County Commission Agendas - Regular Meeting

for the call. At this time, I'd like to call to order the February 23rd, 2026 County Commission meeting. Thanks for everyone being here. And uh this time, I'd like to ask Mr. Henry, please call the role to establish qu. Commissioner Goldie, present. Commissioner Kmer, present. Commissioner Buckner, Commissioner McBride, present.

We do have a quorum. as we all stand our county before you education and ask your ability to lead our pledge of alle. Let's pray. God, our father in heaven, we we come before you and we offer thanks for the blessings you give us each and every day as a community and individually. We know God during this period of time that uh in our community there are many people that are ill from flu and co and different things. And so we just uh offer prayer for uh healing and comfort and care and for those that are caring for them providing medical help. So God just be with all of them and help them uh in every way that you can pray your watch over us and guide us in Christ's name. Amen.

Amen. Salute. Please aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

It's in your in your packet portion of the meeting. We have two items for discussion session tonight. Uh so with that uh do I have one by the way one of the things that we have been asked to do is to uh take the uh item regarding hightop property off tonight's agenda and move it to our next meeting and we will do that and place it in the work session for next meeting. So with that, do I have a motion to approve the February 23, 2026 agenda amended to remove work session item 7 A2 Hightop property? Make a motion.

We have a motion. Do you have a second? Second. We have a second. All in favor say I. Motion carries. Any awards, presentations none tonight. Any public comment? No. So with that, we will move into the portion of the meeting. First item on the agenda, it was the uh minutes for our February the 9th meeting. So I have a motion to adopt the minutes for the February 926 meeting session. Motion.

We have a motion. Have a second. Second. Any questions, discussion? Not all in favor say I. Motion carries. Thank you. Our last meeting, Doug Parish, our park director, requested that we surplus a 1997 Ford F150 pickup. Um, so his email is in the packet requesting that we did have a discussion last session. So, do I have a motion to approve the surplus of the 19974 F-150 uh parks department? Motion. Have a second. Have a second. Any questions? If not, all in favor say I.

Motion carries. Thank you.

Also, in the last meeting, u we had been requested to consider placing road markers on County Road 17. Um, and so we had a discussion regarding that. Uh, the price for that to cover the 9.2 miles, it would be $7,92620. We approved that motion last meeting, but we do need to do a budget amendment tonight for that. And the budget amendment would be to our fund 119. And that budget amendment would be to increase the expenditure of that fund by the $7,926.20. So, do I have a motion to approve the budget amendment for the county road 17 pavement markers by increasing fund 119 expenditure account by $7,92620?

Make money. We have a motion. Have a second. Second. Have a second. Any questions, discussion? Not. All in favor say I. Motion carries. Thank you.

Tonight, we also need to appoint a one individual who served on the Department of Human Resource Board. We have an opening for one unexpired term. We do have nine applicants. Uh those applicants include Alicia Woodro, Michael Proctor, Heather Andrews, Tanya Muman, Tony Baker, Teresa Johnson, Corey Palmer, Don Crabtree, and Samuel. You do have the uh request for their consideration as well as those that submitted information in your packet. First uh in your packet is Alicia Woodro. It says she's a registered nurse since 2017 from 2017 to 2021. Practiced at a pediat pediatric mental health hospital to provide care to children with significant behavioral emotional needs. That included children who were in state custody. And since 2022, she served as a public school nurse in Tra. Um through her experience, she's gained familiarity with the child welfare system and the role VHR plays in ensuring child safety. Second applicant, Michelle Promptive request her is she's requesting an appointment to the board and that she is highly interested in serving the counties of this board and helping the citizens of my

I'm sorry Michael did not read it tonight. Apologize for that. Uh next is uh Feather Andrews. Um, she has stated in her request that she's deeply committed to supporting the mission of DHR and strengthening services that protect children, support families, and promote the well-being of our community. And she would like to bring a strong he brings a strong interest in public service, community advocacy, and ethics for governance. and she has a particular passion about ensuring transparency, accountability, and equitable access to the services provided by DHR. Also in your packet is a letter of interest from Tanya Newman as well as a resume that she has attempt she has attached to her letter. U in her letter, she states that she's deeply interested in serving the community. Um, and she holds an associates degree in Spanish education, a bachelor's degree in sociology, currently pursuing a master's degree in psychology, and she's developed a strong understanding of human behavior, family dynamics, cultural awareness, and the social challenges meaning individuals face. And she states that her background in sociology has given her insight into how social systems impact everyday life. While the psychology studies continue to strengthen the understanding of mental health, resilience and importance of supportive services, she has attached a a resume of experience and education through request. Next, uh Tony Baker uh sends an email requesting consideration space. He has 30 years of

