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David Willingham named next county engineer

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Photo by Leah Ingram Eagle

The Shelby County Commission and County Manager named current Chief Development Officer David Willingham as the next county engineer during the June 27 meeting. 

He will succeed current engineer, Randy Cole, who has been with the county for 31 years. Willingham is a Licensed Professional Engineer with over 26 years of experience in engineering design and management. His position is effective July 8 and he will then assume all responsibilities of the county engineer and management of the highway department on Cole’s last day, Sept. 1, 2022. 

“Randy [Cole] and I reviewed a list of candidates and I appreciate Randy's insight in all this,” County Manager Chad Scroggins said. “We interviewed and brought before you all the candidates. I appreciate Randy's involvement and all of his knowledge and everything he did to help with this process.”

Cole welcomed Willingham to his new position and congratulated him. 

“David and I will work together for a smooth transition over the next couple of months,” Cole said. “I'm sure when he takes my office over it will run smoother than ever.” 

Willingham thanked the commission for the opportunity and all said he appreciates all of the confidence and support he has received the last two and a half years. 

“I’m looking forward to working with Randy and the team in this transition and going forward many years,” Willingham said. 

Cole discussed several highway projects currently underway. Night paving is taking place on Valleydale Road, work continues on the bridge on County Road 52 over Buck Creek in Pelham and one of the next big bridge projects is to replace the County Road 55 bridge.

“In Chelsea, we will pave continuously, weather permitting,” Cole said. “We have about another week of paving and will then get the temporary striping down. Our goal is to have everything opened back before the special school election on July 12. It won’t be completed by then, but to have it so we can open the road back up.”

During the county manager’s report, Scroggins gave an update on a few park projects. He said construction is wrapping up the new restroom project at Oak Mountain State Park.  The county will be reimbursed one hundred percent by the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources for the $300,000 project.

“It’s the only restroom in OMSP that we have not constructed that's not in the campground,” Scroggins said. “Otherwise Trey [Gauntt’s] team has rebuilt every bathroom inside the gates of OMSP and also replaced all of the road pavement inside OMSP except for Terrace Drive.”

Other park projects include an ongoing project in Alabaster at Veterans Park on pavilions and a restroom along with a restroom project at parks on County Road 39 park in Chelsea and construction continues on the main parking lot at Double Oak Park.

Rebids for the county's garbage pickup service were received on June 21. The costs with the current provider were increasing from $12.75 to $35.99 and Scroggins said that was not acceptable.

Willingham said they were fortunate to get three bidders and Waste Management had the lowest rate for residential pickup, which is the current option 17,000 of the 21,000 customers use.

Community recycling bins for cardboard and paper are located at Heardmont Park,  Columbiana and Harpersville. The bid from Waste Management did not include recycling and came in the lowest at $20.69.The Republic Services contract ends Sept. 30 and the new bid will be on the July 9 commission agenda.

 The cost of recycling has also increased from $13 per ton in 2013 to and is currently $100 per ton.

“It affects so many people in our county, but essentially what we’re communicating is the recycling market is not there,” Scroggins said. 

During the meeting, the commission also approved:

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