Coffee County Commission passes 2021 budget

The Coffee County Commission passed the FY 2021 budget at the Sept. 14 meeting in New Brockton.

The budget of $28,895,431.89 was passed unanimously and sees a fairly sizeable increase from FY 2020’s budget, which was $23,504,380.64.

That budget includes a 2.5 percent raise for all county employees, as well as a five percent increase in health insurance costs for county employees that the county will cover instead of raising the rates for employees. It also includes a number of capital projects the county will be working on in the coming year.

“Overall it looks like a higher number but that’s due to the capital expenditures, equipment that needs to be replaced and also anticipates the start of the construction at the landfill,” County Administrator Rod Morgan said. “If we remove those things the budget would actually be about 2.5 percent smaller than last year.”

Commissioner Jimmy Jones applauded Morgan and his staff for the new budget.

“I would like to compliment all of our employees. They really are an asset and with this new 2.5 percent raise I think we did a real good job with that,” Jones said. “I would like to thank Rod and all of his staff and really all of our employees for everything they do for the citizens of Coffee County.”

The commission also officially received a check for $288,791.30 from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management’s (ADEM) Scrap Tire Program that will partially go to a repaving project being done on County Road 110, where asphalt mixed with rubber from scrap tires is being implemented.

The commission also approved a state/local disaster assistance agreement with the Alabama Emergency Management Agency that will go towards the costs incurred from storms that caused damage in April.

The commission approved a bid from Gulf Atlantic Culvert for $11,344 for corrugated metal and also approved the purchase of a used 2014 dump truck with 86,000 miles at the cost of $40,000. This truck will be purchased with money that the county had budgeted to purchase a new dump truck for $80,000.

Also, the commission approved the purchase of four garbage trucks at a cost of $258,912.31 each. The total cost of the garbage trucks is $1,035,649.44 and the trucks will be delivered in January.

Coffee County EMA Director James Brown also addressed Coffee County’s COVID-19 numbers.

“It hasn’t gone away and it’s important that everyone is still wearing their masks,” Brown said. “Our numbers have dropped pretty good and I contribute that directly to everyone wearing their masks.”

Brown said that Coffee County has seen just 97 new COVID-19 cases in the previous 14 days, which is seven new cases per day compared to more than 20 per day that the county was seeing a month ago. Brown also said that Coffee County has been downgraded by the state as a high-risk county to a moderate risk county.

“We’re not in the low risk yet but if we keep everything up then I think we’ll be okay,” Brown said.