law enforcement experience, including 25 years for the Jackson County Sheriff's Office. In the last 10 years, Siri is a lieutenant in investigations. And during his career, worked numerous cases involving VHR related to children, families, and vulnerable individuals. That gives him a strong understanding of the importance of DHR. Next applicant, Claricea Johnson has submitted a list of experienced work experiences include sales associate uh medical receptionist, medical assistance reception, cashier, sales associate, administrative assistant receptionist uh and others. And uh he also submitted a list of skills uh that would be appropriate for the HR point. Next, applicant Cory Palmer has submitted a letter of request as well as several letters of recommendation. Um, he states he's a lifelong resident of Jackson County with over 30 years of community service. His professional expertise till he holds a degree in business management and a technical degree in Hback. Um he is a certified trustbased relational intervention uh practitioner and trainer and um it allows him to train others in evidence-based trauma informed care which is a critical asset for advising the DHR policy and supporting family. leadership and personal experience. In the past seven years, served as president of the local foster and adopted parent association, has raised three biological children, fostered for eight years, and adopted three children

through the DHR system, and currently has one child with foster care. lifelong community service has got 30 years of service including volunteering with local fire departments and co- coaching youth activities. There are two letters of recommendation this package. One from Jennifer Owens provided reference for Cy Palmer for the position. Uh she was a social worker at DHR met Mr. Palmer 2018 and recognizes he became president of the Jackson County Foster and Adopted Parents Association. It states that he fosters a very positive environment through honesty and open. The second letter is provided by Emily Tubs who is the director of the Jackson County Department of Human Resources and a recommendation space that she offers her recommendation for Mr. honor for consideration to the board position and that he is currently president of the Jackson County Foster Adoptive Parent Association and his experience in working with foster parents, our foster children and uh community members and she recognizes that experience and she appreciates the opportunity to provide support. Next uh request is from Don Crabtree. He retired Army National Guard. He did have eight years of active army serviceing as a combat engineer and an operations non-commission officer and platoon officer. He has served on following boards academic advisory board, public relations board and promotion boards. He is a retired project plant manager for TVA, responsible plant operations,

budget and community relations. And he has served with TV on several boards including environmental compliance, safety and health, fuel and fuel handling operations, training and doc documentations. and he has served on public boards to include the Bridgeport Zoning and Planning Board and Bridgeport Housing Authority. Um, next applicant is Mr. Samuel Houston. Uh he has submitted a resume uh that includes he has been an educator for over 25 years of experience in fostering positive learning environments and empowering students adapt and adopting to diverse learning needs and be tailored educational experience. his background in education in 2020 2004 to 2006 he was at Jacksonville State University uh received an instructional leadership certificate graduated on August the 4th 2006 from 92 to 95 he was at Jacksonville State University to receive a bachelor of science and education and a social science uh end with a social science endorsement. Uh he did attend the Northeast Alabama Community College as a transfer of course from Jackson State University. Uh his experience includes classroom teachers from 95 to 2005 and 2017 to 2019. A teacher administrative assistant from 2005 to 2007. principal from 2007 to 2017. His head baseball coach from 2005 to 2007, an assistant baseball coach from 1999 to 2004 and again in 2025.

And assistant football coach from 1995 to 20 2007 and 2023 to 2025. Uh he has been a member of the Army National Guard 1987 to 1996. He has served in the city of Stevenson. Um he has served on the Jackson County Water Authority Board and he is currently the principal of Stevenson Ray School. So we do have a a great list of candidates to consider tonight. So, at this time, do I have a motion for a nomination to appoint a board member for the unexpired term on the Department of Human Resources?

Can I ask a question? Yes, sir. It says on the applications for them for one unexpired term. Do we know how long that is? I do not have that. I'm just curious. Normally, they're sixyear terms. I believe they are sixyear terms. This will be unexpired. So, it should be a partial term, right? Do we don't know how? I I don't know the repres but do I have a nomination?

