By Michelle Key
Publisher
Because of meeting restrictions put in place by the Governor’s office, the Lee County Commissioners held their regularly scheduled meeting Monday night using Zoom. The meeting was also livestreamed via Facebook and the community also had the option to call in to listen. Citizens that wished to address the commission had the opportunity to be scheduled to speak during the virtual event.
During the meeting, the commissioners voted to approve a request from County Administrator Roger Rendleman to implement a supplemental pay schedule for those county employees that are being required to come into their county offices or work places during the COVID-19 pandemic. The additional pay will be paid based on 8, 10 or 12 hour shifts that are completed. For every eight-hour shift completed, these workers will receive an added $12, for a 10-hour shift the additional amount is $15 and 12-hour shifts will be compensated at a rate of $18.
Rendleman also notified the commission that the county has received $1.345 million in federal reimbursements for expenditures made during the March 2019 tornado clean-up efforts.
The commission voted to approved Rendleman’s recommendations to allocate $600,000 to a COVID-19 recovery fund to cover the cost of the supplemental pay previously mentioned and to help cover the cost that EMA has incurred. The remaining $745,000 will be allocated to general projects.
Commissioner Johnny Lawrence offered his thanks to those involved in the recovery of those funds.
“It is extraordinary that we have been able to get this money back as quickly as we did, and also to have recovered many of the dollars that we spent. Kudos to the EMA staff, Mr. Hardee’s staff and Mr. Rendleman’s staff for making sure that they chased all those documents to make sure that we got paid in a timely way and to get back the dollars we were due. Thank each of you for all those efforts,” Lawrence said.
In other business, the commission voted to:
- ratify and approve claims and various procurement transactions from March
- approved the preliminary plat for the Hall Tree Home Sites Subdivision. According the plans, approximately 40 acres will be subdivided into 12 lots of sizes ranging from 1.5 to 5 acres.
Lee County resident Linda Kerr lives near the proposed development and voiced her concerns about the likelihood of increased noise, traffic, the potential for increased crime and other problems via a phone call. Commissioner Sheila Eckman addressed her concerns and stated that there is nothing in the law that offers protections from those concerns. There is nothing in the law or regulations would address Kerr’s specific concerns or that would prohibit a new subdivision from being developed as long as the plat meets the county regulations according to County Engineer Justin Hardee.
Following the adjournment of the official meeting, Chairman Judge Bill English presented a slide presentation detailing statistics of Lee County’s COVID-19 cases. A recording of the meeting and the slide presentation can be found online at the county’s website www.leeco.us.
The next Lee County Commission meeting is scheduled for April 27 at 5 p.m.