County to help with animal shelter building

Published 4:00 am Tuesday, November 10, 2015

The Pike County Commission will assist the City of Troy with the construction of Pike Animal Shelter to be located on Henderson Highway.

“We will be using county employees and county equipment with some site preparation,” said Russell Oliver, county engineer. “We will be assisting in with some prepping the site for construction.”

Commission members went into executive session for good name and character and voted on the decision to assist the city after that session.

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Commissioner Jimmy Barron said that the city may come back and ask for additional funding, but that will be addressed when that occurs.

“Right now they just need help preparing the site,” Barron said.

An exact starting date for the project has not been confirmed.

In other business:

•Commissioners approved the revision of subdivision regulations in order to match the regulations of state law.

• Commissioner Joey Jackson was elected as the new chairman, and Commissioner Robin Sullivan was elected as vice chairman Jackson was voted chairman with a 4-2 vote, with Commissioner Ray Goodson and Chairman Homer Wright in opposition. Sullivan was approved unanimously.

• Commissioners approved resurfacing projects on Pike County Roads 5516 and 6618. Other road repairs have been on hold while the rain has been washing over the county.

“We are struggling with the wet weather,” Oliver said. “We hope to get back out there and do some trimming and other things sometime this week.”

Jackson informed Oliver of some repairs that need to be taken care of across the county.

“I know you are having a hard time, but if you could see some way or another to get someone to patch potholes,” Jackson said. “People are starting to call me, even about holes I have already turned in.”

Oliver said that the county is in the process of training an employee to address these types of issues..

• County Attorney Allen Jones reported that the Commission will need to vote on signing a deed, granting the City of Troy the title for an alley by the Rock Building.

“There is no deed to anyone for the alley,” Jones said. “This is just a title thing. We will have no responsibility on what happens.”

No action was taken on the matter, but commissioners said they would discuss it at the next meeting.

• Barron presented a request for a 20 percent pay raise for the Board of Registrars members. Barron pointed out that the board has not received a pay raise with the state in 20 years, and the county has not provided them a raise in nine years. Approximately $14,200 per year would be spent on this raise, if it were to be approved.

No action was taken on the pay raise, but it will be on the next meeting’s agenda.

• Commissioners approved a personnel request for the road department, allowing the hiring of a new employee. This request is not in addition to the new employee that was approved at the last meeting. Oliver said that the employee denied the request for hire, so he had to request to hire a new employee in that place.

• Commissioners approved bids for three explorer pursuit vehicles. Ken Cox Ford was the low bidder.

The next meeting for the Pike County Commission is scheduled for Nov. 23. The work session begins at 5:15 p.m., followed by the meeting at 6 p.m.