Superintendent: Quote from RJ Young (Sophos Antivirus License Renewal) $45,356.68
Quote from Renaissance for Nearpod, Flocabulary and services (Learning License, 1 year) $19,530.00
Renewal of Service and Support Agreement with Albireo Energy to continue maintenance and support of the Building Management System (BMS) and access control systems, including cameras and HVAC, at Greene County High School (GCHS) and Greene County Career Center (GCCC)
Proposal from Bailey Group to provide Instructional coaching (ELA English Language Arts) at Robert Brown Middle for 5th & 6th grade in the amount of $15,000
Proposal from Bailey Group to provide Instructional coaching (Math) at Robert Brown Middle for 5th & 6th grade in the amount of $15,000
Payment of all bills, claims, and payroll
Bank reconciliations as submitted by Mrs. Marquita Lennon, CSFO
The Board received a financial report from CFO, Marquita Lennon, on the months of November and December 2025. For December 2025, she summarized the results saying: *General Fund Bank Balance $5,841,722.47 reconciles to the Summary Cash Report * Accounts Payable Check Register $231,756.27 * Payroll Register $929,427.21*Total gross pay, to include employer match items * Combined Ending Fund Balance: $7,414,733.33
Leo Branch, Board Chair announced that the Board Committee had met with Dr. Timothy Thurmond and worked out the details of his contract to be the new Superintendent beginning February 1, 2026.
By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
History often remembers movements by their most recognizable moments. It less often remembers the teenagers who moved first. Claudette Colvin, whose refusal to surrender her seat on a segregated Montgomery bus came months before the moment that would enter textbooks, died Tuesday at 86. Her death was confirmed by the Claudette Colvin Legacy Foundation, which said she died of natural causes in Texas. On March 2, 1955, Colvin was 15 years old and riding home from school when the bus driver ordered Black passengers to give up their seats to white riders. Three students stood. Colvin did not. Police arrested her, charged her under segregation laws, and placed her on probation. She later said she was thinking about the Constitution and the rights she believed belonged to her. Colvin’s arrest came at a time when Montgomery’s Black community was already pressing against the daily restraints of Jim Crow. Her stand did not ignite a boycott that day, but it did register. It landed in conversations, church meetings, and legal strategy sessions that would soon follow. “This nation lost a civil rights giant today,” Tafeni English-Relf, Alabama state director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said. “Claudette Colvin’s courage lit the fire for a movement that would free all Alabamians and Americans from the woes of southern segregation.” Unlike others whose names became shorthand for the era, Colvin paid a quieter price. She was young and outspoken and was later judged by standards that did not apply to older leaders. She was never elevated as the public face of the movement. Her life unfolded mostly outside the spotlight she helped create. Yet Colvin’s role proved decisive. She became one of four plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, the federal lawsuit that reached the Supreme Court and ended bus segregation in Montgomery and across Alabama. The case dismantled the legal framework that made her arrest possible. “At age 15, Ms. Colvin was arrested on March 2, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, for violating bus segregation ordinances, nine months before Rosa Parks,” Phillip Ensler wrote. “In 2021, it was the privilege of a lifetime to serve on the legal team that helped Ms. Colvin clear her record from the conviction.” “As we worked on the court motion, I had the honor of spending time with Ms. Colvin to hear her story and get to know her,” Ensler wrote. “Today we lost an unsung yet significant hero of the civil rights movement,” Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock said. “Her courage paved the way for Rosa Parks’ decision and the launching of a movement that would end segregation.” “History did not always give Claudette Colvin the credit she deserved, but her impact is undeniable,” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said. “Her life reminds us that progress is shaped not only by moments, but by sustained courage and truth,” Bernice King said.
