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By NOAH WORTHAM | Staff Writer

COLUMBIANA – The Shelby County Commission approved a bid for a passenger van for Heardmont Senior Center and awarded a bid for custom reactivation of GAC Media at SWTP during a regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, May 8.

During the meeting, the county commission awarded a bid for a 14-passenger bus to Transportation South in the amount of $112,942.

“This is a van that we have bid out for one of senior centers, for Heardmont, because of capacity that they have to go and see different events,” County Manager Chad Scroggins said. “Some of our senior centers that are not supported by a municipality, we try to step in, and this was one of those opportunities.”

The commission also approved a bid for custom reactivation of GAC Media at SWTP to the lowest responsive bidder, Carbon Activated Corporation.

“This is a very large activity that we do,” Scroggins said. “Filter media is what actually helps that granulated activated carbon (which) helps us filter out all the things that come through the water services plants. Right now, we are in a phase of using more virgin material versus some of the reactivated, and we’re doing some tests to see how it reacts to constituents in the water itself. This is a large purchase but something that has to be done to make sure that we’re in compliance.”

The county approved a resolution to award a bid for oil change services to the only responsive bidder, Express Oil Change and Tire Engineers.

“This services all kinds of county cars,” Scroggins said. “Particularly, we like to have different areas for our sheriff’s office employees to make sure that they can get back on the road as quickly as possible,” Scroggins said.

During the county manager’s report, Scroggins discussed the current legislative session.

“There’s a lot going on with the legislature,” Scroggins said. “We have everything from new judges they are looking at here in Shelby County to the stuff to do with the Juvenile Court System, and we’ve had some bills that passed for the sheriff’s office.”

Scroggins said all of these can have a direct impact on the county’s budget.

“We are watching those very closely and answering questions as our legislators call in or text in with questions on the fly,” Scroggins said. “We appreciate our legislative delegation. They’ve worked really hard, and they listen to us when we have concerns. We’re very thankful for the work they’re doing right now.”

The next Shelby County Commission meeting will be held on Monday, May 22 at 6 p.m. at the Shelby County Administrative Building in Columbiana.