Tag Archives: Garria Spencer

Greene County Commission urges ‘yes’ vote on Amendment 1 on March 5th primary ballot

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The Greene County Commission held its regular monthly meeting on Monday, February 12, 2024. All five commissioners were present, including: Corey Cockrell, Chair and District 3, Garria Spencer, District 1, Tennyson Smith, District 2, Allen Turner, District 4, and Roshonda Summerville, District 5. The Commissioners handled an agenda of routine business, taking a forty-minute Executive Session to discuss personnel and legal matters, without announcing any actions that needed to be approved by vote.
The Commission approved a resolution urging voters to support Amendment No. 1 on the March 5th primary ballot. Amendment No. 1 would allow the Alabama Legislature to consider and approve ‘local legislation” by a majority vote prior to passing a budget in the session.
Currently the legislative rules require a 60% super-majority for votes on legislation prior to the approval of the budget. This change would allow for easier passage of ‘local legislation’ when the Legislature does not approve a budget until the end of the session. In the past, some ‘local legislation’, including some Greene County proposals, have been lost or postponed because they could not be voted on prior to passing the state budget.
In other actions, The Greene County Commission:
• Approved levies for Alcohol Licensing for 2024-2025.
• Approved a contract with M&H Construction for $1,950 to replace ceiling tiles at J. C. Poole Memorial Library, that were damaged in a recent storm. The Commission had already repaired the library roof with insurance funds.
• Approved contract with the State of Alabama for clean-up at dump site on County Road 181; and also accepted state funding for clean-up of up to three other illegal dump sites.
•Approved travel for Assistant Engineer to attend a training class in March in Prattville, Alabama.
•Approved purchase of a full-page ad in the Greene County Democrat’s Black History issue.
•Tabled action on the Greene County Golf Course to gather more information.
The Commission also heard and accepted a financial report from CFO, Mac Underwood, in which he listed $8,610,648 in Citizens Trust Bank of which $4,189,591 is in unrestricted General Funds and $4,421,055 are in restricted funds for designated government purposes, like road and bridge repairs. He also reported $5,542,720 in Merchants and Farmers Bank, including $3,129,181 in unrestricted funds and $1,413,539 in restricted funds. This is a total of $14,153,366 in restricted and unrestricted funds available to the county government. There is also $894,166 in Bond Sinking Funds.
He also reported the expenditure of $1,769,202, in bills and claims paid for January 2024. Another $101,056 in electronic claims were paid during the same period. For the four months of the fiscal
year, October 1, 2023, to January 31, 2024, 68% of the budgeted funds are left to be utilized for expenditures this fiscal year, which is in line with proposed budget, for this point in the fiscal year.

County Commission Work Session

At the Greene County Commission’s monthly work session, held Wednesday, February 7, 2024, County Coroner, Ronald Kent Smith, presented his concern regarding his salary. Smith noted that a local Bill authorizing an increase in salary for the County Coroner was passed by the Alabama Legislature in 2020. The Bill scheduled the salary increase for the next election term. Smith was re-elected in 2022, expecting that his salary increase would go into effect at that time. To date, the Greene County Coroner has not received an increase in salary as designated in the 2020 Legislation. Smith also indicated he receives no travel compensation for transports to Montgomery. The Commission’s response was to take all this under advisement, referring the matter to the Alabama State Attorney General for an opinion on how to proceed.
The County’s Greenes Committee also addressed the Commission at this work session.relative to the Greene County Golf Course. Committee members James E. Morrow, Don Black, and Doug Bell alerted the Commission that the golf Course was in danger of closing within the next three weeks, due to lack of funds to continuing operating.
Morrow noted that the Golf Course was receiving Bingo resources until Sheriff Jonathan Benison cut off community distributions in May, 2023. Morrow indicated that there are no designated funds from the county for the Golf Course. “The county owns the Golf Course. It comes under county sponsored recreational activities, therefore the county should support it,” he stated.
The Greenes Committed stated that there are 22 members, contributing $40 per month, but it takes approximately $4,000 per month for utilities and upkeep.

Greene County Commission re-elects same officers

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Greene County Commissioners L To R: Allen Turner, Garria Spencer, Roshanda Summerville, Corey Cockrell and Tennyson Smith

At its organizational meeting for the new fiscal year, on November 13, 2023, the Greene County Commission re-elected the same officers to serve another term of one year. Corey Cockrell was elected Chairperson and Garria Spencer was elected as Vice-Chair of the Commission.

The Commission voted to retain the same committees, bank depositories and check signatories as in the past year. They also agreed to hold their regular monthly meeting on the second Monday of each month at 5:00PM. The Commission invites the public to attend their meetings.