By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
The Heritage Foundation is beginning to come apart in public, and what is unraveling is not simply a think tank but a long-maintained illusion. More than 60 senior staff members, fellows, and trustees have now resigned from the institution that spent decades presenting itself as the sober custodian of conservative thought. Board members tied to major donors have stepped down. Veteran policy writers have walked away. What remains is an organization forced, perhaps for the first time, to reckon with the distance between how it spoke about America and what it planned to do to it. Philosophers have long maintained that power, when it believes itself righteous, often mistakes silence for consent. The Heritage Foundation thrived on that mistake. For years it wrote in careful abstractions, never naming the people its policies would dispossess, never acknowledging the communities that would be bruised by its ideas. Project 2025 changed that. Nearly 900 pages long, the document spoke plainly. It described how to bend the federal government toward a single will. It explained how to weaken civil rights enforcement, how to hollow out agencies, how to turn immigration into mass detention, and how to place ideology above law. It did not whisper. It declared. Donald Trump told the country he had nothing to do with it. He said he did not know the authors. He dismissed the warnings as political theater. Those words collapsed the moment he returned to the White House and appointed Russell Vought, one of Project 2025’s principal architects, to run the Office of Management and Budget. The blueprint Trump denied became the machinery through which his presidency now moves. “A lot of the policies from Day 1 to the last day and in between that the administration has adopted are right out of Project 2025,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said, as his office and others prepared lawsuits not in reaction, but in expectation. What followed has been neither theoretical nor restrained. In Minneapolis, a federal agent shot and killed a man during an operation, igniting protests in a city that already carries the memory of unchecked force. Immigration hardened into something colder still when the administration suspended visa processing for applicants from 75 countries, closing pathways without warning and without apology. Across the nation, demonstrations rose as Americans confronted a government that now acts as though consent is an obstacle rather than a foundation. Project 2025 anticipated this atmosphere. Its immigration chapter calls for ending asylum at the border, canceling legal status for millions, compelling local police to serve federal deportation goals, and expanding detention camps through executive authority alone. It treats people as numbers to be managed and rights as technicalities to be brushed aside. For Black America, this moment is not unfamiliar. Civil rights organizations have warned that Project 2025 threatens voting access, education protections, housing enforcement, and reproductive autonomy. The document rarely names Black communities directly, yet it targets the very systems that protect Black citizenship and political power. The danger lies not in what it says aloud, but in what it dismantles quietly. Abroad, the same logic has spilled beyond U.S. borders. On January 3, American forces struck Venezuela and captured President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, transporting them to New York to face federal charges. Governments across Europe and Latin America condemned the action as a breach of international law. The United States escalated further by seizing Venezuelan oil tankers, tightening control over the country’s resources and deepening regional instability. In the Arctic, Trump renewed his demand for U.S. control of Greenland, declaring anything less unacceptable. Denmark deployed troops. Protests filled streets in Greenland and Copenhagen. A Greenlandic official broke down on live television after a White House meeting failed to soften Washington’s posture. At Davos, Trump’s confrontations with European leaders turned diplomacy into spectacle and strained alliances that had taken generations to build. This is not chaos without authorship. Analysts tracking implementation estimate that roughly half of Project 2025 has already been executed through executive orders, agency restructuring, and enforcement changes. This was not improvisation. It was preparation made visible. Now the institution that helped write the script is fracturing. Donors have pulled back. Trustees have resigned. Senior figures have said privately that Heritage no longer distinguishes between conservative governance and extremism. The organization insists the departures are part of a realignment, yet those who left describe something else entirely. They describe an unwillingness to confront hatred. They describe a tolerance for rhetoric that stains everything it touches. They describe an institution that chose influence over responsibility. “When an institution hesitates to confront harmful ideas and allows lapses in judgment to stand, it forfeits the moral authority on which its influence depends,” former trustee Abby Spencer Moffat said.
The prison reform advocate called his 35-day strike a “failure” after ADOC met none of his demands before medical issues forced him to stop.
By Alx Jobin, Alabama Political Reporters
From November 20 to December 25, 2025, Kenneth Shaun Traywick did not eat.
Traywick is a prison reform advocate also known as Swift Justice, and his 35-day hunger strike came in response to an incident at Bullock Correctional Facility in which ADOC correctional officer Darius A. Glover pepper-sprayed Traywick from behind. According to Traywick, the assault came as retaliation for Traywick’s own advocacy on behalf of other inmates who were also being assaulted by Bullock staff.
His hunger strike now over, Traywick spoke with APR from inside Bullock to share his experience and how he plans to continue fighting for reform.
“Physically… I’m still having issues with my stomach, but that’s to be expected,” Traywick said of how he has been feeling following the strike. “Mentally, emotionally… I’m pretty stressed out that I didn’t accomplish anything outside of getting a little bit of media attention. As far as accomplishing what I wanted to accomplish, to me it’s a failure.”
While on strike, Traywick made several demands of ADOC, including transfer out of Bullock; the end of “retaliatory and excessive force practices;” the ability to send and receive written mail; a meeting with ADOC Commissioner John Hamm and an investigation “into CERT Officers Glover and Bowen as well as any other officer accused of excessive force or retaliatory discipline/citation write ups.”
According to Traywick, ADOC met none of those demands before medical complications with his kidneys forced him to end the strike.
