By Michelle Key
Publisher
The Lee County Commission voted to approve a 4% pay raise for county employees during Monday night’s commission meeting.
The county just recently completed a review of their job classification and pay plans and the commission also voted to accept the proposed changes to these items. According to County Administrator Roger Rendleman, the existing pay and classification was put into place in October 2007. The new classification plan and pay schedules will go into effect on Feb. 1.
The commission also received a presentation on the Lee County Remembrance Project by Ashley Brown and Olivia Nichols. Brown and Nichols are graduate students at Auburn University and are working with the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) Museum in Montgomery and hope to erect a historical marker in Opelika acknowledging the four people that were lynched within Lee County in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The group has also collected soil from the actual lynching sites within Lee County and will be placed into two sets of jars, with the victims’ names printed on the jars. One set of jars will be placed in the EJI Museum in Montgomery and at the Museum of East Alabama in downtown Opelika.
There will be a ceremonial event on March 17 at 6 p.m. at Greater Peace Baptist Church in Opelika.
Columbus, Georgia City Councilman John House attended the meeting Monday and spoke to the commission on the Interstate 14 project that is being proposed to be developed in Lee County. House discussed a draft of a resolution supporting the interstate project.
In other business, the commission took the following actions:
• voted to approve a plat for the Yarbrough-Crook Subdivision
• voted to set a public hearing regarding an application to vacate a portion of the Lee Road 179 Right-of-way. The public hearing will be set for the March 9 during the regularly scheduled county commission meeting
• voted to approve the minutes of the Jan. 13, 2020 commission meeting
• voted to ratify and approved current invoices and claims
• voted to announce two vacancies on the Cemetery Preservation Commission
• voted to approve a bid for uniform dry cleaning for the sheriff’s office
• approved the renewal of the building inspection agreement with Smiths Station
• approved a resolution that would allow the county commission to renew its participation in the Alabama Liability Self-Insurance Fund, Inc., for the calendar years 2021 through 2023 and to execute the participation agreement accordingly. Adopting this resolution and participation agreement allows the county to receive a longevity bonus which will be in an amount equal to 10% of the 2020 premium contribution.
• Wendy Swann also addressed the commission and encouraged them to nominate volunteers for the Complete Count Committee which is being put together to assist with the 2020 Census and the efforts to reach those hard-to-count areas within Lee County.
The Lee County Commission meets on the second and last Monday nights of the month. Meetings start at 5 p.m. and are held in the commission chambers which are located on the second floor of the Lee County Courthouse Annex.
These meetings are open to the public. Individuals can sign up to address the commission without being on the agenda during the public comment time. Comments are limited to three minutes per speaker.