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LaFAYETTE — The Chambers County Commission took action Monday to participate in this year’s Back-to-School Tax Holiday, to reappoint two members to the Chambers County Emergency Communications District Board of Directors and to upgrade the traffic signals at one of the county’s busiest intersections.

The traffic light upgrades will be taking place at the intersection of Highway 50 and Phillips Road, not far from the county’s E-911 office. Highway Engineer Josh Harvill told the commissioners the new signals will have LED lights and will be somewhat higher than the present signals, which have from time to time been struck by trucks carrying high loads.

To get this done, the commission approved an amendment transferring $20,000 from its public safety, or 105 fund, to the seven-cent gasoline fund.

Commissioners David Eastridge and Sam Bradford welcomed the move.

“This is much needed,” Eastridge said.

Bradford thanked Harvill for being on top of this and making the recommendation.

The two people reappointed to the local EMA board are David Ennis and Byron Pigg. Each will have a four-year term starting on July 1, 2020, and ending on June 30, 2024.

The Back-to-School Tax Holiday will be taking place on the weekend of July 27-29. It’s an annual state tax-free holiday with county and city governments having the option to participate. The county, along with the cities of Valley, Lanett and LaFayette, usually take part in it.

County Attorney Skip McCoy reported that a jail committee had had a productive meeting last week. He said that work on a new expansion for the jail was coming along really well.

“It’s looking good on the outside, but there’s still more work to be done on the interior and some drainage work needs to be done,” he said.

McCoy said there’s a potential parking problem near the old railroad bed not far from the jail. He said that Josh Harvill would be talking to the LaFayette City Council about it and was confident the problem could be taken care of.

“The final completion date will be June 13,” McCoy said. “The architect and the contractor will be going over the punch list the first week of June. This has been a long time coming for us. Freeman and Associates (the contractor) has done a good job.”

Harvill said he’d be following up with the commission on his meeting with the city council and what can be done about the parking problem.

Harvill said that his department had been doing a number of pipe replacement projects recently. He said they’d been doing some needed road work on County Road 158 in recent days and would be moving on to CR 51 when they finished. He said that they’ve had a busy spring/summer season and that their projects were listed on their website.

Commission Chairman Doug Jones thanked Chambers County EMA Director Jessica Yeager on receiving some protective masks and gloves needed by county employees.

Jones noted that the most recent meetings have been done online but that the next meeting set for Monday, June 1 would be back at the normal meeting location inside the Chambers County Courthouse.