“One of the issues I’m having now is how easily ADOC ignored my strike and the fact that I was willing to go to the extreme just to be heard,” Traywick told APR. “They’re sending me a message and that, to me, is emotionally draining after so many years of us peacefully protesting in nonviolent ways and trying to reclaim our humanity so-to-speak instead of acting like animals, which is what we used to have to do to get the public to hear us.
“They’re sitting there saying they’re not going to pay me any attention or address the issue—or even just listen to the issue… they just ignored it, so, they’re basically telling us they don’t care about us acting like human beings,” he continued.
Traywick also told APR that ADOC had not discussed the possibility of transferring him from Bullock to a different correctional facility per his demands. However, he said that he is fine staying in Bullock for now, as it could give him another opportunity to shed light on malpractice and mistreatment within the facility.
“If I can’t have all of my demands met, then I don’t want not one of them met,” Traywick said. “Matter of fact, the longer I stay here, the more likely [Glover] is to mess up again and do something again, so I’d much rather just stay here… even since I’ve been out, he’s been aggressive and been taunting me… eventually I expect him to wind up blowing and playing into my hand.”
According to Traywick, the only communication he had with ADOC officials during the course of his hunger strike was with a warden who would simply ask Traywick if he was ready to end his strike.
“The warden would only come around and ask me, ‘when are you coming off the strike?’” Traywick said. “He wouldn’t even engage in why I was on strike.”
Traywick said that ADOC did allow him to file an official grievance related to the assault by Officer Glover, but that grievance was dismissed with ADOC declaring that the officer’s actions were justified. However, Traywick noted that he was able to have disciplinary infractions related to the incident dropped from his record.
Even though he expressed disappointment at the lack of tangible results from his hunger strike, Traywick told APR that he will continue to advocate for reforms in any way he can—including by drafting legislative proposals.
“One of the things I want to do is continue to show the public and our lawmakers the issues inside ADOC,” Traywick said. “One of the things me and my team are doing right now is drafting a piece of legislation and that’s something we’d like to see get [bipartisan sponsorship] dealing with the oversight of ADOC.”
Traywick and his nonprofit organization, Unheard Voices of the Concrete Jungle, UVOTCJ, shared with APR a draft of the legislative proposal he and other inmates are currently working on and hoping to find sponsorship for.
The proposal, which has been titled the “Alabama Correctional Transparency, Accountability, and Risk-Reduction Act,” looks to establish an Independent Oversight Authority, IOA, that would operate outside of ADOC. The IOA would be led by a director selected through a “merit-based process administered by the Alabama Personnel Board” and confirmed by the Alabama Joint Prison Oversight Committee.
Under the proposal, no more than one-third of IOA staff would be allowed to be former ADOC employees or contractors, and any such individuals would need to be separated from ADOC for at least two years before joining the IOA. The body would be tasked with reviewing use of force incidents within ADOC; analyzing systemic trends related to use of force, training, staffing and facility conditions; and issuing reports on their findings, both to the public and to the Joint Prison Oversight Committee.
Additionally, the proposal outlines standards for preserving evidence related to reported incidents of misconduct or harm within ADOC, and includes provisions for the implementation of body-worn cameras, BWCs, in ADOC facilities.
“My goal isn’t to take away any of the authority of ADOC, but at the same time we’re going to have to have independent oversight,” Traywick explained, arguing that the current lack of independent prison oversight in Alabama allows ADOC officials to skirt accountability and squash calls for reform.
“The only thing that anybody can go by is what ADOC says… and there is no independent oversight in this,” Traywick continued. “We actually need [independent oversight], not only to expose any kind of corruption, but to look after the taxpayer and the public. The simple fact is we’re spending millions, hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements every year in lawsuits, and that’s not even counting the hundreds of millions of dollars we’re paying these lawyers to represent the ADOC. So, we’ve got a huge cost that’s being impacted on the taxpayers just to fuel the corruption that’s going on on the inside.
“I want, not only our legislators, but I want the public to know this: these pieces of legislation are coming from guys on the inside, and who better else is there to know the situation or the problems than the ones that are closely, directly involved in the problem?” Traywick said.
Traywick is currently serving a 25-year sentence after being convicted on charges of first-degree robbery and first-degree sodomy in 2009. He has maintained his innocence since his conviction, leading him to become an outspoken advocate for prison reform in Alabama—including by writing several opinion pieces published by APR. The Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Traywick’s latest parole application in June of 2024, with his next parole hearing set for 2029.
