October 20, 2020 - With Shelby County finding a new location to house the Justice of the Peace and Constable for Precinct 5, the City of Timpson is finding this scenario to have developed into an expensive wrinkle.
The Justice of the Peace building has been located on City of Timpson property since 2015 when the county decided to move the Justice of the Peace office to a prefab structure, and the City of Timpson allowed the structure to be placed on city property at no charge.
Now, five years later the commissioners shifted gears and approved the lease of a location in Timpson not far from where the office had been before it was placed on city property, and therein lies the wrinkle. With this new location, the city is potentially going to have to come up with just south of $50,000 to provide a compliant location for the Justice of the Peace and Constable.
This comes after the Timpson council only just recently chose to lay off one of their officers, because the budget wouldn't allow them to afford her, and leaving the city with one remaining officer.
During the Tuesday, October 20, 2020 meeting, mayor Debra Smith informed the council Tracy Broadway, Justice of the Peace Precinct 5, informed her the Justice of the Peace office was being moved a couple of months previous to the meeting.
"That's just great and that's wonderful for them, and I read in the news that next day that Allison [Harbison] announced we were also going to fix the sidewalk," said Smith. "Yes the sidewalk needs to be fixed, but it would have been a lot easier plan if there weren't people in the building, using the building."
William Richardson with Cox Contractors Inc. was present for the meeting and mayor Smith explained he has gotten a plan together to present to the council.
Although the project isn't guaranteed to come in at $49,500, there is a great deal of uncertainty at this time, because the project is being considered under short time constraints.
Smith offered up the sidewalk is currently not ADA compliant; however, she explained once a project is started and the sidewalk is torn into, it will have to be made ADA compliant because it's new construction.
Kyle Allen, councilman, asked why the city is going to have to tear into the sidewalk.
"The JP and them just rented it and announced that they've got a, that it's a government office, so it's got to be ADA compliant for them to be in it," said Smith. "And they decided ahead of us."
Allen suggested it sounds like that's the county's problem, and Smith explained it's the city's problem, because it's a city sidewalk. Charleston Johnson, councilman, asked who made the decision to move the JP from the previous location to the new one, and Smith confirmed the county made that decision.
"We're fixing to give them $49,000 and we just got rid of a police officer. It's just going to look crazy of us paying them when we got rid of an officer," said Johnson.
Tiffany Collins, councilwoman, agreed with Johnson she doesn't know where the city is supposed to come up with the money.
Mayor Smith suggested a portion of the funding may be able to come from the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and they won't have an answer to that question until the EDC meets next. She also said she would reach out to the county and see if they could contribute some to the expense of the sidewalk.
A motion carried to table the sidewalk project until after the next EDC meeting has been concluded to verify funds from the EDC will be used to make the upgrade to the sidewalk.
Earlier in the meeting, the council reviewed bids and heard from five different sanitation companies seeking to provide service to the city.
After reviewing the bids and hearing from each company, what services they offer, a motion carried by the council to approve Lilly Sanitation out of Garrison.
Agenda items approved during the meeting include: 1. Consent Agenda: Items included under the Consent Agenda require little or no deliberation by the Council. Approval of the Consent Agenda authorizes the City Secretary to proceed with the conclusion of each item as reflected in the Minutes of this meeting. A. Minutes from the Regular Meeting held on Sept 15, 2020 B. Financial Statement for the month of September 2020 C. Accounts Payable – September 2020 2. Award City garbage contract, effective January 1, 2021, to Lilly Sanitation. 3. Revise the Police Handbook for the work schedule to be pre-approved by the City Council every three months, taking affect with the November 1, 2020 schedule. 4. Adjourn. Agenda items tabled during the meeting include: 1. Bid from Cox Contractors to build an ADA compliant ramp and parking area at the office of the JP and Constable on Bremond and Austin St.
