Centerville favoring early work sessions

The Centerville City Council held its Tuesday work session a little earlier than normal. Members of the council met at 5 p.m. and decided they actually liked it. Councilman Edward Tucker asked the department heads and council how they felt about meeting at 5 p.m. for future work sessions. No one had a problem with it, so council members will discuss possibly changing times in the future.

Council members approved a list of six designated people for the absentee ballot clerk and poll workers for the general/special election that will be held on Nov. 5. These individuals will receive training and compensation for the days they work.

“This is budgeted and it is under a special department,” said City Clerk Krista Bedingfield.

The first part of the fiber optic telecommunications infrastructure options police and municipal court project documents was approved 3-0 in order for Cox Communications to proceed. Councilmen Jonathan Nichols and Cameron Andrew were absent for the vote.

“This will give us one internet service that will feed into all campuses. It will save money and be significantly faster,” said Joe Collins, owner of Total Computer Solutions. “This is something we have to have. We have no choice in the matter. The Police Department cannot connect to Pistol without it.”

“There is no issue with the price. We just changed a little of the language for the benefit of the city,” said city attorney Rebecca Tydings.

According to Tydings, the cost will be $4,900 and will be paid for out of the SPLOST budget.

Centerville Police Chief Sidney Andrews presented council with the new Centerville Police Department patch. The patch currently being used is outdated. A competition was held throughout the department and Officer Adrian Moss had the winning patch design. The new patch incorporated the new police department center on it. There will also be new field training officer and Sgt. patches.

“We are ordering 400 patches, which will take care of 200 uniforms. We are also getting key fobs (which feature the new patch) that will be handed out at the ribbon cutting ceremony,” said Andrews. “The total cost is $1,476.50 and is being paid out of confiscated funds.”

Officers will wear the new patch for the first time at the ribbon cutting ceremony.

Further topics of discussion at the meeting included the Margie Drive Water Tower and the approval of the Robins partnership steering committee charter. Both items were tabled until further meetings due to lack of information.

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