Macelroy Underwood, County Chief Financial Officer gave a financial report to the Commission on the status of finances. As of September 30, 2023, the Commission had in Citizens Trust Bank, $2,438,866 in unrestricted General Funds and $4,179,277 in restricted funds, totaling.
$ 6,618,143.

In Merchants and Farmers Bank, the Commission had $ 2,979,181 in unrestricted funds from electronic bingo and $ 1,183,489 in restricted funds, totaling $ 4,162,670. There were also $ 889,506 in Bond Sinking Funds. The total funds in banks were $ 5,412,552 in unrestricted funds and $ 5,938,932 in restricted funds for a total of $ 11,351,484.

The Commission paid $ 1,066,072 in claims for the month of October 2023, first month of the new fiscal year. This included $ 682,635 in accounts payable, payroll of $281,164 and fiduciary expenses of $102,271, which are mandated, tax, Social Security, and retirement benefits for staff.

The expenditure budget from the General Fund showed all departments were in range of expenditures for the month in comparison to budget.

In the public comments, Sandra Walker thanked the Commission and individual commissioners for their support of the recent Miss Black Teen of Alabama Pageant held at the Renaissance Theater in Eutaw.

Team effort makes Mantua Storm Shelter accessible

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Shown above are  L to R : Fred Hughes of the Mantua Volunteer Fire Department and County Commissioner (District 1), Garria Spencer reviewing the construction that solved the problem of a ditch hindering access to the storm shelter.

Materials and labor for the project were provided by the Greene County Commission, Mantua Volunteer Fire Department and Greene County Sheriff, Jonathan Benison.

A conduit pipe was placed in the ditch and a road way concreted over the ditch. “Now our shelter is wheelchair accessible and that,’ solved our greatest concern,” stated Hughes.

Greene County Commission  handles administrative matter

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Greene County Commissioners L to R: Tennyson Smith, Allen Turner, Jr., Garria Spencer, Roshonda Summerville, Corey Cockrell with EMS President Joe Powell and  EMS Director  Chris Jones in front of new ambulance.
Before the start of the regular monthly Greene County Commission meeting Monday, December 12, 2022, the commissioners welcomed a new refurbished ambulance to the Greene County Emergency Medical Services.
The Commission provided the funding for the new ambulance from its allocation of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding.
The Commission received a financial report from . The report indicates that county expenses as of November 30, two months into the fiscal year are in line with budgetary projections which should ideally show 16% expended and 84% available.
The Commission has $6,635,619 in accounts in Citizens Trust Bank, $4,030,259 in accounts in Merchants and Farmers Bank, and $873,562 in bond sinking funds.  Most of these funds are pledged to budgeted expenses, with a smaller amount for discretionary expenses, mostly bingo proceeds and ARPA funding.
The Commission approved budgetary amendments dealing with elections and engineering costs on road projects. The Commission also agreed to advertise for a CDL licensed truck driver. They also agreed to continue the time for the garbage fee extension until December 30, 2022.
The Commission approved working with the Goodwin, Mills and Caywood architectural and engineering firm on repairs to the William M. Branch County Courthouse since only one bid was received for work on the restrooms, lobby, and courtroom.
A holiday schedule giving employees Monday and Friday off before Christmas and New Years Day, which falls on Sunday this year, was approved by the Commission. They also approved extending the time for employees who have accumulated over 208 hours of vacation leave time to utilize their extra time until April 2024.
The Commission adopted a resolution granting $500 to the Greene County Chamber of Commerce for the participation of the Stillman College Band in the Christmas parade. They also approved a resolution allowing the location of medical cannabis production and dispensary services in Greene County, if the state licenses a business to engage in those activities. The State of Alabama allowed counties to decide if they would allow these activities within their borders by the end of this year.
The Commission approved several annual agreements with the Alabama County Commission Association (ACCA) for insurance coverage.
The Commission agreed to accept a grant from ADECA for technical assistance on providing broadband in the county. An initial session under this grant will be held on December 14, 2022, for Greene County at the R. H. Young Community Center (old Carver School).
The Commission tabled the next three items on the agenda to get more information before making a decision. One involved a donation for a football booster banner for Greene County High School. The second was to allocate $5,000 in discretionary funds from bingo for each Commissioner to use for activities or organizations in their district. The third was for the use of $5.000 of ARPA funds for each the library, GCEMS, E-911 and the Greene County Industrial Development Board. Commissioner Spencer pointed out that these groups had asked for more funds, like repairing the roof on the library and that the amount allocated would not do the job.
The Commission also failed to give a second for a proposal from Commissioner Allen Turner for a 5-mil ad valorem property tax increase to provide raises for employees, support for Highway Department Projects     support for PARA, senior citizen activities, GCEMS and E-911. Turner said he plans to bring his proposal up again in future meetings. If approved by the Commission this proposal must go to the Alabama Legislature for approval and placement on the ballot for a referendum by the voters of Greene County
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