Greene County Democrat

Tag: City Engineer Babb

  • Eutaw City Council approves matching requirements for Airport and National Guard Armory improvement grants; tables action on water leak insurance

    During the past week, the Eutaw City Council held two meetings, a Special Called Meeting on Thursday July 22 and its regular meeting on the fourth Tuesday, July 27 at 5:00 PM. 

    The special meeting was called to consider matching support for two grants to assist the city in improving the airport and rehabilitating the National Guard Armory Building. 

    The Council approved $125,000 match for a $600,000 state and Federal grant to repair and light the runways at the Eutaw Airport which has not been operation for a number of years. This grant will enable the Eutaw Airport Authority, a board operating under the auspices of the City of Eutaw to repair and improve the airport facilities and make them operational again.

    Danny Cooper, representing the Airport Authority said, “This grant will help us restore a $5million dollar and facility, enable small planes to fly in and out of Eutaw and help to restore the airport as a self-supporting facility from fees for parking and fueling planes.” The Council approved a resolution for the matching fund allocation to come from the existing funds in the airport account, supplemented with equal support from the Special Street Fund (bingo) and the Capital Improvement Fund.

    At the Special Meeting, the Eutaw City Council approved use of the National Guard Armory building as a matching for a USDA RISE (Rural Innovation for a Strong Economy) grant for up to $2 million in funding to rehabilitate the National Guard Armory Building for use as a job training center and business development incubator. The Greene County Industrial Development Authority, together with Rural Business and Training Center, a regional group based in Demopolis, are developing this grant, which must be submitted by August 2nd.

    At the regular meeting on Tuesday, most of the meeting was devoted to a discussion of a water leak insurance, provided by SERVLINE, a company affiliated with the National Rural Water Association. Corey Martin, Water Department Operator, presented the program to the Eutaw City Council. 

    For a Monthly charge of $1.75 per month on each water bill, the company would provide a one-time annual insurance payment, up to $500, to cover repair and payment of expanded water bills incurred because of the leak on the customer side of the meter.

    Martin explained that due to old pipes and connections, many Eutaw customers have experienced water leaks which boost their water bills to high amounts, that they often cannot pay without a payment plan. This insurance would cover these cases and help people to pay high water bills caused by leaks and plumbing failures.

    Martin further explained that the company would send a notice to all city water customers, informing them of the $1.75 a month ($21/yearly) insurance charge and offering them the chance to ‘opt-out’ of this service and not be charged for the insurance. Council members tabled this resolution because they felt the water customers needed to be more informed and consulted about the increase in water costs to cover this new insurance policy.

     

    The Council set a working meeting with City Engineer Babb for Tuesday, August 3, 2021 at 2:00 PM at City Hall to discuss changes to city ordinances to be incompliance with the 2015 International Building Code, standards for small cities. Babb said he would also report on progress with GPS mapping of all city utilities, which is needed to plan future growth of the city.

    In other actions, The Eutaw City Council:

    • Approved travel for City Attorney, Zane Willingham and City Judge Joshua Swords to attend League of Municipalities Law Conference in October.

    • Approved rental of a room for Breia’s Nails at the Robert H. Young Community Center.

    • Approved monthly contract for $500/moth for Total Care Service to cut grass and maintain city right of ways in the area around Interstate Exit 40,

    where Love’s Truckstop is located.  

    • Approved a proposal by the Eutaw Chamber of Commerce to place signage on buildings in the downtown Eutaw area.

    • Approved use of storage space at a shed near the National Guard Armory for the Black Belt Folk Roots Festival to house some of its materials and files.

    • Agreed to pay the bills present for the month of July.

    • Agreed to give city employees, the state holiday on July 30 – Confederate Memorial Day- but renaming it John Lewis Memorial Holiday, as the Greene County Commission has done.

    • Police Chief Tommy Johnson announced that two of his officers, Kendrick Howell and Robert Jeter, had completed training as investigators. He also introduced Jonquesha Daniels, a cadet who is attending the Police Academy,

    with the intention of joining the Eutaw Police Force upon graduation.

  • Eutaw City Council appoints zoning board, discusses ways to enforce ‘mask mandate’ for greater safety of Eutaw residents

    The Eutaw City Council met for its regular meeting on January 12, 2021 at City Hall since there was no heat in the Carver gymnasium, where the Council had been meeting to assure greater social distance between the Council and city residents attending the meetings. The Council members were separated by plastic partitions and about twenty people were allowed to sit six feet apart in the Council chamber.
    Mayor Latasha Johnson distributed a list of standing committees and boards to the Council and asked them to help in naming people to these boards and committees. Johnson indicated that the terms of current members had ended and in some cases there were vacancies because the past appointees had died, moved away or were unable to serve for health reasons.
    Johnson said it was critical to name the Zoning Board since several businesses had requested re-zoning or zoning variances over the past six months and these requests had not been acted upon because the Zoning Board had not been able to meet. The Council named the following persons to the Zoning Board: John Zippert, Shirley Ann Edwards, Shermaine Stewart, Cynthia Cooper and Corey Cockrell and urged them to meet soon to act on the outstanding issues.
    The Council also discussed safety for City Hall in terms of the COVID-19 pandemic. Councilwoman Tracey Hunter raised the question of how well the City is enforcing the ‘mask mandate’ for local retail businesses.
    “Some are enforcing the mask requirement and some are not,” she said. She recommended that the police visit the businesses in town and urge them to make sure people are wearing masks in businesses.
    Mayor Johnson said,” We have a mask mandate and fines for not wearing masks in public and maintaining safe social distance. So, we will ask our police department to visit with businesses and ask them to enforce mask wearing to help protect all of our citizens.”
    In other actions, the Eutaw City Council:
    • Approved a liquor license for Sleepy’s Bar and Grill in West End.
    • Heard a report from Mayor Johnson that an audit of the city’s finances for fiscal years 2018, 2019 and 2020, are still in progress by Rick Harmon, CPA of Tuscaloosa.
    • Heard a report from Ralph Liverman, financial consultant, who is preparing a budget for the City’s current fiscal year. He said that he had a preliminary budget with six separate funds: General Fund, 3 Cent Gas Tax, 7 Cent Gas Tax, Streets, Water and Sewer and Capital Improvements, that he was working to refine. Liverman indicated that the City’s finances were in better shape than he expected. He said the City had three major debts, for purchase of Carver School, an IRS lien for past unpaid employee taxes and a loan for the City’s matching finds for expanding the sewer line to serve the Love’s Truckstop, which need to be repaired.
    • Heard a report from City Engineer Babb on revising the building permit regulations. He said these updated regulations will be available by March.
    • Heard a report from the Mayor that the City is inventorying all water meters to make sure they are all working properly and can interact with the city’s billing computer software to insure accurate billing. The Mayor also announced a Council work session on January 19, to meet with Kathie Horne on her agreement to serve the City in correcting and improving the water system.
    • Heard a report from the Mayor on her efforts to work with the County Commission and Industrial Development Authority on steps to improve the Exit 40 area on Highway 20/59 including better lighting and attracting other retail business and motels to the intersection. The three entities have pledged to work together on this and other common issues.
    • Discussed leasing of offices and space at the Carver School. The CRFD bingo operation and Liberty Tax, a business, have requested space in the school, which now serves as a community center. The Council needs to set a common policy on the leasing of space in the center to help with maintenance and improvement of the space.
    In the Council and public comments section of the meeting. Several Council members requested more information on the budget and the committees and boards that they need to appoint. The Mayor said the coming work session on January 19 would help provide more information to Council members.