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At their meeting on Monday, the Chambers County Commission approved a resolution to concur with the Alabama Department of Transportation’s recommendation to award a contract to Chris Clark Grading and Paving, Inc. of Lanett to make various improvements to Phillips Road and Cusseta Road. Plans for the roads include widening, leveling, resurfacing, striping, intersection improvements, and traffic signal replacement. An agenda document provided for the meeting said that the company’s contract total is $3,187,192.50.

“Halfway between the intersection [of Cusseta Road and Phillips Road] and Highway 50 is where all the improvements are going to be on Phillips Road,” County Engineer Josh Harvill said. “And then about 1000 feet on either side of the intersection there on Cusseta Road. That will include lane widening, a lot of drainage improvements.”

Harvill said many storm drain pipes would be installed.

In an interview, Harvill said the commission first suggested the project in 2013. Additionally, he said that $800,000 that the county is providing for the project came from the Rebuild Alabama Act. Commissioner James Williams brought up the act.

“A lot of work has been done in this county over the last three years,” Williams said, thanking Harvill for the work he had done. “But a lot of this work could not have been done if it wasn’t for the Rebuild Alabama fund, which is a lot of folks plus, because the legislature put that gas tax on the public, but I want it to be known that if it hadn’t been for this money here, a lot of the projects that they have done over the last three years would not have been done.”

In other business, the council also approved a County Information Management System (CIMS) system license agreement for fiscal year 2022.

“Basically, all software products that the county uses, we have license agreements for that software,” Harvill explained. “Obviously, we have to pay either to purchase that software or for the technical support. They constantly update [their software] and provide technical support under this license agreement. So, we have the ability to run our asset management program, which is pretty much what this software provides. … We utilize it to track our labor and equipment and then what materials we purchase, where they go.”

The council approved a five-year contract extension for Harvill, who thanked them for it.

Harvill also announced that three employees — Ashley Talbot, Amy Edmondson, and Laraine Anglin — had received certificates in county engineering administration.