Features Editor

On Tuesday at the Troy City Council meeting, Pruitt Communications received a contract with the city to install a new phone system in all of the city’s main office buildings.

Pruitt will partner with Bellsouth to connect the Troy City Hall, police department, library, recreation department and other city-only buildings with two T-One line cables, dropping the expense the city pays now from $5,000 to $2,000.

It took a little while for the ball to get rolling on this new phone service since Lunsford is so adamant on having calls handled on a personal basis.

He reiterated those thoughts on Tuesday.

"I want people talking to a human voice when they call here and not a computer answering machine," he said.

The new connections will not interfere in anyway with services provided to the citizens of Troy, according to City Clerk Alton Starling.

"Things will not change a bit," he said. "People will still be able to pick up a phone and talk to the people involved in running the city."

In the works session, the council also went over documentation concerning the awarding of city scholarships to Troy State University by a specially selected committee. In 1997, when Troy approved the donation of money to TSU for the expansion of Memorial Stadium and the renovation of Sartain Hall (Trojan Arena), one of the conditions expressed by the council were that scholarships be offered, by the university, to students from either Pike Liberal Arts or Charles Henderson High School.

Up to a maximum of 12 former Troy school system students may be on scholarship at one time at Troy State.

"The headmaster at Pike Lib and the principal at Charles Henderson select five students from their student body that meet this criteria," said Lunsford. "And from those ten, up to five are selected, depending on the number of scholarships offered that year by Troy State."

In other council business:

– passed a resolution for the application for an Emergency Shelter Grant, to prevent homelessness within the city.

– passed a resolution to continue the city’s ongoing summer feeding program.

– awarded a bid to Henry Farm for a rotary motor (bush hog) unit and Linton Tractor Company for a four-wheel tractor to be used at the Troy Municipal Airport. Total cost to the city was $23,620.