COMMISSION MEETING
July 10, 2007

CALL TO ORDER AND WELCOME
A regular meeting of the Cullman County Commission was held Tuesday, July 10, 2007 at 10:00 a.m., in the County Commission Office Conference Room, Chairman Kitchens called the meeting to order and welcomed all visitors. 

CALL OF ROLL TO ESTABLISH QUORUM, INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Present were Chairman Wiley Kitchens, Commissioner Doug Williams, Commissioner Wayne Willingham and Attorney Dan Willingham. Attorney Willingham gave the invocation and Chairman Kitchens lead the pledge of allegiance. 

APPROVE MINUTES, APPROPRIATIONS, EXPENDITURES, REQUISITIONS, TRAVEL EXPENSE AND ALL JOURNAL ENTRIES TO BE POSTED
Commissioner Willingham made the motion to approve. Commissioner Williams seconded, and upon a voice vote, the motion carried unanimously. 

PUBLIC HEARING FOR CARTS TO APPROVE FUNDING
Mr. Donnie Smith, Director of Carts stated each year a public hearing is held to approve Carts funding for grant money. This hearing was published in the paper, if the public has any questions or concerns, I will be glad to address them.

No question or concerns were addressed.

PUBLIC COMMENTS
Chairman Kitchens ask that all departments begin to work on budgets for the next fiscal year.

NEW BUSINESS

Consider approving Section 5311 application funding for Carts Fiscal Year 2008
Carts Director Donnie Smith stated he needed approval from the commission to file the application for grant money for Carts for fiscal year 2008.
Commissioner Williams made the motion to approve Section 5311 application for funding. Commissioner Willingham seconded, and upon a voice vote, the motion carried unanimously. 
 
Bid No. 900 – Mobile Mortuary Unit – EMA Office
Phyllis Little, EMA Director stated no bids were received for the Mobile Mortuary Unit. I need approval from the commission to seek proposals for this unit. 
Commissioner Williams made the motion for the EMA Director to seek proposals for the Mobile Mortuary Unit. Commissioner Williams also added this is being paid for by a grant not Cullman County. Commissioner Willingham seconded, and upon a voice vote, the motion carried unanimously. 

Consider grant agreement between the Alabama Department of Public Health and Cullman County EMA (Grant No. CEP-33-QW7-07(C70119205)
Ms. Little stated Cullman County had received a grant in the amount of $17,500.00 for the Mobile Mortuary Project. It’s a short term grant that we just received the paper work. This grant is for June 1 thru August 31, so we need to move fast on this grant. 
Commissioner Williams made the motion to allow the Chairman and EMA Director to sign the grant. Commissioner Willingham seconded, and upon a voice vote, the motion carried unanimously. 

Consider variance for Cedar Cove Subdivision, located in District 2 off County Road 330
Attorney Willingham stated the subdivision in review does not meet the requirements as they now exist. It will take a variance for this subdivision to work, because of the terrain in this area. What they have done is there’s a large parcel that will have a private easement that goes to it. This will not be a public road but a private easement the buyers will be aware because when they look at the plat they will see there’s no public road that goes to that easement. We are asking the commission to grant a variance for this one lot to have an easement to it. (Approve this subdivision plat as it is now with this variance.)
Commissioner Willingham made the motion to approve the variance for Cedar Cove Subdivision. Commissioner Williams seconded, and upon a voice vote, the motion carried unanimously. 
 
Authorize Juvenile Detention Director to explore the benefits of long-term expansion
I need the commission’s approval to explore and apply for license for a long term facility. Currently Cullman County pay’s another facility for four long term beds. There are three key components first a school, outdoor rec. area and a medical unit to our facility. I need the commission approval to speak with architects and other counties to see if they are interested in contracting with Cullman if we decide to proceed. The cost to put a juvenile in long-term is anywhere from $90.00 to $150.00 per day. 
Commissioner Williams made the motion to allow the Juvenile Detention Director to look into the possibilities of a long-term facility. Commissioner Willingham seconded, and upon a voice vote, the motion carried unanimously. 

Discuss water fees
Mr. David Bussman, Manager of the Cullman County Water Department stated he had five items he would like to present to the commission for the next Commission Meeting. First is discontinuing the leak policy for the Water Department, where if you have a leak at your house we will average the bill for the past six months and charge you that rate plus half of what your bill was. Second item is a seasonal usage rate, this rate will apply to customers that use less than 2000 gallons over a total of a four month period. We have a lot of temporary living especially in the Smith Lake area and in the winter we have to dump a lot of water on the ground to keep the quality of water because it’s not being used. Third item is a wording change on service fees, now we charge $40.00 for owners and $75.00 for renters. We would like to make that where if you provide a letter of good credit it’s a $40.00 fee and if you don’t have a letter of credit that fee would go to $75.00. Fourth item is the change in meter tapping fees. A regular ¾ “ meter would go up to $550.00, that’s from $450.00. A 1” meter would go to $850.00 from $750.00 and this would include up to five hundred feet of main extension. Fifth item is that if any account is not active for twelve consecutive month period, we would be able to ternate that service at the main. Currently Cullman County has 2200 services not in use. We would like for the commission to consider letting us (water department) take those meters out of the ground. I would like the commission to consider these five items for your next Commission Meeting. 

OLD BUSINESS

NEXT REGULAR COMMISSION MEETING JULY 24, 2007
Chairman Kitchens announced the next regular Commission Meeting will be Tuesday, July 24, 2007 at 10:00 a.m. in the Commission Office Conference Room.

ADJOURN 
Commissioner Williams made the motion to adjourn. Commissioner Willingham seconded.

______________________________	_____________________________ 	        __________________________ 
Wiley Kitchens, Chairman			J. Douglas Williams			        Wayne Willingham
						Associate Commissioner 		         Associate Commissioner