Falling windows to be replaced

Published 10:44 pm Thursday, December 17, 2009

Two offices in the Chilton County Courthouse will be getting new sets of service windows soon.

The county commission voted to replace indoor windows in the probate office and tax collector’s office. The spring-loaded windows have reportedly been falling on their own, creating a safety hazard for employees and customers.

The windows have not been replaced since the courthouse was built in the 1960s.

“We’ve had two windows for some time that we’ve been propping up with a stick,” Probate Judge Bobby Martin said. “One of my clerks got a finger smashed up one day.”

The commission voted 6-1 to award the bid to Gary’s Glass for $1,435. Commissioner Joe Headley opposed.

Instead of opening and closing, the new windows will include speaker holes and oval-shaped holes at the bottom for transactions.

“It will give [county office employees] some protection too, and some security,” Commissioner Allen Caton said.

In other business, a countywide seminar on ethics is being planned. Commissioner Bobby Agee, who made the motion, said commissioners and other elected officials could benefit from the meeting.

“It’s just to make us as commissioners and elected officials a little more knowledgeable of what’s going on, and what laws have changed,” Agee said. “You can never know too much.”

A member of the State Ethics Commission will likely conduct the seminar. The date and location have not been set.

The commission also:

Approved three hires for Tax Collector Tim Little, in order to fill a vacancy in the Tax Collector’s Office and two vacancies in the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Awarded a bid to Central Alabama Heating and Cooling in the amount of $3,399 for a new HVAC unit in the E-911 office.