More complaints about courthouse annex heard at county commission meeting
By Barry H. Hendrix Managing Editor

Members of the Clarke County Commission again expressed concern about problems with the new $3.5 million courthouse annex. The discussion was in response to a request for an additional $7,475.25 from contractor J.C. Duke and Associates of Mobile for work on drainage at the front entrance to the annex. PH&J Architects of Montgomery is not approving the increase.

"It wasn't right from day one," said Commissioner Rhondel Rhone about the entrance drainage.

The work was actually supposed to cost less, said Commissioner Paul Bradford. "These two companies have left a bad, bad taste in my mouth," he said.

Rhone also complained about the toilets in the new mens' bathrooms that do not flush properly. Said the toilet problem is a sewage problem. The impression is that the contractor is not going to do anything further to solve the problem, said County Administrator Annie Deloise Morris.

Rhone said the county shouldn't pay the final bill until everything is working properly. "It's the architect's job to see that the work was performed properly," he said. "The contractor hasn't done his job, and the architect hasn't done his job."

In other action from the Tuesday meeting, a one-time lump sum increase was approved for approximately 25 retired employees in December. The total increase is $7,900, Morris said. The retirees did not receive an increase last year, Bradford said.

• The county is seeking new proposals from contractors for repairs to the Clarke County Board of Education building. The bids will be due Nov. 26.

• A $19,000 contract with Auburn University's Center for Governmental Services was approved to prepare job descriptions and salary structures for county employees. The whole project should be completed by March 2008, Morris said.

• County employee Tena Chancey of the License Commissioner's Office has completed her probationary period and was approved for the customary 50 centper hour pay increase.

• The commission approved E- 911 Coordinator Becky Neugent working with the U.S. Census Bureau on providing information on street addresses of county residents for the Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA) program.

• The county courthouse will be closed on Nov. 12 for Veterans Day.

• The county is working to find property for a new polling place in the Whatley community. Garricks Store on Highway 84 no longer wants to serve as a polling place, Rhone said, and the county had an easement agreement to place a polling place just west of the store.

• Commissioner Bradford warned that the county should get ready for reapportionment of voting districts in 2010. The commission will work with the Probate Judge Becky Presnall, and Robert C. Downey, a former long time county employee who has helped prepare the reapportionment in the past.

• The commission voted to spend $380 for a half page in the "Forestry" edition of The Clarke County Democrat.

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