PHOTO: The Rainsville City Council voted to partially tint the windows on city hall and purchased a gun safe for the city annex. (File Photo)
By Tyler Pruett, Managing Editor
RAINSVILLE, Ala. — In Tuesday’s meeting of the Rainsville City Council, Mayor Rodger Lingerfelt brought up several spending items that in his opinion were needed for city hall and the city annex. While the Mayor explained each item, it was up to members of the council to put the items in the form of a motion, as the mayor cannot make a motion.
In the first such item, the mayor found it necessary to purchase a safe for the city annex to keep important documents and cash drawers in overnight. The new safe is to be purchased from the DeKalb County Farmer’s Coop for $999.00.
“We had remodeled that room over there to put a safe to make it more fire proof. We’ve got an hour fire rating on that room. We’ve found a safe at the DeKalb County Coop with a two hour rating,” explained Lingerfelt
When asked what kind of safes they sell, a representative from Coop responded, “only gun safes.”
In another item brought up by the mayor, the aging blinds on the windows necessitated that the windows be tinted. And according to the mayor, like most spending items, will lead to cost savings.
“For $1546.00 we can do the front half of that building and then later on do the second half,” explained Mayor Lingerfelt.
“Is that the mirrored that you can see from the outside in, but can see the inside out?” asked Councilman Brandon Freeman.
“Yes,” Lingerfelt responded.
“What’s to be hidden at the city hall?” asked Councilman Marshall Stiefel.
“UV (Ultraviolet Rays),” responded Freeman and Lingerfelt in unison. “Just the sun rays coming in makes everything hotter and makes it more expensive to cool,” Lingerfelt added.
The window tinting passed with Stiefel being the only vote against. Stiefel said the "no" vote was part of his ongoing effort to control what he deems as, "out of control spending."
The mayor also found it necessary to change and upgrade the communications systems at city hall. While the upgrades will cost over $4000.00 initially, the mayor insists that the savings will save money in the long run.
“If we change out the phone system and do all that we were talking about doing, it’ll cost $4050.00 to do the installation, but the savings per month is $300.” Lingerfelt stated.
“Over the period of the rest of this term, we’ll have $9000 worth of savings than where we are at now,” he explained.
“This is just a better way for making it more secure in the city, for all the different information we have over there on the computer system,” concluded Lingerfelt.
