Elmore County approves updated debris plan, adds Rebuild Alabama road projects and renews Esri GIS agreement

The Elmore County Commission on May 11 approved several measures aimed at disaster readiness and road work funding, including an updated debris management plan, additions to the county's Rebuild Alabama project list and a three‑year renewal of the county's Esri small‑government enterprise agreement.

The commission voted unanimously to approve an updated debris management plan staff said replaces a plan more than a decade old and is designed to streamline county response and improve eligibility for state and federal reimbursement after a declared event. "This is something that we have to have in place in case the declared event happens in the county," Operations staff said during the meeting.

Why it matters: the debris plan governs how Elmore County stages, removes and documents storm debris so the county can pursue reimbursement from state and federal disaster programs.

The commission also approved a resolution to add seven projects — five road projects and two bridge‑maintenance projects — to the FY26 Rebuild Alabama list. Public works staff said 15 of 31 previously approved FY26 projects are complete and there is roughly $150,000 in underrun savings; the seven additions were estimated to cost about $100,000 and were chosen to be close to existing projects to leverage better asphalt pricing.

Operations Support Chief Engineer Luke McGinty presented a first draft of the FY27 Rebuild Alabama list, which currently includes 28 roads (about 25 miles of resurfacing) and four roads for striping (about 20 miles) totaling nearly $4,000,000 on the working list. "We're not predicting that we'll have $4,000,000 for next year, but this is a starting point," McGinty said; staff estimated about $2,000,000 will likely be available and said the list will be narrowed before formal approval in July.

The commission also approved a three‑year renewal for the county's Esri small government enterprise agreement. Revenue Commissioner Lee May said the renewal will be paid from the mapping and reappraisal budget and amounts to roughly $180,000 over the contract term. According to staff, the county has held a similar three‑year arrangement previously and typically pays up front for multi‑year agreements.

All of the above measures carried on voice or roll‑call votes taken during the business meeting; staff noted the approvals were routine updates to ongoing capital and operations programs. The county will publish any required public notices related to the projects and contract renewals as required by state law.

What happens next: staff will finalize the debris management plan and file the required documents, move forward with contracting for the approved Rebuild Alabama additions and execute the Esri agreement; the FY27 draft list will be refined over the coming weeks ahead of the July approval window.