By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
Black unemployment surged to 7.5 percent by December 2025, a level that would signal a recession if it were reflected across the national workforce. But the latest “State of the Dream 2026” report makes clear the damage extends far beyond jobs. From broadband access and housing to artificial intelligence and federal workforce policy, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies finds that 2025 marked a sharp economic breakdown for Black America driven by policy reversals and the removal of long-standing safeguards.
Released this week, “State of the Dream 2026: From Regression to Signs of a Black Recession” draws on research from the Joint Center and partners including United for a Fair Economy, the Center for Economic Policy Research, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, and the Onyx Impact Group. The report situates rising unemployment within a wider retreat from equity-focused policy across nearly every sector shaping economic opportunity.
Employment remains the most visible signal. Black unemployment rose from 6.2 percent in January 2025 to 7.5 percent by December. Black youth experienced severe instability, with unemployment spiking from 18.6 percent in September to 29.8 percent in November before falling back to 18.3 percent in December. The report finds that if Black workers had maintained their 2024 prime-age employment rate, roughly 260,000 more Black adults would have been working in 2025, including about 200,000 prime-age Black women. The collapse of federal employment accelerated the trend. Roughly 271,000 federal jobs were eliminated in less than a year, hitting Black workers particularly hard because they have historically been overrepresented in government roles offering stable wages, benefits, and protections. Before the cuts, Black Americans made up nearly 19 percent of the federal workforce, compared with about 13 percent of the overall labor force. “Federal employment has historically functioned as an important sector for Black workers,” the report notes, warning that buyouts, hiring freezes, and the dismantling of diversity-focused recruitment pipelines removed one of the most reliable pathways to middle-income stability. Tax policy deepened the strain. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 made permanent tax cuts for high-income households and corporations while reducing investment in poverty-alleviating programs. Business preferences such as Section 199A, bonus depreciation, and estate tax benefits overwhelmingly favored wealthy households, while refundable credits that matter most to Black workers were left unchanged. Black-owned businesses faced a parallel contraction. Executive orders issued early in 2025 redirected federal support away from disadvantaged firms, lowered small, disadvantaged business contracting goals, and moved to dismantle the Minority Business Development Agency. The Joint Center estimates these actions threaten $10 billion to $15 billion annually in lost federal support for Black-owned firms. At the same time, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institution Fund, a key source of capital for minority businesses, was defunded. Beyond jobs and business, the report documents setbacks in broadband policy that risk widening the digital divide. The cancellation of the Digital Equity Act, the removal of mobile hotspots and school bus Wi-Fi from E-Rate eligibility, and weaker broadband pricing transparency requirements undercut efforts to expand internet access and adoption in Black households. The information environment also shifted. While federal social media policy remained largely unchanged, platforms themselves pulled back on fact-checking and content moderation. The report notes that these platform-driven decisions reshaped the online information ecosystem, raising concerns about misinformation and its impact on communities that already face barriers to accurate and timely information. Artificial intelligence policy marked another turning point. A new executive order titled “Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence” moved federal policy away from precautionary regulation toward a deregulatory, innovation-first approach. The report warns that unchecked AI deployment risks embedding bias into hiring, lending, housing, and public services without accountability. Workforce policy changes further reinforced inequality. While apprenticeship programs expanded, initiatives designed to advance African American workforce participation stalled or were cut, setting the stage for reinforcing racial disparities rather than closing them. Housing remains one of the most entrenched fault lines. U.S. Census Bureau data show Black homeownership at 45 percent compared with 74 percent for white households, a nearly 30-point gap that has persisted for generations. “At a moment when hard-won rights and safeguards are being eroded, rigorous analysis is essential to building a fair economy,” Joint Center President Dedrick Asante-Muhammad said in the report.
DeAngelo Hall has officially qualified to run for Sheriff of Greene County.
“The journey continues,” Hall said. “I ask the citizens of Greene County to keep me in their prayers as we move forward with a safe, respectful, and clean campaign.”
Hall also reflected on the personal significance of the moment, noting that he wished his grandmother, Velma Robinson, were present to witness the occasion. “I can still hear her saying, ‘Praise the Lord,’” he said.
Hall currently serves as Constable and remains committed to public service, accountability, and community safety.
