(Gadsden, AL - December 8, 2009) Etowah County Commissioners are considering a potential voting problem at two polling places in the next state-wide elections.

Members of the Election Commission alerted the County Commission of potential problems stemming from the recent announcement that 12th Street Baptist Church will be moving to the old K-Mart building in Rainbow City on Highway 77, and from the recent annexation of Mountainboro by neighboring Boaz.

Typically, a change in polling places takes between 3 and 4 months to obtain a ruling from the US Justice Department. With an upcoming state election coming up this spring, the Election Commission is asking the county to begin now to act on the possibility of a needed change in these two polling places.

A previous request, earlier in this decade, to consolidate some polling places in the vicinity of 12th Street Baptist Church was refused by the Justice Department, according to county CEO Patrick Simms.

Commissioners will be seeking some clarification from church leadership and from the Boaz mayor concerning the two current voting places. They are hoping to strike some type of agreement that will support both locations as official polling places for at the very least this next voting cycle.

In other reports to the commission today, Sheriff Todd Entrekin says his deputies are stepping up their patrols throughout the county to protect communities from potential buglars. He says the county has, in previous years, obtained external funding to cover some of the overtime expenses incurred with the increased patrols. Those grants were not made available to the Etowah County Sheriffs office this year, which means the sheriff's overtime expenses will increase this year over last "but, we won't go over the alloted overtime budget for the year," Entrekin told the commission.

Etowah County Commissioner Jimmy McKee asked the commission to consider scheduling a meeting with the legislative delegation before they head to Montgomery next month to begin their 2010 legislative sessions. He says the county needs to have a way to provide a regular funding source for the county's communications system. "We already know that the county will have to pay more than a million dollars for each tower we put up (with the new P-25 digital communications system). And that doesn't include maintenance and upgrades."

McKee says the county needs to see if the delegation could pass a local act that would authorize the county to collect a fee for papers served by the county Sheriff's department and by constables in the county. He tells GadsdenMetro that the sheriff served more than 20,000 papers last year. If Etowah County were able to collect from businesses and lawyers a fee for delivery of those papers, McKee feels the county could fund continuing costs of a county-wide communications system that would fulfill the requirements of the Homeland Security Administration requirements for local law enforcement and service agencies.

Such a proposal would likely require a referendum or constitutional amendment in order for the county to be authorized to collect the fees.

Currently, several counties in the state are authorized to collect as much as $25 per delivery of legal papers in civil cases.

(Gadsden, AL - December 8, 2009) Etowah County Commissioners will consider an engineering report from Albertville, AL based CDG Engineers and Associates concerning water supply for the Little Canoe Creek Development District in western Etowah County.

The property currently being considered to house the proposed Little Canoe Creek Bingo Casino in Etowah County will require a minimum of $10 million to supply adequate water service to the area, according to the report.

CDG Engineer Clay McKee says his group has determined that the county would require between 800- and 900-thousand gallons of water per day to supply either of the two proposed uses for the property. That, he says, is beyond the capacity of the West Etowah Water System's current supplies.

To provide adequate water, CDG proposes two solutions: create their own water system, or purchase water from some other source. The report proposes drilling several test wells in the Rocky Hollow area just south of the Gallant area to determine water supplies in that area. McKee says it is possible that as many as seven wells will be needed to supply the water requirements for the proposed uses of the property. If all of the water supply can not be provided by the land south of the Red Mountain range below Gallant, then they could possibly drill wells in the Gallant area to supply the remaining water.

If all of the water can be supplied from the "Rocky Hollow" area of Etowah County just north of the St Clair County line in western Etowah County, then a proposed cost of $10 million dollars should be able to cover the wells, pumps, pipes needed to carry the water to a storage unit on the property. That cost would significantly increase if the county had to drill for water on the north side of that mountain ridge, McKee says.

A second proposed solution would be to tie into the Attalla Water System at the intersection of US Highways 77 and 11 and pump water with a pumping station to the storage facility on the property. Infrastructure for that proposal would include 16" lines being installed between the two locations, and would cost an estimated $5 million, not including the monthly cost of the water purchased from the system.

Another added cost consideration is not included, according to those in the meeting. The city of Attalla purchases some of their water from Gadsden Water Works. If the water supply in that portion of the city is provided by Gadsden Water Works, then the county would have to negotiate with both Attalla and Gadsden for water rights before they could build the system.

McKee proposes the county drill between 10 and 15 test wells as quickly as possible, at a cost of approximately $500,000 to determine water quality and supply from the Rocky Hollow area. Once water supply is confirmed, he says conclusion of the project would take approximately three and a half years to complete.

The time frame fits in closely with the developer's agreement between the county and CBS Supply - the developer of Little Canoe Creek Bingo Casino. That agreement calls for the development to be completed within three years with occupancy in that time frame. There is an option to extend that deadline, if needed, to complete construction.

There is currently enough water supply to the property through an 8 inch line from Attalla to provide water for the construction phase, according to Etowah County CEO Patrick Simms.

The commission will consider the proposal to drill between 10 and 12 test wells in the very near future, according to Simms. Commissioners also agreed that it would be a good idea to check with other utilities in the area for water supplies. One proposal, to purchase water from Gadsden Water Works is still a possibility, says Simms. That proposal centered around the expansion of the water supply lines to the Airport area with the expansion of Airport Road in support of the Keystone Foods expansion on Steel Station Road.

