County restructures accounts, earns interest

Published 10:18 am Tuesday, July 16, 2019

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Chilton County will soon be adding to the amount of money it accrues as interest during the next year.

Commissioner Steve Langston helped spearhead an effort to restructure several existing accounts at River Bank & Trust.

The details of the restructure include a two-year certificate of deposit (CD) at 2.55%. Each of the accounts had already existed at River Bank & Trust.

Over the last couple of Commission meetings, the restructured accounts approved include the jail fund, lease purchase program, Renasant account, Chilton County hospital trust, savings account and excess bids/tax sales.

With the restructuring, the county’s total net interest earned from those six accounts will be $106,364 for 2019-2020.

That is equivalent to net earning of $8,865 a month in interest.

According to Langston, he was happy to do it and is just trying to make sure that none of the county’s money gets left on the table.

It is important to note that the interest money cannot be touched by the Commission or be used in any other county capacity.

Examples of the difference it will make will include bringing in interest moving forward for accounts that had not been earning anything, such as the Chilton County hospital and excess bids/tax sales.

Both of those accounts had generated no interest from 2018-2019.

That will change over the next year with Chilton County hospital expected to earn $5,002 and excess bids/tax sales to earn $10,453.

Langston’s fellow commissioners thanked him for all of the work and due diligence that he put into the process.