Mr. Chairman, I just like to say I think it's uh it's it's outstanding that we have nine qualified people that are so interested in serving on the board and serving citizens of our county. And uh they're all uniquely qualified. And I just I just like to uh extend my appreciation to all that have uh applied for this. And it's unfortunate we can only select one, but uh I would like to uh make a motion to uh I would like to nominate Samuel Houston to fill that unexpired time. Okay. We have a motion for Samuel Houston. Do I have a second? I'll second that. We have a second. So at this time, I'd like to have a roll call vote.

Commissioner Gold. Yes. Commissioner Kmer. Yes. Commissioner Buckner. Commissioner McBride. Yes.

Okay. We do have three positives. So a unanimous vote. Commissioners present. So we will appoint Mr. Sang Houston to uh to the appointment of the unexpired term for the Department of Human Resources. Again, I I would also like to say thank you to everybody. We are getting great applicants for the board positions. We're asking for that is very appeal uh of a service to the residents of Gen County. So, thank you. Uh that's the last item that we have in our new business portion of the meeting. With that, uh we will now go into the work session. We do have two items to discuss tonight. item is a panic buttons for the courthouse and courthouse annex. We've had a previous discussion with this and the commission asked uh if we could get uh more than one uh bid or the payment buttons and so let me turn it over to IT director.

Yes, sir. I remember two weeks ago I brought you a quote that was just kind of the first uh technology that I thought was going to be good for the county. It was the company Roar. You guys requested more quotes. If I did, I I actually I know a lot more about having a few more weeks to do some research. the company that we use to upgrade all our networking equipment uh throughout the county. They also work with a company called Ricotta that does this kind of work and has panic buttons. Um you have in front of you a quote from the previous quote as well as from the company C1 that is a reseller product. C1 again is the company we use to upgrade all our network and phones. So this is as apples apples as I could get it. They do it a little bit differently in what pieces of hardware they use. But as for not reliant stuff on Wi-Fi and internet as we talked about, they both are the same. They they both can use Wi-Fi and should that fail, it immediately can use cellular data to transmit that panic alarm. So both were on the same front. If you see there is a there is a price difference between the two. Um so the biggest difference that I would point out to you guys is the annual cloud cost and the annual cloud cost is cheaper with one more expensive with the other. The one that it is more that it is less expensive has the higher hardware and upfront cost. So run the numbers and run the math. And although the higher upfront cost is upfront higher between years four and five, it actually becomes the cheaper the cheaper route than the the more upfront higher cloud annual cost,

which is which is the rule.

So over a fiveyear period, it's still cheaper. But once it hits the fiveyear period after you're paying that annual cost, we we end up starting to save money between years four and five by going with C1. I'll also add with C1, this one, this is going to be my recommendation to y'all guys. I'm going to switch my recommendation to C1 because they also company also is a company that in the future should the funds become available and we look to upgrade our doors and cameras every ever again. This all will be tied in together so that with the click of that panic button, it immediately can do whatever we want as in lock down doors, record camera with cameras and and there's eventually an all-in-one system that can go along with this that I think will be good for the county in the future. And so if we can go ahead and start with that route, I think it it's my recommendation that we go with with C1. Both are very good companies and both are a very good product that that work the same way and I would be confident in either one of them. But my recommendation is significant.

But you're you're telling us that you're proposing an initial plus five years of service. What do we do? We we've asked for one we've asked for initial and one year of service. I I just ran the math for 5 years in advance of us paying that annual fee. Since C1's annual fee is cheaper, you end up paying less over five years long term. Okay, question.

I'll I'll add that this equipment this equipment is 10 year 10ear warranty equipment. So that's kind of the life cycle of this system. Therefore, the C1 quote would also in 10 years when we need to look at replacement, we end up with less money that how's the self- service over there at Wi-Fi now? Pretty good with all major carriers.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And it it doesn't have to be great. All it needs is just a little a little bar. It it has plenty over there. My point is, as long as it has a little service, it can shoot that alert over here to dispatch and to the signal. It it seems to me given your analysis it may be appropriate that whenever we execute a contract with them we ask for an option for years two through five so that we have a price that we understand John's only get threeear contract I'm sorry threeear contract the most you can get three years okay

I will add three years is the contract that we do with our networking equipment as well with one with our cloud customer so we have base year and one year. Okay, that that is what that total cost that you see at the bottom is is installation plus that one year file service and you'll see with C1 next year we will owe that is the $1,231 and with roar it's the higher about three times that annual

yeah it's 4,000 almost But it it it at year four when we pay that year when we pay that year four annual cost it becomes cheaper to go with S. Mr. Chairman you need a motion to uh to accept this recommendation and move it to the business meeting the next meeting. Yeah we don't need a motion for this discussion. That's what this period actually. All right. Thank you.

