BY HANNAH LESTER
HLESTER@OPELIKAOBSERVER.COM
LEE COUNTY —
The Lee County Commission approved a request to support an additional circuit judgeship in Lee County during its meeting Monday night.
“The Judgeship Report for the 37th Judicial Circuit was prepared by the Alabama Administrative Office of Courts in response to the filing of Senate Bill 144 on March 23, 2023, that provides for the creation of one additional circuit judgeship for the 37th Judicial Circuit,” said the official Judgeship Report provided by the commission. “This judgeship would be filled at the 2024 general election. Funding for the judgeship would be from the State General Fund.”
The Lee County circuit has 58,080 people per judge, ranked No. 3 in Alabama.
“With the addition of a circuit judge, the court would drop to a statewide ranking of 10th in population per judge,” the report said.
This change will go into effect in 2024.
“I’ve had a number of people contact me asking us to support this,” said Probate Judge Bill English. “I think our statistics clearly show the need is here for another circuit judgeship in Lee County.”
The resolution that the county voted on supports Senate Bill 144, or, English said, other bills that would add a judgeship.
“I think if y’all will ask the lawyers in town, they will tell you how behind it gets and how badly we need that,” English said.
Ward 1 Commissioner Doug Cannon made the motion.
“I think Lee County’s grown; I think we need to do it,” he said.
OTHER BUSINESS:
– The commission did not approve a request for the vacation of Lee Road 196.
– The commission approved an amendment to the Ingenuity software contract.
– The commission approved a proposal from DocuStor for professional scanning services and cloud services.
– The commission approved an application for retail beer and retail table wine from Sistrunks (D5).
– The commission approved a bid for No. 2023-10 for a 2019 or new Chrysler Pacifica.
– The commission approved a resolution relating to the ARPA Water Authority Project, Smith’s Water and Sewer Authority.
– The commission approved an agreement with ThreatAdvice Cybersecurity Education and Threat awareness.
– The commission did not approve the results of a local striping bid so they could renegotiate.
– The commission approved the results of a bid for Project No. LCP 41-PP-334/6 for resurfacing.