During a recent commission meeting, Chairman Phillip Jordan stated that the commission submitted four bids to Alabama Emergency Manage-ment Agency who pre-approved two of the bids. The AERR bid also covers stump removal and landscaping, Jordan said.
“Since the county has been declared a federal disaster and eligible for FEMA funds, we have been approached by numerous contractors about providing the storm debris cleanup,” said Jordan. “The county attorney, the county engineer and myself have been involved in this for about a week. I’ve talked with a couple of different folks in Montgomery with the State Emergency Management Agency on exactly what is allowable, what is not. On Thursday, I faxed the state folks a copy of all forms, proposals that were submitted to me. They reviewed them and told me our best option would be one of two companies, the first one being Alabama Emergency Response Recovery, Inc. of Montgomery, the second one, Storm Reconstruction Services, Inc. of Tuscaloosa. In comparing the two, Alabama Emergency Response Recovery, Inc. has proposed a fixed rate of $12.75 per cubic yard of vegetative debris to be removed from the storm area. The company has quoted a per stump fee depending on the size of the diameter of the stump, anywhere from $200 to $1,500. It is my understanding with that that they also go back and landscape where the stump came from.”
“FEMA has pre-approved either one of them we elect to take,” said Jordan. “Based on Alabama Emergency Response Recovery, Inc. bid, it is my recommendation that we contract with this group and that we set the performance bond at $1 million. I recommend that we ask the county attorney to draft the contract and take every precaution to look after the county’s interest in drafting the contract. We need to get it signed and to designate the county engineer as the person who is responsible for the monitoring and ultimately for the signoff on it when it is completed.”
The county approved the bid and voted to appoint Roger Hall, county engineer, as monitor and authorize the chairman to sign on behalf of the commission.
According to Jordan, the company will begin work immediately. In addition to cleaning up the county right of ways, the company will also be able to clear private property debris around dwellings at no cost to the property owner. The county will pay for the costs, and will be reimbursed through the Federal Disaster Declaration. The property owner, however, will have to sign a waiver of release of liability before the contractor will come onto the property to clean up debris.
The commission also agreed to advertise for sealed bids on the four warehouses located on property the county purchased for construction of a new administrative building a few months ago from Centre Manufacturing Company. The bids, Jordan said, are to be returned to the county commission Jan. 10, 2003. Successful bidders will have until Feb. 28, 2003 to remove the buildings with the exception of the concrete pads and the buildings will be sold one at a time. The commission will advertise in The Cherokee Post, Cherokee County Herald, The Gadsden Times, The Anniston Star, Rome News Tribune, Fort Payne papers, Piedmont Journal and also the three local radio stations, WRHY, WAGC and WEIS.
In other business, the commission:
-approved the proposed holiday schedule for 2003, which has the same number of days as last year.
-voted to cancel the second meeting in December (scheduled for Monday, Dec. 23, at 10 a.m.) because of the Christmas holidays.
-agreed to declare a printer at the Cherokee County High-way Department, which was recently damaged by lightning, as surplus property. Roger Hall, county engineer, said finding parts to replace the damaged ones might be hard to find and that the printer will probably have to be replaced
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