Remarks by Stan Batemon
232 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 8 of 10
Yeah, but the other counties, for instance, Jefferson County hadn't got a four-cent fuel tax that they can even ask them to share. Jefferson County doesn't have a one-cent sales tax. It goes all 100% into the county general fund. So they don't have resources to ask for out of Leeds that our other ten municipalities have. So Leeds is a little different.
We're jealous of their occupational tax. Any municipality in this town can have one if you want to go propose it and put it on your agenda to vote on tomorrow. Don't you all have the authority?
There you go. That's a political question. They have one because somebody over there had the political courage to pass an occupational tax.
I'll share with you some of our conversations that we've had during the budgeting process related to the municipalities. There's still some people that still feel like you should get part of the $0.04 fuel tax. And by the way, you don't get any of it right now. Zero. This much right here. You get zero. And some of you hit me up over the years about pointing that out. You get zero. So we give you $1 million. And the mayor's association, I thought, was a great agreement. Because you did lift up the small communities by splitting that money equally. Everybody got $100,000. But you got that out…
Yeah, Freddie, would you like to speak to that? I think Freddie's original figures to us when we started looking at the budget.
And why did we choose them? We went along with firing EMS. And working with the police agencies, what do y'all want? Your chief wants such and such brand. And your chief wants such and such brand. And your chief wants, even if it's this brand, he wants these features. And we didn't dictate the features or the brands. But within that, we had to accommodate whether those radios would operate on the system we chose.
Well, I would have never proposed it if I didn't feel like, in reality, it was possible at 100,000 per municipality times 10. Because it is possible. But I really believe it's definitely possible now at 50. If we could tell you that all of you, when you start your budget process next year in April and May, and you knew you were going to get 50. That'd be something. If you just know from year to year, this is what you're going to get. And our decision wouldn't affect you that year. It wouldn't affect you until the next year. Or my proposal was it wouldn't affect you for 10. We're going to tell…
Okay. Once again, I think it's been a good meeting overall. A little more understanding, a little more history. That's one thing that we miss as we transition into newer people. We just take it for granted sometimes that we all know how we got here. We don't. It changes all the time. So these meetings if nothing else get us caught up a little bit on the history how did we get here and you know the path was a little rocky but it's been pretty good overall it's been pretty good the history of the cooperation between the county and municipalities I think will only continue to get better because…
And we are. And we are. As he jogged out the door. Oh, boy. I know that's a scary thing. How do we produce more revenue? First thing we have to do is make sure that people think we're taking the money that we're taking now and using it wisely. And we've always got a trust situation there. Are we using it wisely? We think we are. We wouldn't have made that decision. Sure we are. We've got no waste. There you go. Anything else? Okay. Glad y'all are here. Y'all are more than welcome to stay for the entire meeting. We've got reports coming from Clay. He's going to report on some paving that's…
All right. Then we will move on with our agenda then. And the next item on the agenda is Clay Phillips, the county engineer. And while Clay comes to the microphone to give us his report, let me point this out. We mentioned 19th Street and Pell City. Up until just a few years ago, 19th and Pell City wasn't even a question. Neither was Depot Street, and neither was the street in Moody that runs in front of City Hall. Those were county roads based... That determined some federal money that we got. There were some changes made in the Federal Highway Administration on how that federal money came…
Yeah, it came with strings attached, didn't it, Clay? Feds told us how to build that road. Now then, the feds don't tell us how to build that road. So we don't want to build less of a road. We want your right of ways to be just as wide. You're draining to meet the standards set by the certain standards that are out there. So that's kind of what Clay's dealing with. His company shifts gears too, but it is one of the largest pools of money that we spend in this county because the one of the main things we do is we design build and maintain public roads to the county and we could do that for…
They're in the cities. We don't want to run from that. Yeah. If you ever have a county commission that gets up here and says, that's not our road anymore. Well, that was because we said it would. We can keep saying it's ours if we want to. And so we're going to keep maintaining that to each street, Depot Street. Park Avenue and Steel Road, Park Avenue, Kelly Creek Road, Steel all the way to the stop sign on Highway 11, Springville, County Road 9, County Road 9. Where does it start, Clay? Starts at the railroad track. 11. Starts at Highway 11.
Goes through a big chunk of Springville, and then up the mountain, outside Springville. Well, Springville City. County line. Springville City 11 is down. Goes to the county line, don't it? No. Well, I think it's time for y'all to annex that mountain. Take that mountain.
Row Lane Road? We used to always do Row Lane Road when it was dirt. I remember thinking, what are we doing to Row Lane Road?
That was a federal aid road, Trust Ferry. Right there. But that's the one we did. By the refractory.
It was a weird route. It turned off of 78 on Trust Ferry Road. It came down to the stop sign. It turned right and went up Golf Course Road. It got to Mace Bend Road, turned to the left, and went down to Cedar Lane, turned to the right, and went over to Highway 34. That was the federal aid route, which was all ours. It's crazy. Part of this history is scary. I'm glad we don't have all that. Clay, you patched all the potholes.
You heard the recommendation, remove those items from the inventory. It's about three pickup trucks, and they're old. And one of them's a 2002. So we're taking some old vehicles out of the inventory out there and putting them on the gov deals to be sold. Entertain a motion? Motion. Second? Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Approved. We approve the recommendation of the county engineer. OK.
Usually two at best that's yes that's that's where we're at I'll bring it up too I've had I've had other requests from a couple of citizens and I'm sure this is why I got also a request from officials in the city of Leeds about a red light coming out of the subdivision down there that's been on our plate for years and years and years It's on a state highway. And now the city street. It just keeps getting to be a larger and larger subdivision. And the people can't get out in the mornings. What's the time, Oliver? Oliver's crossing the red light on US 411.
It takes, like I say, it takes a little bit. We're probably... They've both been on the plate for years and years and years.
David BURRAGE. Does any city in the county that y'all know of have their own roundabout? Is there a county roundabout?
Let me ask the question again. Does the county have a roundabout? No. No. Does any city own a roundabout? No. Those roundabouts were built by Federal Highway Safety Funds. And there's just a certain amount of money every year allocated to those our state's been pretty aggressive at getting that money and yeah we've got some roundabouts in some places that look more like eggs than they do circles but but if you see a roundabout it wasn't because the county built a roundabout they're and they're pretty expensive they do they do decrease fatal accidents and serious accidents because the speed of…
I just want to go into D.C.'s real important. I know. I got my hat. Y'all got yours. The mayor, there you go. The mayor and the mayor of Pro Tem went to D.C. last year. That's why those trips are so important.
Go and get with the right people. Take the right people. Discuss it with staff that's the right people to handle that. You may be discussing a highway project and they'll be over there just smiling and having a big time. In a meeting and it's a person that actually handles health care that's gonna change that didn't help you get to washington dc you want to meet with the person if you're out there about a road meet with the person that's responsible for roads okay so okay all right number three finish up there that's we've got to finish up number two we got stephen in my eyes all right are…
DAVID BURRAGE- Properly moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. DAVID BURRAGE- All opposed, no. Motion carries. Thank you.
Second. DAVID BURRAGE- Properly moved and seconded. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. DAVID BURRAGE- All opposed, no. Motion carries. OK.