Two representatives of the Tuscaloosa Area Human Trafficking Taskforce, Johnathan Lovejoy and Carey Branscome stand behind Mayor Corey Cockrell, as he signs proclamation
The Eutaw City Council met on January 13, 2026, for its regular meeting. Mayor Corey Cockrell and all Council members were present. The Council approved a proclamation naming January as Human Trafficking Prevention Month and designating the City of Eutaw as a Trafficking Free Zone. Mayor Cockrell signed the proclamation during the meeting after the Council approved it. Human trafficking is a grave problem of exploitation of women and children for sexual purposes. Many of the victims are immigrants, homeless people or persons from other countries. Shuryon Macon, a municipal bond specialist with the firm of Knight & Day Group of Houston, Texas addressed the City Council. He said he was available to help finance large projects to generate jobs and services for the people of the city and other communities. He said he had met with the mayor and was interested in helping to finance projects . In response to a question from Councilwoman Valerie Watkins, he said his fees were paid out of the bond proceeds and would not be an upfront obligation of the city. The City Council also heard from Anita Lewis, Executive Director of the Greene County Housing Authority (GCHA) and Marilyn Armstead, grant writer for the Housing Authority on the need for funding to improve the sewage and water system serving Branch Heights and King Village, sub-divisions under the control of the GCHA . These water and sewer systems are tied into the City of Eutaw systems. Other Council members supported that sewage back-ups and water problems were occurring all over the city. Mayor Cockrell said the city was looking for grant funds from ADECA and other sources to deal with the city’s infrastructure problems – streets, water, sewer, park improvements and other needs. In other actions, the Eutaw City Council approved travel for Mayor Cockrell and Joe Powell to attend a water infrastructure training in Demopolis on February 18, 2026; approved the K-9 contract for purchase of a police K-9 dog; and approved payment of bills. In his Mayor’s report, Cockrell highlighted that he was holding community meetings in each council district to listen to residents and project some of the services and activities are planned. He also passed out a list of monthly special events, he was planning for 2027. He also indicated that a water department clerk had been employed and would start work soon. Cockrell also stated he was working with the County Commission to find solutions to the problems of the Greene County EMS ambulance services.
The Greene County Commission has met three times this month, a work session on January 7, a regular meeting on January 12 and a follow-up meeting on January 16 to deal with critical items tabled in the prior meeting. All members of the Commission were present for the three meetings.
The Commission received a request from Sheriff Benison for repairs to the jail. At the January 16th meeting, the Commission approved spending an estimated $40,000 for repairs from left over COVID funds that are still on hand.
The Commission considered the status of the Greene County ambulance services at each of the three meetings. The Commission advanced $87,000 to the ambulance service to pay bills, including payrolls, at a special meeting in December 2025. The Commission advanced these funds with the understanding that some portion of the funds would be returned based on contributions from municipalities, agencies and businesses service by the ambulance service
The Commission also pressed the EMS Board to reorganize and have full representation from all supportive municipalities and agencies interested. The Commission also is examining the finances of the EMS to see what long term support is needed to supplement the fees received from Medicaid, Medicare, insurance companies and users of the service. A meeting of the Greene County EMS Board is scheduled for Wednesday, January 21, 2026 , at 5:00 PM in the William M. Branch Courthouse to make further decisions on the future of this vita service.
After the discussion, a representative of Jamie Gray, State EMS Director, read a letter indicating that the state had selected ASAP Emergency Medical Service to “provide temporary operational oversight of EMS services in Greene County… This arrangement will remain in effect until such time that Greene County can submit formal confirmation and provide a guarantee to the State Office of EMS that continued oversight and operation of EMS can occur without interruption.” Commission Chair Garria Spencer said that the Commission will be working with the County EMS Board to provide these assurances to the state as it works to reorganize the Board and staff of the EMS.
The Commission approved an agreement that the Department of Parks and Recreation do an assessment over the next six months of upgrading, beautifying and adding to the nine-hole public golf course owned by the County. The study will allow for a plan to improve the golf course area, over time and provide additional park and creational opportunities for residents of Greene County.
In other business, the Greene County Commission approved:
• A resolution for installation of doors and hardware, at a cost of $19,000 to the Eutaw Activity Center annex, utilized by the Greene Co. Children’s Policy Council.
• Several requests from the Greene County Highway Department, including submission of the 2025 County Rebuild Alabama Annual Report; fund annual membership in the ACCA for $1,400; and support training for the staff at a Conference in Huntsville, AL on February 4-5, 2026.
• Approved appointment of Tamieka King as District 2 representative to the Green Thumb Improvement District Board.
The Commission also received a December financial report from CFO Altheria Wilder. The report showed that the Greene County Commission had a total of $ 9,330, 992 in bank of which $ 2,591, 261 are unrestricted and $6,739,731 were restricted for specific program purposes. The report indicated that the Commission had paid $2,011,740 in claims and bills, including payroll, for December2025. An additional $82,794 was paid in electronic claims mostly for payroll taxes and retirement fees.
