District 2 commission candidates speak at Daleville Lions Club meeting

The two candidates running for the Dale County Commission District 2 seat were the guest speakers at the Daleville Lions Club meeting on Feb. 11.

Donald Grantham and incumbent Dale County Commissioner Steve McKinnon both spoke after a dinner provided by the club.

Grantham took to the podium first.

He spoke about the over 26 years he served as assistant director of public works for the City of Enterprise before retiring.

“I oversaw multiple departments up there: street, sanitation, sewer, disposal and fleet maintenance shop,” Grantham said. “My duties as assistant director were yearly budgeting, day-to-day operations of each department, future planning with a five and 10 year plan for each department under our view and we assisted all the other city departments with the equipment and people in public works to help them complete their jobs every day.”

He then spoke about the infrastructure of the county.

“I’d like to see Daleville, Clayhatchee and Level Plains go out and redo our infrastructure,” Grantham said. “I’ve seen some roads that need some improvements and I’ve seen some ditches that need cleaning.”

Grantham said he wanted to see improvements to the sewage treatment plant.

“One of the biggest things I see that we need in our district is our waste water sewage treatment plant,” Grantham said. “To get business and companies to come in you have to have a way to take care of your waste water. I know there’s grants and monies out there and we just need to work with the state and federal government to find those and upgrade our sewage treatment plant so Daleville, Level Plains and Clayhatchee can grow and prosper.”

He said that while campaigning, one of the biggest complaints he’s heard is that the county office isn’t open on Fridays. He proposed a change.

“There’s a way to do that if we make our work force part work on Monday—have a small crew on Monday and a small crew Friday,” Grantham said. “Not have everybody there (but) we’d still be open and people could come do their business.”

The other problem he spoke of was storm runoff and dilapidated properties.

“That’s a couple things I’d like to see taken care of,” Grantham said.

He said since he’s retired, he will be a full-time commissioner.

After Grantham sat down McKinnon took to the podium to speak to the club.

“I’ve been voted to the job of commissioner and worked hard to improve county government in District 2,” McKinnon said. “I’ve also worked hard at the state. I’ve moved up in the ranks in the ACCA (Association of County Commissions of Alabama) and I was elected by all 67 counties to be president of the Alabama County Commissioners Association. That was the first time in history anybody from our area has achieved that. I know a lot of people think that’s state fun, but that brought a lot of attention to our district.”

McKinnon said that during his time as president, the association passed nine bills relating to county government.

He then touched on the dilapidated properties that Grantham mentioned earlier.

“The County Commission does not have home rule,” McKinnon said. “Anything that we do, we have to get the legislative body to pass something for us to do it. We can’t enforce ordinances, can’t let somebody cut the grass, we can’t get the cars out of the yard, we can’t do any of that because we don’t have that home rule.”

McKinnon pointed out that the county commission sponsored a grant for the Byrd Subdivision to switch the division from two-inch waterlines to six-inch waterlines.

“When that was passed, 57 homes that got put on six-inch waterlines, they got fire protection which lowered their insurance rates and they got a whole lot better quality of life.”

He said that after being denied the first year, Clayhatchee was given a Community Development Block Grant from the state after McKinnon talked to a state official and got him to come look at the roads in the town.

McKinnon said that anyone that needs to contact him can.

“I’m accessible to anybody in the county,” McKinnon said. “The phone I use is my personal phone. You can email or call me anytime and I respond to every call I get, even if it’s something I can’t do.”