St. Clair County Commission approves road change orders, hires, contracts and awards sheriff mobile unit bid

The St. Clair County Commission on March 25 approved a package of infrastructure, procurement and personnel items, including change orders on a federally funded road project, construction-inspection services, in-house highway hires, a right-of-way payment, and the award of a bid for a community engagement/multiuse mobile unit for the sheriff’s office.

Key items approved included two change orders for the Park Avenue and U.S. 411 CMAQ (Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality) project that together total $43,661.50, with the county’s 20% match identified as $8,732.30. County Engineer Clay described the county share as the standard 20% local match for federal projects and said the change orders were part of routine project adjustments.

The commission also approved a supplemental agreement with EFS for construction engineering and inspection (CEI) services on the Veil Den project in the amount of $72,885.85. Commissioners approved several promotions and hires within the highway department (internal promotions to foreman, crew leader and operator roles, and three road-worker hires from the public list) and authorized a right-of-way acquisition payment to Manu Tillman for $9,250 to allow drainage and water-line work on Macedonia Road (also referenced as Row 21).

Administrative approvals included hiring an IT co-op student for evening and post-graduation consideration, awarding a $28,800 public-works contract for the Pell City Commission Chambers project to Ron Smith (the lower of two quotes), and authorizing surplus and disposal actions for older equipment (two monitors and a generator inventory number 6285 to be listed on gov.deals.com). A three-year maintenance contract for courthouse HVAC units with Guardian Abide Americas Inc. was presented in the transcript as $937,412.62 for three years; the commission considered the request as presented.

The sheriff recommended awarding bid 20.25-34 for a community engagement vehicle to LVV, Inc., the only bidder, in the amount of $1,188,981 pending county attorney review and grant funds; the commission approved the recommendation by voice vote. Commissioners also voted to rescind a veterans outreach program contract that previously involved Auburn University and to create a county veteran service officer position; the commission said details on salary and timing would follow. Other routine items approved included a small annual software/subscription request (approximately $1,487.52), travel requests, board appointments to local water authorities, and payment of regular bills.

Most motions were approved by voice vote; the transcript records "aye" for the approvals but does not include a recorded roll-call tally for each item.