Finances, roads, recreation discussed at State of Morgan County Forum

Feb. 29—At Wednesday's annual State of Morgan County Forum, Morgan County Commission Chairman Ray Long and the county's four commissioners discussed progress on recreational facilities and roads and pay raises put in place for county employees.

"We're doing stuff for the community to make a difference in people's lives," Long said. "It takes time and it takes money to do that, and it takes planning, and you've seen a lot of that the last few years."

Long said the Morgan County Commission budget has $8 million in reserve.

"All our finances are in order," Long said. "... We've never cut services to our citizens; we're always trying to add services."

Long said the county is run like a business.

"We've bought sheriff's cars. We increased the pay of the jail, both the deputies and the jailers. We've done the same for Environmental (Services Department), we bought new vehicles," he said.

Priceville's North Park is in Jeff Clark's District 1. The park is getting an additional restroom, a third concession stand, and two additional ballfields.

"They're getting those ready right now, and hopefully they'll be ready for next spring, I'm sure," Clark said. "The concession, restroom area is finished," but work continues on the parking lot, lights and fencing.

Progress has been made on West Morgan Road, which has been closed for about a year and a half due to a narrow bridge that was deemed unsafe. The road is between Alabama 24 and Old Moulton Road. Clark said he plans to widen the bridge, move it over, and take some of the curve out of the road.

"Finally, we got the people to agree to sell the property that we needed for additional right of way," he said. "The state notified us (Tuesday) that they have agreed to it. They're paying them, and then the next step will be to put the bridge out for bid. Hopefully, in the next 90 days we'll have a bid back."

The new gymnasium at Danville's West Park that was completed in October is in Randy Vest's District 2.

"We've added security cameras to that and to a few other locations around the park (recently)," he said. "I'm assuming that the general public knowing we've got security cameras, plus the gym with additional lighting, has helped with some of the vandalism there. We used to get vandalism almost every weekend in some of the restrooms that were left open for people that walk the track, and that's went down by 80%."

Vest said they are looking into creating additional parking for the park and gymnasium. He said they purchased a lot on the corner of the park and started moving dirt last year until they reached the limit of dirt they could purchase. At that point, work was limited due to the winter months, Vest said.

"As the weather opens back up and we're able to get back to that, we're going to turn that into parking. It'll be about an additional 50 spots," he said. "For average time it will be (enough), but for tournament play that will be questionable. You just never know how many people's going to turn out for tournaments, and if they have all four fields going at the same time, it can be questionable if it will be enough."

Falkville's South Park in Don Stisher's District 3 is also getting an additional restroom, a third concession stand and two additional ballfields.

"We did the drainage, culverts, and in the surrounding adjacent area we built a parking lot, undercut it, got it prepared for pavement, redid the entrance road to handle the future traffic in there," he said. "We had hoped to open it last year, but fall got us and the weather got us, and it got wet."

Stisher said the concession stand has been built.

"The fields still need (to be) dressed for play and get the sod on it and prepare it for ball activity. ... They've got to do the fence and the lights and all that, pave the parking lot," he said. "We hope to get that done this coming summer."

The Falkville Senior Center at South Park is the oldest senior center in the county and is slated to be replaced or renovated.

"The engineering firm is evaluating the current building," Stisher said. "We're kind of at a budget point to where it may be feasible to tear the old building down instead of renovating and adding onto it due to cost estimates."

Residents of Mount Zion Road in District 3 complained in May of a 16-inch drop-off from the road to the shoulder. A teenager lost control, fell off the shoulder, and was thrown through her windshield. A trucking company sued the commission over the alleged road and shoulder defects.

The drop-off "is no longer there; we built those shoulders," Stisher said. "We've addressed every issue of asphalt, the lanes, the shoulders, and resurfaced portions of it due to heavy truck traffic in that area and in that road. ... Those shoulders are compliant. We did it last July."

A new event center in Cotaco in Greg Abercrombie's District 4 is being planned. He said bids went out Friday and on March 21 they will open the bids they have received.

"Once we get the bids open, then we as the commission will look at them, go over them, and decide if that's something that's doable and then we move forward from there," Abercrombie said.

The center will have two full-sized basketball courts which can be turned into four volleyball courts, and a walking track.

Long said the center will be for the whole east side of the county, not just Cotaco.

"We're making it large enough where we can host volleyball tournaments," he said. "When you've got four courts going at the same time, people are going to want to come in. We'll be able to host regional tournaments and stuff."

The walking track will be on the second floor, Long said.

The intersection of Alabama 55, Union Hill Road and Cotaco-Florette Road by Cotaco Junior High School is severely congested at the beginning and end of each school day, Abercrombie said. About 18 months ago, he said, they purchased 2 acres of land at the intersection in hopes it will help with improvements.

"It is a piece of the puzzle. Not saying we can do anything with it at this time," Abercrombie said. "Maybe something will open up that we might be able to buy some more land adjacent to that to help this intersection."

Abercrombie said they are currently making some improvements to the intersection.

"We're building new pickup lanes," he said. "That will help a lot because that takes our people off (Alabama) 36 where they've been waiting on the side of the highway. Now, this will put them on school property, and they will be out of harm's way."

The State of Morgan County Forum and breakfast was held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Decatur Riverfront in Decatur and hosted by the Decatur-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce.

—erica.smith@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2460.