The Greene County Democrat

Tag: Co-Publisher

  • Eutaw City Council approves motion to park all city cars, including police cars, among many issues discussed on full meeting agenda

    By: John Zippert, Co-Publisher

    At its October 24, 2023, regular meeting the Eutaw City Council worked through a full agenda with many important issues. The Council also held a working session on October 23, which paved the way for many of its decisions.

    One controversial action taken by the City Council was a 5-0 vote to park all city vehicles at City Hall, when not in use. This includes police cars.
    Since many Eutaw city police officers live out of town, they have been permitted to drive city vehicles home, so that when they are called to a crime scene on an emergency basis, they can get their faster and be fully equipped.

    Councilman LaJeffrey Carpenter has been pushing for this policy change for many months. Carpenter, who is a Greene County Sheriff’s deputy and often comes to council meetings visibly armed with his pistol,
    says this will save money and wear and tear on city vehicles. All five council members voted for this policy change, while Mayor Latasha Johnson and Chief of Police Tommy Johnson were opposed and spoke against the decision.

    In the public comments section of the meeting, several Eutaw residents, including Faye Tyree, Danny Cooper, and Carol Gator, raised concerns about the new policy hampering police response to emergency situations. Concern was also expressed that this decision might result in more police officers quitting their positions to take better paid opportunities in other places.

    At the City Council Work Session, City Financial Adviser Ralph Liverman presented a report which acknowledged receipt of a long promised $371,294.88 check from FEMA for reimbursement of expenses incurred by the City of Eutaw in debris clearing and collection from storms earlier this year. Liverman indicated an additional check for $40,000 is still forthcoming from FEMA for additional expenses. In his report, Liverman indicates the city accounts that have been reimbursed for storm expenses, including $118,544.88 to the General Fund, which improves the City’s overall financial condition and outlook.

    The Council approved an Ordinance No. 2023-4 to grant a right of way agreement WIFI connections to cities in the Yellowhammer Network, which is planning to build a network of fiber to cities and towns in the western Alabama Black Belt, starting in Selma and moving west. Yellowhammer is fully funded for its plans, which reach cities and anchor institutions and cover some of the rural areas in between but not all parts of each county. The right of way agreement will allow running of fiber on and under streets and right of ways, owned by the city, but it is not an exclusive arrangement and other companies may also seek similar permission.

    The Council also approved payment of an invoice for $30,000 as a reimbursement to the Alabama Department of Transportation for work done to improve lighting on the Interstate 20/59 Exit 40. This one of several annual payments owed by the City to ALDOT for the lighting project.

    A credit card, with a maximum of $25,000, to be held by the Mayor, for training and travel expenses for city staff was approved. This single card will replace individual cards assigned to council members and staff department heads.

    The Council approved Resolution No. 2023-16 for Traffic Signal Management between ALDOT and the City to install Econolite Cobalt Controllers at the four city traffic lights at the county square, which will improve traffic flow. This improvement will come at no cost to the city. The
    Council also approved Resolution No 2023-17 to allow for the rehabilitation of the Sanders-Black Apartments with no changes to the zoning approval of the project, which is in place.

    The Council heard a presentation by Leah Banks of Alabama Power Company and representatives of the University of West Alabama’s Connecting Minority Program, to provide broadband in Sumter County and parts of Greene County, especially the Boligee area. They left copies of a broadband survey for residents of Eutaw and Greene County to fill out, showing the limited broadband services available. The Mayor agreed to collect completed surveys at the City Hall. The Council also heard a presentation on the Tree City Program from the Alabama Forestry Commission which encourages the planting of trees in cities and towns across Alabama.

    In other business, the Eutaw City Council:

    • Approved renewal of the business license and gas tax collection agreements with Avenue Insights and Analytics for 2024.
    • Approved repair of three police cars, two for transmissions and one for a motor. Tabled a proposal by the Chief of Police to lease purchase new police cars.
    • Approved request by the Mayor to seek bids to renovate the bathrooms in the National Guard Armory, which must be completed by March 2024 for the facility to be used as a voting poll.
    • Approved an additional $100 rental charge for groups planning to serve alcohol at functions held at the Robert H. Young Community Center (former Carver School) now owned by the city.
    • Approved a contract with Living Waters Association of Alabaster to provide laboratory testing the City Water and Sewer system.
    •Tabled leasing a new 2023 John Deere tractor for grass cutting, for 5 years at $1,926/month (total $97,852), until the city financial adviser can explain how this ad other expenses fit into the city’s budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
    • Agreed to pay bills on hand for the month.

