When the board was formed several years ago, Centre Mayor Tony Wilkie explained, board representation was made based on the population of a particular municipality.
Fort Payne, which already has a majority on the board, discussed adding two more members.
Wilkie said he and Centre City Council Member Phillip Roberts “did a lot of lobbying, politicking, whatever you might say,” to amend the Dekalb-Cherokee Gas Board’s Certificate of Incorporation.
Currently, the board consists of two members from Centre, six from Fort Payne and one from Collinsville.
“We are in the minority,” said Wilkie. “We are outvoted. There was talk of increasing their board membership by two more members. That didn’t set well with either one of us so we went to work on that. We have at our last board meeting, got it approved by the board to keep the members the same.
“The gas board attorney reminded everyboy that the verbage and the way it was written said it had to be done. It worked out. The board voted to keep the number of board members as is.”
Collinsville was scheduled to rule on a similar resolution at its next meeting, Wilkie said.
As stated in the resolution, “The members of the Board of Directors of the District shall be elected by the governing body of each municipality which is a member of the District and shall serve for a term of office of four years from the first Tuesday in November concurrent with the term of office of the mayor of the municipality, and until their successors are appointed and qualified. The Board of Directors of the District shall consist of six members elected by the governing body of the city of Fort Payne, two members elected by the governing body of the City of Centre and one member elected by the governing body of the Town of Collinsville. In 2012 and quadrennially thereafter, the governing body of each member municipality may elected one additional member of the Board of Directors of the District for each full 2,000 of population of such municipality, provided that the Board of Directors first authorize anyincrease in the number of members from each qualifying municipality.
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“The population of each member municipality shall, for the purposes of this provision of the Certificate of Incorporation, be determined according to the decennial Federal Census.”
Wilkie said the city received a letter from the Calhoun County District’s Attorney’s Office proposing to contract with the city to provide forensic services through the Violent Crimes Task Force for $2,500. City Attorney Al Shumaker said he needs more time to look over the contract before the council took further action.
The council also adopted a resolution amending the city’s vacation policy. Employees with one year of service will receive 10 days or 80 hours per year; those with five continuous years of service, 15 days or 120 hours; 10 years of service, 20 days or 160 hours and those with 20 years of service, 25 days or 200 hours of vacation leave per year. Funding for this amendment was included in the city’s fiscal 2012-2013 budget, Wilkie said.
In other business, the council:
-Opened bids for demolition projects on Bay Springs Road and West Main Street and awarded the bid to McElroy Construction, the lowest bidder at $6,700 ($2,200 for the Bay Springs Road project and $4,500 for the West Main Street project.)
-Upon the recommendation of Council Member Joe Hall, chairperson, police committee, voted to purchase two Dodge Chargers on state bid for the police department. The council, in its fiscal 2012-2013 budget, appropriated $51,878 for the vehicles and $14,000 for computers and other equipment for each vehicle.
-Upon the recommendation of Mayor Wilkie, approved $2,725.28 for purchasing furniture and other supplies for Centre City Hall. The city initially appropriated $5,000 for this purpose in its fiscal 2012-2013 budget.
Mayor Wilkie and council members expressed their appreciation to city employees, numerous volunteers and other participants who made the recent Centre Fall Festival 2012 a huge success.
“I want to thank everybody who helped with the Fall Festival,” said Council Member Bess Yarbrough. “There was a big crowd and it was a big success. We want to thank the girls at the office, the fire department police department, everybody who was involved.”
“We want to thank every department head, all the employees for what was done,” said Wilkie. “Thank you sheriff and to you guys for what they did. I think this year was an overwhelming huge success with what we brought to Centre. The kids’ faces, I think, said it all, to see Mickey and Minnie Mouse in Centre, Ala. We brought Disney to Centre.”
“To all the employees, thanks to everything you have done for making it a success,” said Wilkie.
“I heard more positive comments about the Fall Festival,” said Council Member Sid Garrett. “I think it is the best we have ever had.”
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