Next item is the placement of the 250 national tree. I was requested to get some input from county extension office regarding this tree. The county is a Princeton Princeton build to be about 70 feet tall. And so we did ask our county extension, Mr. Matt Well, and members of the staff. Their recommendation is not to put it here around the courthouse because the number of trees that are already here, but to place it over at the county annex uh and to place it on the uh south uh north the northwest corner of the county annex which is at the intersection of uh Liberty Lane and Freedom Street. Um the other discussion that we had with uh county extension agent, you know, they sponsor the 4 clubs across the county and the idea of maybe having our 4 students from across the county plant the tree floors over there. Certainly, we would have the help with our maintenance department preparing for the planning, but they would really like the idea of having those students be part of the celebration and the planting of a of a tree that recognizes our 250th birthday of our nation. So, I don't think we need anything, John, tonight with that. It's just information for you, but that's the recommendation and the vote is okay, we'll proceed. We have we did receive from the last meeting to uh submit a a request that we do uh receive a tree and so that has been submitted to the the com commemorative uh committee uh for the 250th the celebration of our

nation's birthday. So with that um if there are no other questions on that do we know any kind of timeline for that? They are supposed to start uh trees in March. So that's I think that's a good time to get a tree planted before we get to the heat of the summer. So they'll notify us when ours is and we are in contact with the committee on that. Uh that's the last item on the work session. So, next we'll move to reports from the staff. County administrator. No, sir. Uh, our county engineers not here tonight. We didn't have anything on the agenda for them. So, county attorney. Thank you.

Okay. Chair.

Yeah. Chairman, commissioners. Um, I brought the information to you. I got a phone call today from the tree commission. Um, they want to they they requested for me to allow them to plant a tree memorial wells in the front lawn near the sheriff's office. I told him I couldn't make that decision. Y'all would have to that I would bring it to y'all to see what you wanted to do. I gave him the information on the type of tree. It's a brand new wide red mate and it supposedly will grow anywhere from 6 in to 12 in a year up to 25 ft. It's not a huge tree. It's green during the summer and turns it pretty red in the winter. And they've requested that I bring it before y'all will talk to you about that. Do I is there room?

Oh, I I don't I was hoping Toby would be able to talk about that, too. That's why it's just for us to get our extension agent involved in that as well. I'll let them know. We'll get them over here. I don't know if there's any great timeline. I know they've already got it got the tree. We'll get them over here this week sometime a recommendation where to put it. Okay. Uh so with that, let's move to comments from the commission. Commissioner go. Um pleasure to serve and hope everyone uh has been well and and sickness is not affecting people too much and uh I appreciate the hard work of all the employees. Thank you,

Mr. Ch. Uh repeat what he said. Appreciate all the work everybody does. Must be safe things going on because we haven't had any bad news here lately. So, very thankful for that.

Commissioner McB like to echo my constituents comments. Also, like I say, it's a pleasure working with this group and feel like that we accomplish um a lot for our county and what we set out to do is in the best interest of our county. want to say thank you to all the the folks who actually applied for our DHR board. A lot of time went into it. Like they've already stated, we it's a non-paid position. So, you know, the willingness to serve our county um just speaks volume to our character people in Jackson County. Also like to say thank you to all our employees for the hard work they put in and everything they do. Thank you.

We've been at our next meeting date. That's March the 9th. It'll be at 5:00. It will be here in the commission meeting. I'd like to say thanks to everybody being here, you know, say the same as all our commissioners. We have a great great group of people working for Jackson County that get up every day to get come to work to take care of our people across the county. So, thank you to all of them. Uh, with that, uh, do I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? We have a motion. You have a second. Second. Second. All in favor say I. I. Thank you.