McWilliams reelected Commission chairman

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, November 9, 2004

The new additions to the Butler County Commission came into their first meeting only moments after being sworn in.

The first step of the commission was to retain its leader. The commission voted unanimously to retain Jesse McWilliams as Commission Chairman.

The Commission also voted to retain their current meeting times. The commission will continue to meet on the second Monday of the month at 10 a.m. They also voted to continue to hold a workshop the Thursday before each meeting.

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New District Five Commissioner Glenn King needed very little time to actively participate in his first commission meeting.

He recommended Bobby Wasden to replace Pat O’Conner on the personnel board. The commission had come to King and asked him to appoint a new member and he felt Wasden was the man for the job.

&uot;He spent man years in public education and as a football coach and he has a lot of experience,&uot; said King. &uot;I expect him to do a great job in this position as well.&uot;

County Engineer Dennis McCall also attended the meeting to give everyone a hurricane update. McCall said things continued to progress as hoped.

&uot;A brief update on out cleanup effort of Hurricane Ivan, we’ve got our current operations by the county. We have completed operations in the northeast end of the county,&uot; McCall said. &uot;We will continue to work with the Corps and go from there.&uot;

He also said things were going well with the Corp of Engineers. McCall said they had some negotiations, but things were now falling into place.

&uot;We have had some negotiations going on between the corp and contractors,&uot; McCall said. &uot;This cleanup has been considerably different than simple pickup. They have come to an agreement on that and they have two crews that started a week ago. They have a pickup crew coming in today and another tomorrow.&uot;

McCall said soon they would know exactly where they stood as far as additional clean ups.

&uot;Hopefully, in about two weeks we will have a good feel for where we will be and whether or not we will need additional crews,&uot; McCall said.

So far, McCall said the hurricane cleanup has cost about $390,000. However, this money can be reinbursed.

&uot;What those numbers are are to explain how we apply for reimbursement for our expenses,&uot; McCall said. &uot;For the seven weeks of work we will turn in $390,000 worth of work and will be eligible for 85 percent of that. This is what we had discussed when we started.&uot;

From here McCall said the plan will be followed as discussed with the county now concentrating on dirt roads and the corp taking over operations on paved areas.

The estimate on the cleanup of paved roads has grown. This was expected since it was difficult to gauge an exact figure on the damage. McCall said once all things were considered the estimate had grown.

&uot;The original estimate was $1million for the clean up of paved roads,&uot; McCall said. &uot;That estimate has moved to $1.5 million. &uot;

McCall said both the county and the corp would work to see the work was done in a timely cost effective manner.

The commission will hold their next meeting on Monday Dec. 12 at 10 a.m. Before the meeting a workshop will be held on Thursday Dec. 9 at 6 p.m.