For Atmore City Council members, their Monday, June 26, meeting represented a case of “out with the old, in with the new.”
The council formally accepted a local company’s low bid for utilities improvements related to the city’s newest industrial resident, while at the same time taking measures to dissolve one of the city’s oldest and most inactive boards.
Martin Construction of Atmore’s bid was the lowest among those opened on June 15. The project includes installation of sewer and water lines along Innovation Parkway, the industrial access road that will service the Brown Precision facility currently under construction.
Most of the company’s “base bid” of $336,282.22 will be covered by a Community Development Block Grant that was awarded by the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs. Martin Construction’s bid is “contingent upon ADECA review and approval,” although it usually just a formality.
That item received unanimous approval, as did a proposal to accept the Atmore Public Library Board’s recommendation that Ginger Cochran be appointed to fill the board vacancy created by the retirement of Cynthia Rodgers.
The session’s final business item represented one of the necessary steps for dissolving the city’s Medical Clinic Board, which was formed decades but has “not been active in the last 33 years,” according to an email from Mayor Jim Staff to Lori Lein of the Alabama League of Municipalities.
The terms of the members of record – Bob Jones, Kenneth Barnett and Anthony Marshall – have long past expired, and by law the city board must have at least two members. The council voted unanimously to appoint Dennis Fuqua and Ben Odom to serve on the board, which was organized as a corporation, until it could be formally and finally dissolved.
Under Section 11-58-13 of Alabama Code, when such a corporate entity is dissolved, “title to all funds and properties owned by (the corporation) at the time of dissolution shall vest in the county or municipality, and possession of the funds and properties shall be immediately delivered to the county or municipality.”
In the email exchange between the mayor and the ALALM rep, Staff noted that “all of the (corporation’s) bonds have been paid and the property sold.” He added that, on behalf of the city, he “would like to dissolve this board and put the money that is in the bank to some use.”