City water officials said the county would have to pay for 24 inch lines to provide adequate water to the county's development. "We didn't have an engineers report at the time to say if we needed that much pipe," says Simms. "Now we know that we don't need pipes that large, we can do it with 16 inch lines, which is what they (Gadsden Water Works) has installed to provide water to Keystone."

(Gadsden, AL - December 8, 2009) The Etowah County Commission hears several pleas for funding, most from very worthy causes, every year. Three such requests were made today. The Etowah County Community Services Program, Boys and Girls Clubs of Northeast Alabama and Mary G Hardin Center for Cultural Arts asked for funds from the county commission to fund various aspects of their programs.

More than 20 men and women gathered in the Commission's conference room to discuss the county's business and the needs of these organizations this morning for the commission's weekly work session.

Boys and Girls Club Director Tim Wofford spoke to the commission concerning the financial needs of his group. He explained the financial situation leading ot the temporary closure of both Gadsden centers this month to help keep the program afloat for the rest of the year. No specific dollar figure was requested, but a figure of $100,000 was mentioned.

The Boys and Girls Club obtained $25,000 in additional funds from the Gadsden City Council earlier this year, with a promised additional $25,000. The second installment of $25,000 has not yet been paid by the city to the group. Conversations with some councilmen indicate they are interested in seeing some operational changes with the organization before they approve the additional funding for the group.

Proposals are being considered to give the old Martin Luther King Center to the Boys and Girls Club if they can sell their current properties and consolidate their programming into that one building.

Some county commissioners say they feel the clubs may have to consider reaching some type of agreements with churches and schools in the area to provide services while they assume some financial responsibility for utilities and other operational costs within those facilities.

The Etowah County Community Services Program also appeared before the commission, requesting a total of $210,000 from the commission's discretionary funds. The requested funds will be used to renovate a building purchased by funds supplied to the group by the Gadsden City Council.

Community Services Program Executive Director, Dr. Gary O. Lewis says the group needs to have a commitment from the commission before December 31 so they can keep state and federal funding provided through recovery act stimulus funds.

Gadsden City Councilman Robert Avery told the commissioners the organization could lose about $3.4 million in stimulus funds from the state and federal government if they can not renovate the old J and J Candlemaker Store on East Broad Street. Those funds could be in jeopardy if the commission doesn't act before the end of the year to, at the very least, agree to provide the funds at a later date.

Gadsden city officials have already committed to supply some of the labor to renovate the building. But, Lewis says, the $35,000 per commissioner they are requesting will allow his organization to commit fully to the project.

Community Services Program has provided more than $1.3 million in assistance to poor and fixed-income families throughout Etowah County in FY 2008-09, according to a report supplied to commissioners by Lewis.

Both of the above requests have been referred to the County Commission's Finance Committee. Committee chairperson Willie F Brown will scheduled a meeting with representatives of each of the groups to determine the ability of the commission to provide funds for their programs.

A third request for funding will be passed on to the newly formed Etowah County Tourism Board. That request, from Mary G Hardin Cultural Arts Center director Bobby Welch, asked for $5,000 for operational funds. Last year, the Commission awarded $3,000 from its tourism fund budget. Those funds were obtained by the county from the occupational tax in hotels throughout the county. However, with the formation of the new tourism board, those funds are no longer under control of the commission.

Commission President, and Tourism Board Member, Larry Payne suggested that the request be passed along to new Tourism Director Hugh Stump, III for consideration. Following that suggestion and some discussion, Commissioner Jeff Overstreet suggested the commission simply adopt a policy that when requests would automatically be sent to the Tourism Board if those requests have previously been paid for out of "tourism dollars."

(Gadsden, AL - December 8, 2009) The Gadsden-Etowah County EMA announces this morning that there will be no monthly siren test today because of the threat of inclement weather.

Sirens are scheduled for a monthly test on the second Tuesday of each month at 1 pm unless potentially dangerous weather is expected in the area.

Weather forecasts are calling for a 100% chance of rain for most of the day, with some forecasters calling for potentially heavy rains this afternoon, and possibly some severe storms on the western side of the state of Alabama tonight.

In addition to the rains, heavy winds are expected throughout the day. The National Weather Service has issued a Lake Wind Advisory for several counties in the state, including Etowah County.The advisory is in effect from noon today until noon Wednesday.

Breezy conditions are expected this afternoon, according to the alert. Winds are expected on either side of an approaching front. Sustained winds are expected to be between 10 and 20 miles per hour, with gusts near 25 miles per hour.

A Lake Wind Advisory indicates that winds will cause rough chop on area lakes and rivers. Small boats will be especially prone to capsizing in these conditions. Please use extreme caution if you are on any body of water today through tomorrow afternoon.

The National Weather Service predicts a slight chance of hazardous weather in Etowah and surrounding counties could occur between 9 pm and 3 am.

Strong to severe thunderstorms are possible tonight through early Wednesday morning across all of Central Alabama, according to the National Weather Service alert. The main threats will be damaging winds of up to 60 miles per hour. Hail, and possibly an isolated tornado could also be possible in the storm system.

A strong storm system will be moving from the Central Plains of the United States into the Ohio Valley Region by sunrise Wednesday morning. A cold front associated with this storm sytem will pull warm, moist air into Central Alabama tonight. WHen the cold front moves through the area Wednesday morning, it is expected to bring an end to the thunderstorm threat.