  • Eutaw City Council approves debris removal contract; agrees to prepare required water and sewer plans to support improvement funding

    Eutaw City Council, Members of Hattie Edwards family and guests release ballons in honor of the former Mayor before Tuesday’s City Council Meeting

    By: John Zippert, Co-Publisher

    At its meetings on February 15 and 28, the Eutaw City Council took action in a number of areas related to debris removal from the January 12, 2023, storms, and the agreement to prepare several planning reports required as conditions of the $5.2 million ADEM funding for improvements to the Eutaw-Boligee unified water and sewer system.

    At the February 28 meeting the council accepted a bid from the Looks Great Services of Columbia, Mississippi for clean-up of tree trunks and other debris left by the storm of January 12, 2023. Looks Great Services had been prequalified as a debris removal contractor by the Alabama Association of County Commissions for work after storms.

    Because Greene County has been included in President Biden’s national disaster declaration of the January 12 storm, FEMA is able to grant more assistance to our area, including 100% reimbursement for debris removal for thirty days, ending March 18th. After that date, the city can be reimbursed 80% from Federal resources, 8% from the state and 12% local funding.

    Mayor Latasha Johnson argued that she wanted the Eutaw Council to award the contract to Looks Great, because they could start immediately and do much of the debris removal, on a 100% reimbursable basis before the deadline on March 18th.

    Another contractor was present at the meeting, who wanted to bid on debris removal if the council opened for competitive bidding, which would have taken a week or more of procedural delays to let a contract, even under emergency conditions.

    Mayor Johnson said, “We have already spent over $80,000 on clean-up for the April storm in Branch Heights and the November 29, 2022, tornado which destroyed part of Sagewood and residences north of Kirkwood, storms which did not meet the threshold for a national disaster declaration. We need to get as much work done now, when we can get 100% reimbursement from FEMA.”

    Sean Hunt, Executive Vice President of Emergency Response and Procurement for Looks Great Services said, “We have the equipment and personnel to remove the debris in the city by the March 18 deadline, if we have weather conditions that will permit us to work for the next three weeks.”

    At its February 15, 2023, meeting, the Eutaw City Council agreed to work on a Fiscal Sustainability Plan for the Water and Sewer System, a Fats, Oils and Grease Control Plan, a Water and Sewer Operator and Staffing Plan, and a Professional Tank Maintenance Service agreement. All of these plans are required by ADEM as part of their funding process for the first $5.2 million grant of a promised $30 million-dollar, 5-year program, to upgrade the unified Eutaw-Boligee water and sewer system.

    Corey Martin, Eutaw Water Operator said, “The State of Alabama is not going to invest $30 million in our water and sewer system without some assurance that its investment will be supported and maintained.”

    Asked if these plans would require a water and/or sewer rate increase, the Mayor and Martin indicated that there were no plans for an immediate increase but over time there would likely be an increase in water and sewer rates, possibly tied to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which has been increasing due to rising wages and prices in the economy.

    It was clear to this reporter, that ADEM’s request for these reports would lay the economic factual basis for a water and sewer increase, to keep pace with inflation in the economy and the need to repair and maintain the improved water and sewer system over time.

    In other business at the February 15th meeting, the council:

    • Approved a grant application to the Rebuild Alabama Act for resurfacing the Lower Gainesville Road.

    • Approved a reimbursable loan of $10,000 to Greene County EMS for purchase of a boat to rescue people from the rivers or other bodies of water in and around the county.

    • Approved the Mayor seeking to retain a land surveyor; travel for staff to training and $150 for membership in the Eutaw Area Chamber of Commerce.

    • Approved reappointment of Roderick Fulghum and Corey Cockrell to the Zoning Board; Kevin Knott to the Airport Authority Board; and other board appointments

    • Tabled a resolution establishing rates for the use of city property, e.g., the Robert H. Young Community Center, City Parks, and other facilities.

    In other business at the February 28th meeting, the council:

    • Heard reports from the Eutaw Volunteer Fire Department, that they had answered 11 fire calls and 4 vehicle extractions; and from Greene County EMS that the ambulance service was working and had secured a boat with the reimbursable loan from the city. The Fire Department reported that they had received the new fire truck but were waiting for additional accessories before it could be placed in service.

    • Held a public hearing on the vacation of Totem Avenue and approved a resolution to vacate. This road connects Finches Ferry Road with the RockTenn box plant. The company plans to improve the road if the city awards the road and right of way to them.

    • Approved storm debris removal contract and monitoring system.

    • Approved a letter of commendation for Sgt. Latoris Woods and officer Willie Bryant for rescuing a lady motorist who drove off an embankment and into a ditch. Chief Johnson said his officers actions saved the woman’s life.

    • Approved an ordinance for Emergency Fire and Rescue Operations.

    •Approved payment of bills and claims.

