Courthouse lighting and trucks top county agenda

Courthouse emergency lighting and gravel hauling trucks for each precinct led discussions at the Shelby County Commissioners’ Court meeting Wednesday, March 6.

Repairing emergency stairwell lighting in the courthouse, left off original quotes for replacing lighting throughout the building, was discussed in prior meetings.

Other fixtures have since been replaced.

“Significant cost” compared to the expense of lighting throughout the rest of the building has been holding up approval. The quote to replace the emergency lighting alone was $11,000 for 17 fixtures, while the cost of 224 light fixtures for the main part of the building was $22,000.

At the last meeting, Comm. Pct. 4 Tom Bellmyer requested the contractor, 4C Electrical Services, to provide schematics of the proposed lights.

“Mr. Clark has provided me with some schematics on all the lighting, and I’ve got them to Tom,” said County Judge Allison Harbison.

“I looked at the data sheets on the lights,” said Bellmyer. “And, of course, the emergency lighting is substantially different.” He said cost differences were the battery backup and the circuitry.

Adding that he was “pretty comfortable” with pricing, Bellmyer said he thought the court should proceed because he thought the lights had not been replaced since the county bought the acquire the building. The court approved the lighting replacement.

Comm. Pct. 3, Stevie Smith, proposed purchasing haul trucks for each road and bridge precinct with American Rescue Plan Act funds.

“I think if we purchase these trucks for each precinct with ARPA funds, it would be a long-term investment for the county,” Smith asserted.

Smith said trucks used to pull gravel trailers, an “18-wheeler” truck could be more than $200,000 each.

County Treasurer Ann Blackwell said the proposal would use up most of the funds remaining in the ARPA account. Comm. Pct. 1 Roscoe McSwain said the ARPA account balance was approximately $1.4 million, and his estimate for cost of the trucks was “about $175,000 each.”

“We have until the end of the year to spend that money, and this is a prudent way to invest (it) for a long term of 10 to 15 years. “I think it’s a very positive thing to do with the money,” McSwain said.

Commissioners approved adding the trucks to ARPA list.

Following executive session, in open court commissioners voted to interview four applicants for a 911 coordinator and to accept the resignation of the current county office building custodian.

The court also agreed to advertise for a part-time custodian until a permanent replacement could be found. The part-time position is scheduled to be filled April 2.

Finally, the court voted to allow the county judge to contract for a dumpster for cleanup work at the AgriLife building.

In other business, the court approved and paid the weekly expenses and recorded the racial profiling report for Constable, Pct. 3.