Lee County Commission approves training range clearing, courtroom AV contract and seeks local trash-fee exemption; sets regular work sessions and to livestream,

The Lee County Commission on an administrative agenda on Jan. 27 recognized a FEMA payment tied to COVID response, approved several procurement and land-use requests, and passed a resolution asking the county's legislative delegation to pursue a local exemption to the mandatory solid-waste disposal fee.

The meeting opened with a recognition in which Rita Smith, the county emergency management director, presented what she said was the final FEMA payment tied to declaration 4503 and read a figure aloud: "we are very, very happy to present you with 4,000,000 44,700,035.62 as a result of your COVID claims from FEMA declaration 4503," and invited a photograph with county commissioners and hospital representatives. A hospital representative thanked Smith and the commission and said the money and an unrelated grant installment would help an in-progress mental-health facility.

The commission then moved through consent and appointments on the consent and old-business calendars before taking several substantive actions:

- Sheriff's training range: Sheriff Jones requested permission to use about 11 acres of county-owned property in the Beulah community to create a training and firing range and asked that the highway department assist with initial clearing. County Engineer Justin Hardy told commissioners the project would require an ADEM (Alabama Department of Environmental Management) stormwater permit before substantial clearing and that, if approved, clearing the 11 acres would take "maybe a week of good weather" with highway equipment. Sheriff Jones said nearby residents were contacted and no objections were received. After a motion to proceed with land clearing, commissioners approved the request by voice vote.

- T.K. Davis Justice Center audiovisual contract: County staff presented a $496,559.80 proposal from Diversified to provide…