By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

The salary for the director of Senior Connection will be paid entirely by the City of Clanton starting Oct. 1.

Previously, the majority of the salary had been paid by Middle Alabama Area Agency on Aging, and the city paid 10 hours of the 40-hour salary.

Mayor Billy Joe Driver said M4A was dropping funding for the position.

A motion to fund the position passed unanimously.

Vanessa McKinney will remain in this position.

A dollar amount for the salary was not discussed.

“We have to incorporate everything down there into the city,” Driver said.

Various financial questions will need to be worked through, but the city is adamant about keeping the program.

“They have raised money to buy a bus, and I don’t know how that will work out,” Driver said. “They’ll have to give that over, I think, to the city then we pick up the tabs from what’s done from here on.”

Driver said the group has worked hard.

With the program being under the city, any issues with the building would likely be paid for by the city.

The city already owns the Senior Connection building, as well as the rest of the Park Plaza shopping center.

Councilman Jeffery Price said funding the position makes it a permanent position for the City of Clanton, and it needs a job description.

Driver said McKinney had provided a job description of what she does.

Councilman Bobby Cook said the job description with the city needed to be written, so that it would remain the same in the future no matter who was serving in the role.

Price also questioned whether an annual membership fee could still be charged if the program was a part of city operations.

“It opens up a lot of can of worms of, ‘Why am I going to have to pay $20 if this is a city (program)?” Price said.

While he had concerns about the details, Price said, “It’s a great idea. I’m all for it.”

Also during the meeting, The Council:

• Approved paying bills for fuel and for a Ford pickup truck
• Heard a presentation from Connie Bainbridge with the Central Alabama Electric Cooperative about the broadband survey. She explained the company would be building a fiber network to connect their offices and was exploring the option of offering high-speed internet to individual customers, primarily in rural areas. She said internet would be a separate fee because there could be customers not in the CAEC power service area that could still be serviced by their fiber internet. The survey is to see how many people would be interested. A $25 fee is charged to take the survey, and will be returned if the company does not move forward with the project