LAWRENCE COUNTY – The Lawrence County Council met in a regular session to discuss budget transfers and requests for additional appropriation during their Tuesday evening meeting.
Chad Shew with Community Corrections had met with the Salary Committee to request a salary increase for the weekend Road Crew Supervisor position. The part-time role was previously set at $19.17 per hour, but due to no applications for the needed role, Shew requested an increase to $27.50 per hour, for eight hours a day. This was approved by the council.
Paula Edwards with the Health Department then requested two additionals for pay scale adjustments to award employees for their efforts in filling in additional roles. A total of $4,350 was approved to better assist these employees.
Edwards then requested a transfer from their COVID-19 Grant funds to go towards a new vaccine freezer. The current freezer is not working properly to store the vaccines at the proper temperature of two degrees. This was also approved by the council.
The council then approved the Public Defenders’ office then requested a transfer of $10,000 from the full-time payroll budget, to contract services to better assist the department.
Brandi Webb with the Highway Department then requested three additional appropriations to go towards engineering fees and surveys for the bridge at Cement Plant Road, as well as the East Oolitic Bridge, for a total of $627,237. A big chunk of the funding is from the Community Crossings funds from the State, with $148,100 coming from the counties funds as well as $35,000 for the Cement Plant Road bridge. This was approved by the council.
The Auditors office had been working on looking into Cyber Security and iCloud storage for the county documents and requested an additional appropriation of $60,000 to renew the contract. After reviewing the options, it was determined that this was the cheapest available option for the county. this was also approved by the council.
Lastly, Sheriff Mike Branham shared the population update with the council. A total of 148 individuals are in jail now, which is at 82 percent capacity.
Sheriff Branham then requested an additional appropriation for the plans to update the jail manual on the proper use of force, while providing the information digitally on their phones, with daily updates and policy changes to stay up to date on any issues. The request for $27,354 was approved by the council.
