Council names Eva Green to Troy BOE

Published 11:50 pm Tuesday, July 13, 2010

The Troy City Council appointed Eva Green to the city school board Tuesday to complete the term of long-time member John Parker, who resigned July 2.

Green came at the recommendation of Councilmember Charlie Dunn.

“I’ve known (Green) for several years, and I feel like she would do a wonderful job,” Dunn said. “She has two adult sons who have gone through the Troy City Schools system and an 11-year-old daughter in schools now.

Sign up for our daily email newsletter

Get the latest news sent to your inbox

The council accepted the resignation of Parker, who said he needed to free up some of his time in light of new working responsibilities, was set originally to serve until May 2011. Green will serve at least that long beginning at the next board meeting July 19.

“This gives me an opportunity to give back to the community,” Green said. “I’ve been in education all my life. I’m happy to make the decision to serve the community.”

Green is retired from Troy University and works now as a customer service representative at Turner and Hamrick.

In other business, the council took final steps on entering the bond market. While it’s something the city has already given the OK for, it officially took action Tuesday on finalizing the agreement.

With the bond issue, the city of Troy has entered bonds for around $5.8 million. These bond monies will fund the CGI construction, expected to cost around $6 million, Troy Mayor Jimmy Lunsford said. In turn, Troy University will reimburse the city for these bond amounts, and that money will come from CGI paying rent to the university for the use of the Park Lane Shopping Center.

The city’s obligation to CGI’s construction, as part of its original agreement to come to Troy, will be $1 million, Lunsford said.

Bob Young, with the finance company, said part of what assisted Troy in getting favorable bond ratings (419), was agreement on the parts of Dale and Bullock Counties to forfeit their recovery zone allocation, which allowed this to be done on a tax exempt basis for Troy.

The city also discussed an upcoming application for an annual Community Block Development Grant.

Though no action was taken, Lunsford has recommended the council apply for $250,000 from the state to fund the construction of a new building for the Lillian D. Green Nutrition Center.

Lunsford said the idea to build a separate building for the nutrition center, now housed in the Colley Senior Complex, is one that has been in the works for some time, and it’s one project he’s told could be looked at favorably this year by state funders.

“The nutrition center’s wanted for a long time to have a facility,” Lunsford said. “I can’t see anything else in the city that would qualify (for the grant) and carry such a high priority. It doesn’t mean we’d get it, but I think it would be looked upon favorably.”

Lunsford said there is no particular site in mind for where the center might go, but he would hope to keep it near Troy City Hall. He said there would be no land negotiations unless money was awarded.

The grant application will be submitted in late August or early September, but he wasn’t sure exactly when the award would be announced.

Lunsford also discussed the city’s TIGER grant (Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery), an application that will be submitted officially Friday for the second time.

The federal grant, requesting $12 million to fund an east-west corridor in the city, was denied in the first funding distribution. But, the city has hopes it will have better luck the next time around.

The project would involve road expansions and improvements spanning east and west connecting George Wallace Drive at Charles Henderson High School, to the intersection of Highway 29 and U.S. Highway 231.

Though there was no action taken, Lunsford said he may ask the council to pay $1 million toward the project, should that be a stipulation.

In its meeting, the city also gave approval to three resolutions that will allow the Pike Area Transit System to continue operation.

Part of that includes the city’s financial commitment of around $60,000 for the year. The remaining portion of the $146,807 will come from the city of Brundidge and the Pike County Commission. Each of the three entities split the funding on the transportation system.

The council also denied a request from APX Alarm systems for a business license to make door-to-door sales.

The particular type of license required approval from the Troy City Council before it could be awarded by the Business License Department.

“It’s nothing personal, but we’ve never allowed one of these that I’m aware of,” said Councilman Jason Reeves.

“We have companies that are based here, structured here and pay taxes here, and that’s not something we want to get into.”