After discussing options at the St. Clair County Commission work session for selling 750,000 gallons of excess water to Coosa Valley Water Supply District, the commission voted unanimously to approve Coosa Valley’s marketing and selling of the water at last Tuesday’s meeting.

Commission chairman, Stan Batemon, opened the conversation concerning Coosa Valley at the commission’s work session. Batemon said that Springville had turned their water over to Coosa Valley, and he believed that it was time for the county to look at selling theirs.

Batemon said that he had read in a newspaper that Coosa Valley had no water to put out in the market. He said that they did; they just didn’t know it yet. With all of St. Clair’s excess water for sale, Batemon believes that Coosa Valley can be a good competitor in the water market. “I still support Coosa Valley Water,” said Batemon. The other commissioners were in agreement and asked the county attorney, James Hill, to formulate a resolution for the matter.

At last Tuesday’s meeting Batemon said, “What we’re trying to do is come up with a method that will allow Coosa Valley to be one of the entities that sells our water, but without giving up our rights to sell our own water.” Hill said, “Essentially all that this resolution does is allow Coosa Valley to sell our 750,000 gallons of water.” He said that under the resolution all proceeds from sales would count toward St. Clair County as an equitable owner in the Coosa Valley system.

Batemon said that he felt that the commission should set a flat rate for the water, and he suggested it be $1.54 per gallon. Commissioner Paul Manning said that he didn’t want to put a price on it because the market fluctuates all the time. “At any point, we could get together and formulize a flat rate,” said Manning.

 After some discussion the commission decided that the cost of the water would be determined by the market’s lowest rate at the time of the sale. “I like the idea of adjusting to market value,” agreed Hill.

In other news:

–    Pell City’s consultants have estimated the cost of the Hazelwood Road project at around $1.7 million. County engineer, Dan Dahlke, said that ATRIP funds total in at around $1.2 million, with a local match of $250,000. But federal funds rather than ATRIP will be used for the Hazelwood project, according to Dahlke.

–    The county accepted a grant from Homeland Security in the amount of $15,000. St. Clair County is the sub grantee only, with funds to be used to purchase radios for the Odenville Police Department.

–    The Commission passed a resolution in support of legislation that strengthens Alabama’s Open Meetings Act. “ We support whatever strengthens the open-meeting laws,” said Batemon.