After postponing a decision regarding bids for roof repairs at the Chilton County Tag Office on Aug. 12, the Chilton County Commission decided to reject the current bids on Monday.

Commission Chairman Allen Caton told commissioners he thought it would be best to reject the two bids received during the Aug. 12 meeting and redraw specifications for a standard roof that would resemble the one at the Chilton-Clanton Public Library.

On Aug. 12, the commission opened bids for repairs at the tag office. Out of nine bid invitations that were sent out, only two were returned including a bid from Blair Remodeling in Birmingham for roughly $44,000 and a $5,000 addition to the bid for structural engineering drawings.

The second bid was from Steel Built Systems LLC in Maplesville for a bid of $24,990.

“The two prices that were written up are opposite,” Caton said.

Commissioner Shannon Welch said he was concerned that the commission had been talking about the roof repairs for several months and rejecting the bids to send out specifications for new bids would be starting the process all over again.

“We have a department that is taking tarps and covering up their copiers and printers every night to protect everything from the leaks in the roof,” Welch said.

Caton told Welch the commission would not be bidding out the same way and the new specifications for the repairs would be different than what was originally sent out.

Commissioners Caton, Welch, Bobby Agee and Greg Moore voted in favor of rejecting the two bids with commissioners Tim Mims, Heedy Hayes and Joe Headley voting against the motion.

The motion passed 4-3 in favor of rejecting the bids.

Caton told the commissioners they could go ahead and get two more proposals for the roof repairs instead of going through the rebidding process.

“We could have the proposals by the next meeting,” Caton said.

Welch made the motion to give Caton the authority to get two other proposals with specifications for the roof repairs, review the proposals, award the project and the commission would ratify the decision at the next regularly scheduled commission meeting on Sept. 9.

Hayes, Caton, Moore, Agee and Welch voted in favor of the motion with Headley and Mims voting against the motion.

“The reason I voted the way I did was because this has been going on for the longest and we should have already done something about this,” Mims said.

Two leaks in the roof of the office have created issues for the six clerks working inside.

One leak in the roof drops water every 30 seconds and another leak directly above one of the clerk’s terminals leaks a few days after a heavy rainstorm.

In May, the commission voted to replace the current beige carpet behind the clerk stations to neutral colored carpet tiles for roughly $4,000.

Due to the continuous leaks in the roof, the installation for the carpet tiles has been postponed until the roof is fixed.

The commission heard from Robert Hunter regarding concerns he had with the county leaving County Road 46 unpaved.

Hunter explained that several residents living on the road feared the road would not be paved.

County engineer Tony Wearren clarified for Hunter that the road would be paved due to a resolution that was passed in the late 1990s.

“We are working on it with the exception of rain and a couple of emergency projects we have had come up,” Wearren said.

In other news, the commission:

•Voted to solicit bids to replace the bridge on County Road 46.

•Voted to allow Caton to sign the Emergency Management Performance Grants (EMPG) state cooperative agreement.

•Passed a resolution to offer flu shots to all county employees on Sept. 30 from 9 a.m-noon.

•Met in executive session at the request of Chilton County Industrial Development Coordinator Fred Crawford for a pending legal matter.

•Continued in executive session with Sheriff Kevin Davis and voted after the commission meeting resumed to allow Davis to implement with full authority Act 2013-283, Alabama’s new firearms law at the Chilton County Courthouse and annex buildings.