By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

The Maplesville Town Council unanimously approved a bid from NAFECO for turnout gear for the Maplesville Fire Department during a meeting on Dec. 10.

Town Clerk Dawn Smitherman said NAFECO had the lowest cost for the 10 sets of gear, totaling $23,049.

T.R. Mims was unanimously approved to join the fire department. All firefighters in the department are volunteers.

Employees in the street department, police department and office employees will be getting upgraded employee cell phones following a unanimous vote by the town council. Smitherman said the phones will still be through Southern Linc. XP5 phones without smartphone capabilities were purchased for the street department and office employees, as well as XP8 smartphones for the Maplesville Police Department and the mayor with 2 GB of data, unlimited cell, text and radio for $40 a month. Smitherman said the cell phones the town employees had been using were outdated and could not be used with Southern Linc’s upgrades to their system.

The Town Council also unanimously approved:

• A raise of 25 cents an hour for Brian Beckham based on him reaching his one year anniversary working for the town.
• Replacing the awnings for the library and police department. The frames for the awnings are still in good shape and will be reused, but the covering will be replaced. The cover with lettering for the police department will cost $2,071. The library’s awning will be $1,490. The company that originally installed the awnings, Strauss Awnings, will be doing the replacement.
• Changes to the personal time off policy to allow employees to sell back unused paid time off hours over 40 hours at the end of the calendar year. Up to 40 hours will roll over to the next calendar year. Smitherman said there were plans to review the policy again in 2019.
• Mayor W.C. Hayes to have scraping done on Payne Lane to improve the road.