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Commission approves 2021 paving bid

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The Shelby County Commission approved the 2021 paving bid contract during their April 12 meeting. It went to the lowest bidder, Wiregrass Construction, in the amount of $5,753,019.92.

County engineer, Randy Cole, said the three cities that had asked to participate in this year's program were Columbiana, Vincent and Westover. Each city will be responsible for the payment of their portion of the project. 

“We broke them out separately to see the cost of work in each of the cities and the concurrence from each of them was that they all agreed they had the money budgeted for it,” Cole said. 

Of the $5.7 million, a little over $5 million of that is strictly county commission projects. 

Cole said the largest of the projects is CR-47 from Columbiana all the way down to the river, which is being done with Rebuilding AL funds. 

“The contract indicated that as soon as we award the contract, work will get started the first of the month and we look forward to brand new paving very soon,” Cole said. 

During the county manager’s report, Chad Scroggins discussed the tornadoes that came through the county on March 25, which was after the last commission meeting took place. 

“There were about six main affected areas across the county and two tornado paths,” Scroggins said. “That afternoon the highway department, fire departments, volunteer and EMS crews and neighbors, anyone who had chainsaw ability, were out helping that evening. It has been a significant effort by the highway department to continue to work diligently on cleanup. This will leave a significant scar on our area for many years to come.”

Cole said that the highway department has been working six days a week, 12 to 15 hours per day moving materials. There are currently two burn piles of debris set up, one adjacent to the county landfill and the other near the 1996 soccer fields off CR-41. 

“There are thousands of trees down across the county, and our crews will continue to work until the job is significantly done,” Cole said. “We are going to clean up Highway 119 to the best extent we possibly can, we’re just going to be in there a while. If anyone asks how long, we’ll be at it as long as necessary.”

Scroggins also shared that the county received around 5,000 COVID-19 vaccines last week and the commission hired part-time nurses and technicians to work in the clinics to vaccinate around 4,000 people in Columbiana and around 1,200 at Valleydale Church. 

Cole also shared that the road project at CR 39 and CR-47 in Chelsea should begin in the near future and be completed by the end of October. 

“There will be traffic concerns,” Cole said. “But workers won’t be allowed to work in the roadway and disturb traffic while school is taking place, and will be working from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. to try to minimize the impact. 

Kendall Williams was introduced to the commission and said she is looking forward to working with them as the Manager of Tourism & Events for Shelby County, along with the Executive Director for Leadership Shelby County. 

Other resolutions approved by the council include: 

The next commission meeting will be at 6 p.m. on April 26 at the Shelby County Administration Building in Columbiana. 

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