  • Two-day celebration planned for 50th anniversary of ‘Greene Co. Freedom Day’, July 29, 1969, when Black people were elected to take control of county government

    NDPA Political Planning Session
    L to R: Rev. Peter Kirskey, School Board Member, Rev. William M. Branch Probate Judge candidate, Malcom Branch, Judge Branch’s son, Greene County Commissioner Franchie Burton, Dr. John Cashin, NDPA President, Rev. Thomas Gilmore, Sheriff Candidate, County Commissioner Levi Morrow, Sr., and County Commissioner Harry Means. The group shown here is meeting in a planning session for the special election for Greene County in 1968. (The Afro-American Newspaper in Baltimore MD.)
    Packed courtroom on hand for the oath taking ceremony for Greene County Commissioners and school board members listened intently as Circuit Court Judge Emmett Hildreth read a six page speech in which he lists achievements of past administrations and county bank balance. Newly elected Black officials were joined by fifth commissioner, Dennis Herndon, Probate Judge and other school board members in 1969. ( AFRO Staff Photos  By Irving H. Phillips of The Afro- American Newspaper in Baltimore MD.)

    Special to the
    Democrat by: John Zippert, Co-Publisher

    “We will be holding a two day celebration of the 50th anniversary of Greene County Freedom Day – July 29, 1969 – when a Special Election was held in the county that elected the first four Black County Commissioners and two additional Black school board members, which gave Black people control of the major agencies of government,” said Spiver W. Gordon, President of the Alabama Civil Rights Museum Movement in Eutaw, Alabama.
    This special election in the summer of 1969 was ordered by the United States Supreme Court when the names of Black candidates, running on the National Democratic Party of Alabama (NDPA), were deliberately left off the November 1968 General Election ballot by the ruling white political officials of the time. The special election of July 29, 1969 allowed Black voters, many newly registered under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, who were the majority in Greene County to have their say in a free and democratic election.
    This was a historic event, which heralded a change in political power across the Alabama Black Belt and began a generational shift in the political power in Greene County that has continued for fifty years.
    “As part of our commemorative celebration on the weekend of July 27 and 28, 2019, we will be unveiling and dedicating three monuments with the names of the ordinary people who made extraordinary contributions to changing the history of Greene County, the Alabama Black Belt, the South and the nation,” said Gordon.
    The three monuments will be dedicated on Saturday morning, July 27, 2019 from 9:00 AM to 12:00 Noon.
    The first monument will be for the Carver High School Class of 1965 and other Greene County school students, who boycotted classes and closed the schools to demonstrate against segregated schools and unacceptable civil rights conditions in Greene County at that time. The Class of 1965 closed the schools for the remainder of the spring 1965 semester and there was no formal graduation that year. Many of the students received a “Freedom Diploma” signed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph D. Abernathy and James Orange, at Brown’s Chapel Church in Selma, Alabama later in the summer.
    The monument at the former Carver High School, now the Robert H. Cook Community Center, features the names of over 120 young people that took part in the school boycott and demonstrations of 1965, which led to the voting rights and election struggles later in that decade.
    The second monument will be placed in front of ‘The Freedom House’, home of the late Annie Thomas and Rosie Carpenter on Highway 14 in Eutaw. These two courageous sisters, one a businesswoman and the other a school teacher, allowed their home to be used, starting in the 1960’s and continuing into the 1990’s for strategy sessions and political action planning meetings related to the civil and voting rights struggles of Greene County.
    The third monument to be placed in front of the current Robert Brown Middle School and former Greene County High School site, to honor the young African-American students who first integrated the schools of Greene County in the 1960’s. The names of 45 or more persons are on this marker.
    On Saturday, July 27, 2019 at 6:00 PM there will be a banquet honoring the foot soldiers who participated in the civil rights and voting rights movement of the 1960’s in Greene County. Among the living leaders who participated in the struggle, who have agreed to attend are: Rosie Carpenter (who now lives in Bowie, Maryland), Bill Edwards (Portland, OR), Atty. Sheryl Cashin (daughter of John Cashin from Washington, D. C.) Fred Taylor, Tyrone Brooks, and Dexter Wimbush (Georgia), Wendell H. Paris (Jackson, MS), Judge John England, Hank Sanders, Sen. Bobby Singleton and many other dignitaries.
    On Sunday July 28, 2019, at 4:00 PM there will be a Freedom Rally, honoring the fallen Black political leaders of Greene County, at the William M. Branch Courthouse in Eutaw.
    The rally will be followed by a fish-fry and watermelon eating fellowship meeting on the grounds of the old Courthouse in Eutaw.
    For more information and to support the Freedom Day 50th anniversary celebration, contact: Spiver Gordon, Alabama Civil Rights Museum Movement, Inc., P. O. Box 385, Eutaw, Alabama 35462; phone 205-372-3446;
    email:
    spiverwgordon@
    hotmail.com