Splitting the pot. Recipients, donors, and enablers all met Monday to divide grant proceeds equally among four municipalities. (From left) Randy Millwood, Blountsville mayor; Phillip Weaver, police chief representing Snead; Jerry Jones, Cleveland mayor; Joseph Hughes, Locust Fork mayor; Patti Pennington, CAWACO grants administrator, Commission Chairman David Standridge, state Rep. Elwyn Thomas, and state Sen. Clay Scofield. The Blount County Commission Monday divided a $4000 grant among four municipalities that will use their $1000 toward improving future disaster readiness.

The grant comes from CAWACO Research Development and Conservation, a government-affiliated agency that supports educational and community development in five central Alabama counties, including Blount.

Blountsville and Cleveland will use the money toward building community safe rooms. Locust Fork will use the money to purchase generators for its town hall and help in contructing a community safe room, and Snead will relocate an outdoor warning siren and install an additional outdoor warning siren. Receipt of the funds is contingent on the towns’ receiving other grants pending for the projects and expending CAWACO funds on the projects as designated. Juvenile probation officer jobs saved

Commissioners approved without public discussion a $12,000 contribution from the commission general fund toward the salaries of juvenile probation officers ( JPOs) whose jobs were targeted for elimination earler this year by the state Administrative Office of Courts, which had funded the jobs in the past.

The motion, unanimously approved, authorized the administrator to make payment to District Judge Sherry Burns, who has headed an effort to raise $90,000 from local sources to keep the jobs from being eliminated. Burns told the commission in July that if the two positions – one administrative assistant and one probation officer – were eliminated, most of the services the agency now provides would be lost. County administrator Ralph Mitchell said Burns had raised $78,000 from other local sources, and asked the commission to contribute the remaining amount to save the two jobs.

The juvenile probation office handles problems related to truancy, drug abuse, and other behaviors referred by the coun- two school systems, and it oversees the terms of probation orders for individual juveniles by the district court. School attendance, curfew compliance, drug screening, counseling, mental health treatment, community service performance, and detention placement are among the activities the agency coordinates or monitors.

In discussion following passage of the motion, commissioners Allen Armstrong and Dean Calvert both noted that the funding was to be a one-time allocation, not an amount the county will provide in future years. The discussion will be reflected in the minutes, and was covered unequivocally in a transmittal letter from the commission to Burns, but was not included in the language of the approved motion itself.

County assumption of partial funding for state agencies has been a growing issue during annual county budget deliberations for at least the last three years. This year, the funding support of several such agencies was reduced for the first time by 5 percent in the 2012 fiscal year budget.

The commission also approved $2500 for the juvenile probation office from the Community Services Grant Fund, a special fund allocated by the Legislature to its members and directed to the county by Rep. Elwyn Thomas for community service needs as the commission deems appropriate. Also approved was $1000 to the Oneonta Business Association, from the same fund. Budget amendments

The commission aproved the following budget amendments:

$2756.61 to District 1 for money received from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

$446.78 to District 1 for roadwork in Nectar.

$3,395.83 to District 2 for money received from FEMA.

$1833 to District 3 for sale of scrap metal.

$11,65.36 to District 4 for road work in Locust Fork.

$172.74 to District 4 for money received from FEMA.

$1,365.13 to the sheriff’s department for money received from FEMA.

In addition, the commission approved quarterly RRR (resurfacing, restoration, rehabilitation) road money budget amendments for the third and fourth quarters, authorizing the administrator to make adjustments as necessary.

The following changes were approved at the Convenience Center, formerly known as the landfill or transfer station, and now operated as a dumping station for household garbage. The county administrator will assume responsibility for management of daily deposits of funds taken in at the facility. District 1 Commissioner Allen Armstrong will assume responsibility for the staff at the center. The county engineer will continue to be responsible for compliance and environmental matters.

The commission approved the following paving plan for District 3 for 2012. Saddle Club Road (double seal); Old Settlement Road (double seal); Douglas Lane (double seal); Dumas Bridge Road (double seal); John Drive (double seal); Hammett Road (double seal); Promises Lane (single seal); county road 36 (single seal); Woods Road (single seal); New Hope Road (spot patch); Inland Lake Road (spot patch); Blythe Road (spot patch); Getts Road (spot patch); Snow Road (spot patch); Kornegay Road (spot patch); Dorr Road (spot patch); Hood Road (spot patch); Taits Gap Loop (spot patch). Engineering matters

Also approved was the county engineer’s recommendation to establish maximum speed limits on District 3 roads. Commissioner Dean Calvert said he had been requested by the public to post speed limits to reduce speeds on these roads, which have been improved during the course of the year.

Lowes Road from county road 20 to Robin Hill Road (25 mph); Blakely Road from Robin Hill Road to end of pavement (30 mph); unpaved section of Blakely Road from Montgomery Drive northerly to beginning of pavement (20 mph); Blakely Road from Montgomery Drive to Dailey’s Chapel Road (30 mph); Montgomery

Drive from Blakely Road to Robin Hill Road (30 mph); Washburn Drive from Cliff Springs Road to U.S. 231 (25 mph); Murphree Road from county highway 20 to county highway 12 (25 mph); county highway 20 from county highway 12 to U.S. 231(35 mph); Putman Road from county road 12 to bridge over Brasher Creek (20 mph); Putman Road from bridge over Brasher Creek to Hicks Road (35 mph); Hicks Road from county road 12 to county road 29 (30 mph); and county road 42 from Ala 785 to county road 41 (35 mph).

Speed limits were also established in District 1 on Smoke Rise Trail from Ala 160 to White Oak Trail (25 mph); on county road 5 from U.S. 31 to Hayes Road (30 mph); and on county road 5 from Hayes Road to the Walker County line (45 mph).

The commission approved and authorized Commission Chairman David Standridge to sign a resolution provided by the Alabama Department of Transportation authorizing the repaving and other improvements on U.S. 231 from Ala 75 east to the St. Clair County line. The project is tentatively scheduled for construction in early 2012. Intersecting streets and roads may be closed as necessary while work is in progress.

All members of the commission were present at the business meeting: District 1’s Allen Armstrong, District 2’s Andy Neill, District 3’s Dean Calvert, District 4’s Waymon Pits and Commission Chairman David Standridge.

The next commission work sesssion is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 8, at 9 a.m. The next business meeting will be Monday, Dec. 12, at 9 a.m. Both meetings will be in the commission board room at the courthouse.