PHOTO: The DeKalb County Commission reviews a job posting for the revenue commission before approving. (Tyler Pruett | Southern Torch)
By Tyler Pruett, Managing Editor
FORT PAYNE, Ala. — (Full Video at the Bottom) The DeKalb County Commission convened on Tuesday (June 13, 2017) for it's regular meeting. President Ricky Harcrow reported that District I Commissioner Shane Wootten's mother was ill and in Birmingham. Our prayers go out to Commissioner Wootten and his family.
For the first order of business after approving the minutes, Tom Broyles of the County Road Department provided his customary update. Broyles reported that they are, "still in the pothole patching business, as usual. That'll be something we are always doing a quite a bit of. We're continuing on with that. We've been hauling chert the last few days."
He also reported that the department had done a bridge replacement on Lookout Mountain. The road department removed an old wooden, one lane bridge and replaced it. He also reported the department was having bad luck with the first round of herbicide spraying due to wind, rain, and equipment trouble.
Broyles also reported on the status of paving in District II: "Our paving contractor, Mr. Watts, came in yesterday down in District II. He resurfaced a couple of roads, and did a double surface treatment on a couple of them. They liked the seal treatment on one of those roads. He said he'll be back in towards the end of next week, that's really dependent on the weather," said Broyles. "He's having trouble finding material. The people that's supplying him with rock are not keeping up with the demand he has for it. So he's having to find new vendors to buy rock from. He said he's really struggling with that."
The department also had a personnel item, with Clay Varner being hired to fill the open vacancy. The hire was approved by the commission.
Next the commission called up Heath Crowe, IT director for the DeKalb County Commission, to discuss a software upgrade for the County's Road department.
"The road department software is severely out of date. The best we can recollect, this was put in place in the mid 90's. Early to mid nineties. It's starting to run with some issues and some errors. We've started to look at software providers," said Crowe. "We've found a vendor that everyone likes, and they are low-bidder on the project, and they are out of Montgomery. They provide the road department software for 33 of the 67 counties in Alabama, so the platform is widely used and accepted throughout all the counties."
Crowe also stated that the new software would allow the county engineering department to interface with the new software, and currently could not with the old software. The software would allow the engineers to generate their own reports, and to track what work was done on which road.
"Could you briefly give us the costs of that?" Asked President Harcrow.
"The base system itself will be $650.00 per month, and we need one additional add-on to that, that's for the equipment rental rates, and that's going to be $525.00 per year," replied Crowe.
"Are those numbers fixed numbers?" Asked County Attorney Charles E. Mauney. "Yes," Crowe replied.
"The contract states specifically that those are fixed numbers? They won't vacillate based on usage?" Asked Mauney.
"No." Crowe replied. "It's an unlimited number of users. Currently we'll have Karen at the Road Department and Ben (Luther) also on it, so if the commissioners also want a sign-in ID they can have their own sign-in ID at no additional fee."
"What about gigabyte time use if that's involved?" Then asked Mauney.
"It's all on our servers that we have here locally. So I'm prepared to offer that stuff up at zero equipment costs; we already have the equipment in place. So there will be zero equipment cost, it will only be a software upgrade," explained Crowe.
"Does this system have the capability of performing the same tasks that Rex is doing now, as far as fuel management costs?" Asked District III Commissioner Chris Kuykendall.
"It actually can. Those are some existing modules that are in with the base package. So if we choose to roll our fuel management into this, it's all integrated," explained Crowe.
The commission then approved the upgrade.
At the Sheriff's Office, Chief Jailer Jonathan Langley explained that the office had a couple resignations. Craig White (School Resource Officer), Carissa Butler (Corrections Officer), and Clay Monroe had resigned. Langley also pointed out that, "a couple of others" had not returned to work and had not called in, but had not yet tendered their resignations. The commission accepted the resignations.
To fill four of the open vacancies, the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office hired Adam Jackson (Full Time Dispatcher), Crimson Long (Full Time Corrections Officer), Demetrius Green (Part Time), and Leah Hitchcock-Davis (Part Time). The commission approved the new hires.
In other items from the Sheriff's Office, an administration employee asked the commission to allow them to be billed by Network Fleet to upgrade tracking devices on four vehicles.
"We'd just like to get approved to be billed through Network Fleet for some tracking devices for our transport vehicles, and there will be one used for patrol just as needed. We already have four tracking devices, and they've been billed through Verizon," she explained.
"But that equipment is out of date, and no longer available. So to upgrade, we have to go through this new system. It will be a one-time fee of $200.00 for equipment, and it will be $13.50 a month through Network Fleet," she said. The commission approved the motion.
For the last item of business, County Administrator Matt Sharp explained that Revenue Commissioner's Office needed to post an open position to fill the role of Ben Womack, who resigned a few months ago. The commission approved the final item.
The next meeting of the DeKalb County Commission will be June 27, 2017 at 10 am in the DeKalb County Activities building.
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