By Lee Weyhrich
PINSON — Pinson City Council met at Palmerdale Homesteads Community Center Thursday morning for their annual daytime meeting.
According to Councilman John Churchwell, the primary focus of the meeting was in regards to Pinson area schools, and how the Council could help.
Since taking over as principal of Pinson Valley High School, Michael Turner has made incredible strides in improving the school, Churchwell said. In recognition of this the council voted to raise Turner’s salary by $10,000. The money will go to the Board of Education for this purpose.
PVHS head football coach Matt Glover recently announced that he coordinating with the coaching staff at Rudd Middle School to ensure that the program is consistent throughout the district.
To help do this he asked for help from the Council. Roughly 50 football helmets at Rudd need to be re-certified or replaced at a cost of roughly $8,000. The council will provide the necessary funds from their annual allocation to the schools. $4,000 will come from each of the two schools’ allocated funds.
The council also voted to replace the risers for the high school choral department at a cost of roughly $6,000. The old choir risers will be sent to the middle school for use by their choir program.
Pinson Elementary and Rudd Middle will also see a few new paving projects this year. The council allocated approximately $8,000 to paving at the elementary school and $2,640 to the middle school for this work.
Not everything the council discussed was school related, however.
For more than a year the council has discussed the state of the current city website. The site, as it now stands, is not properly updated and lacks the horsepower to do everything the council wants it to do. The council voted to allow VC3, Inc. of Columbia, South Carolina, to provide web hosting, website creation and updates,and tech support at a cost of $1,200 per month. The new website will allow the public greater access to public records and increase transparency.
Though the election is still some time away, four incumbent council members have been “re-elected” to office by virtue of being unopposed. Place 1 will continue to belong to Dawn Tanner, Place 3 will remain Robbie Roberts’, and John Churchwell and Joy McCain will remain in Place 4 and 5 respectively.
Place 2 councilman Joe Cochran recently announced his candidacy for mayor against incumbent Mayor Hoyt Sanders. Shannon Galamore and Brad Walker are each hoping to fill the vacancy left by Cochran.