After three buses from the Chilton County Transit were declared surplus, the Chilton County Commission voted on Tuesday to award the buses to the highest public bidders.

Commission Chairman Allen Caton read the list of the highest bidders after the bids were opened to the public to purchase the buses that were declared surplus.

Chilton County Transit Bus No. 8, a 2004 14-passenger bus, was awarded to Bell Lane Baptist Church in the amount of $6,023.23.

Everyone voted in favor of the motion.

Commissioner Joseph Parnell was absent from Tuesday’s meeting.

Commissioners also voted to award Chilton County Transit Bus No. 9, a 2007 12-passenger bus, to D Company in the amount of $3,777.

Commissioners Bobby Agee, Greg Moore, Shannon Welch, Caton and Joe Headley voted in favor of Bus No. 9 being awarded to D Company, a company based out of Mississippi.

Commissioner Heedy Hayes voted against the motion.

Chilton County Transit Bus No. 10, a 2008 12-passenger bus, was also awarded to D Company in the amount $3,777.

Commissioners voted in favor of the motion to award Bus No. 10 to D Company with Hayes voting against the motion.

Commissioners also held bid openings for a new incinerator for the Chilton County Humane Society and a control panel upgrade at the Chilton County Jail.

Caton read two bids submitted for work for a control panel upgrade at the jail from MECS LLC with a base bid of $84,900, and Unique Security Inc. with a base bid of $98,600.

Caton told county administrator Connie Powell to give the bids to someone at the Chilton County Jail to review and commissioners would award the bids at the June 9 commission meeting.

Everyone voted in favor to accept the bids for the control panel upgrade at the jail.

Commissioners also read two bids for a new incinerator at the Chilton County Humane Society.

Commissioners previously voted during the Feb. 10 commission meeting to solicit bids for a new incinerator.

Caton read two bids submitted, including one from Cremation Systems Inc. for $60,450 and Matthew’s Cremation for $68,115.

Caton gave the bids to Powell to review with representatives from the Chilton County Humane Society.

Commissioners plan to award the bids at the June 9 commission meeting.

Everyone voted in favor to accept the bids for a new incinerator at the Chilton County Humane Society.

During the commission reports section of the meeting, Caton told commissioners he would like to discuss the possibility of replacing the light switches in the Chilton County Courthouse to an automatic system to save money on electricity use.

“I come to a lot of meetings at the courthouse at night and there are so many lights on in this building,” Caton said. “I was in a meeting the other day and went through just cutting off different lights left on in restrooms, offices, etc. There is a tremendous amount of energy being wasted in this building. I have seen different buildings have the motion sensor lights where they go off after a certain period of time. I would like for us to start thinking about that and coming up with some different ideas.”

Caton told commissioners the current electricity bill at the courthouse is roughly $8,000 per month.

“We ask people to turn off the lights as they go, out but a lot of times there are people working at the courthouse after 9 p.m.,” Caton said. “It ends up costing a lot of money.”

Welch asked commissioners to schedule a special called meeting for June 4 at 8:30 a.m. at the Chilton County Courthouse on behalf of the Chilton County Hospital Board.

Welch explained the purpose of the meeting would be to ratify the decision of House Bill 597 which will appear on the Primary Election June 3 ballot which asks voters if they would like to authorize the county commission of Chilton County to levy an additional one-cent ($0.1) sales tax which shall be used exclusively for the construction and maintenance of a hospital in Chilton County.

“If the vote is a ‘yes’ on June 3, the meeting on June 4 will ratify the decision so we can begin moving forward and the hospital board can start contacting the architects, etc.,” Welch said.

Everyone voted in favor.

In other news, the commission:

•Voted to approve a key card for Teal Dick at the request of Chilton County District Court Judge Rhonda Hardesty.

Everyone voted in favor.

•Voted to approve a key card for James McGowan in Chilton County E-911.

•Scheduled a work session for June 12 at 6 p.m. to discuss sections in the new policies and procedures manual.