By Nathan Prewett, For the Tribune
PINSON – The City of Pinson and the Center Point Fire District received two checks from Rep. Danny Garrett during a meeting of the city council on Thursday, Sept. 7.
Garrett, who represents District 44, said that funding has been provided to communities from the Jefferson County Service Fund, which helped in building the pavilion at Turkey Creek. Schools have been provided with money from the Education Trust Fund.
“This year is unusual because we had a $2.8 billion surplus because of all the federal money that came into the state,” he said. “So we’re going to go around a few weeks and pass out checks to schools and we took some of that surplus money to the fund. So actually, this year we’re going to do three years worth in one check.”
One check that he presented is for the Center Point Fire District. He mentioned that he has presented close to $100,000 to the fire districts in Pinson and Clay. He presented the second check to the City of Pinson in the amount of $20,000.
Afterwards, Erik Hendon from Hendon and Huckstein delivered a presentation on the ongoing renovations to the Rock School Center. The building was recently fitted with a new roof, so the next phase will be to perform interior work.
Hendon said that they were given $350,000 to do the work, which will primarily be done at the old gym. New carpets, walls, stage sound and other acoustics will be part of the project.
After the council passed its items on its agenda, the floor was opened to public comments where DieDra Ruff spoke about a fundraising effort for the Pinson Valley Arts Council. She announced that a premiere of her film “Frienemy For Life” will be held at the Rock School Center on Sept. 23.
Admission is $20 per person and all proceeds will go to the arts council, which recently hosted students of Pinson Valley High School who spoke with cast members of the film.
“We want to be able to be of assistance to the students, to the community as well,” Ruff said.
Director of Operations Eric Winfrey spoke afterwards and said that Parks and Recreation Director Matt Nixon reached out to find grant money for a proposed playground at the Pinson Youth Sports Complex. During their research, they found GameTime, a company that offered a matching grant of $80,000 in which the city would pay half if approved.
Winfrey also said that they applied for an innovative community designation grant from the state that would establish a “smart city infrastructure” and would include implementing a WiFi hot spot, installation of IOT devices and other smart applications. There would be no required match if approved.
During the work session, Councilwoman Glenda Kirkland brought up the possibility of outsourcing payroll, which was followed by a discussion at some length though no actions were taken. Mayor Joe Cochran did not agree with the idea and expressed his opposition to it.
Towards the end of the discussion, Kirkland mentioned the city operating the current payroll without a budget, which was brought up at a previous meeting last month. Cochran said that there was now a budget for the city and that he would deliver it to her on the following day.
In other business, the council:
- Rezoned two properties on Main Street from C1 to Highway Commercial and one on Main Street from A1 to Rural Residential,
- Terminated its contract with Merrick Bank and authorized a new contract with Global Payments Direct for credit card processing, and
- Funded $500 to ClasTran for transportation services.
Pinson City Council meets on the first and third Thursdays of every month at City Hall on 4410 Main Street. Live-streamed meetings can be seen on the city’s Facebook page.