The Butler County Commission voted Monday morning to amend their contract with the Butler County Chamber of Commerce to go ahead and appropriate $5,000 to the Chamber for the efforts of marketing Butler County to Hyundai.

Butler County Administrator Jerre Turner said the Butler County Commission has a contract with the Chamber in which $5,000 is appropriated to the Chamber from the Commission each year. The amendment, which passed with a vote of 4-1, with the only "no" vote from Commissioner Gary Hanks, will go ahead and provide the $5,000 to the Chamber for the funding of a marketing website for Butler County.

The website will make Butler County information available to industries and companies and make Butler County more marketable to those businesses, Turner said.

District One Commissioner Gary Hanks commented "me and William Phillips have got half of Butler County across this map right here, roads down through here

and I know I'm getting lambasted by the paper about worrying about my roads. But I'm out here and me and William Phillips have half the county and we're out here in these roads. That's what I'm fighting for.

"I know we need jobs; I know we want jobs," he said. "I'm for jobs but we can't keep putting out money."

William Phillips responded that he shared the concerns about the roads but that "one of the best ways that we can improve the roads in Butler County is by improving our tax base so that our revenue we generate will provide funding for those roads."

The amendment was passed and the funds will be appropriated to the Chamber of Commerce for funding the marketing website.

The commission also approved the renewal of the agreement between the commission, the Alabama Red Cross, the Department of Human Resources and the Emergency Management Agency to continue providing fall-out shelters throughout Butler County.

Other items discussed included:

The approval of employment changes in the Butler County Probate Office.

Acknowledgement of the grand jury report.

Approval of a resolution honoring former Probate Clerk Brenda Bryan.

Approval of a resolution in support of OCAP.

Update of jail project.

Engineer's report.

The meeting then went into executive session and is to be continued July 23 at 6 p.m.

The next regular workshop of the Butler County Commission will be held August 8 at 6 p.m. with the regular meeting following on August 12 at 10 a.m.