SHOALS — The Martin County Council began their meeting Monday night with a moment of silence in memory of the late councilman John Stoll, who passed away unexpectedly on Dec. 27.
“We’ll miss him,” said council member Richard Summers with other members nodding in agreement.
Being the reorganizational meeting, the council voted to keep Summers as the council president and Randy Wininger as the vice president. Also, Auditor January Roush administered the oaths of office for council members Lonnie Hawkins and Warren Albright who did not attend the ceremony held on Dec. 28.
In other business, Roush presented the amended salary ordinance for the council’s approval.
Roush explained that for whatever reason, some of the salaries were input wrong in the budget, several higher than what they were supposed to be. For the salaries that were put in lower than they should be, Roush said additional appropriations will have to be done for those next month, once the budget is approved. The council accepted the salary changes. Those salaries changed include probation administrative assistant from $12,600 to $12,500, level III assessor to $1,000 that wasn’t included in the budget, circuit court bailiff from $5,770 to $5,000, five jail officers from $111,075 to $111,575 and highway general mechanic from $31,172 to $30,868.
Auditor Roush also submitted an ordinance for approval authorizing the purchase of a blanket bond for county officers, employees and commission members. According to Roush, the state auditor recommended that the bonds be increased. The council approved.Tim Kinder, Martin County Alliance director, updated the council on a project at WestGate. The new company, yet to be announced, purchased two of the county’s four acres at the tech park recently.
Kinder said that while the owners, who are Martin County residents, do not want the nature of the business released, he did say that they are not defense contractors and will be more of an amenity-type business for the tech park. He stated that they would be asking for tax abatement in the future.
Councilwoman Lynn Gee expressed some concern with a new fire station being built at WestGate and the affect it would have on the Crane base fire department by causing it to close. She said she has been approached on the issue and those who spoke to her were upset. Kinder stated he would look into the matter.
With no further business, the meeting concluded after just eight minutes.
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