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The Chambers County Commission unanimously voted to elect James “Moto” Williams, representing District 3, as the commission chairman at Monday’s meeting. A new chairman and vice chairman are elected by the six-person body each year.

The Chairman of the commission’s duties are primarily to conduct the commission meetings and execute documents on its behalf. Williams was elected in 2018 and is in his first term.

David Eastridge of District 5 was elected the vice-chairman, which takes over the chairman’s duties if they are absent. Eastridge is the longest-serving member of the commission having served for over 20 years.

The position of chairman and vice-chairman has been rotated among the commissioners, with Williams and Eastridge getting their turn this year.

After Williams called the meeting to order, a county employee was honored. Chris Glarrow, an equipment operator with the highway department was presented with a certificate of appreciation for five years of service with Chambers County by County Engineer Josh Harvill.

Glarrow operates the one-man pothole patching truck. Glarrow volunteered to learn how to operate the machine after the employee who previously held the position stepped down after 20 years.

“We gave the opportunity to all our employees to volunteer to learn how to run it, and Chris stepped up. He was one of the few that was willing to learn something different and take on a fairly stressful job, and he’s done an excellent job,” Harvill said.

There were employees honored during the Oct. 16 meeting, including Robert Hull for five years of service with the detention facility. Marion Vines and Anna Faulkner of the Revenue Commission office were recognized for 15 and 10 years of service.

As one of his first acts as chairman, Williams asked Glarrow, Eastridge, and Commissioner Charlie Williams to stand. Williams thanked the three men for their past military service ahead of Veteran’s Day on Saturday.

Once the recognition was given out the floor was open for the new agenda items. The commission approved the fourth quarter revenue and expenditures for some of the county’s departments and funds, which was approved.

“I was extremely happy when I looked over that full quarter report that every just a positive balance that shows that we’re managing our money like we should,” Williams said to the three department heads present at Monday’s meeting.

There were also two resolutions to hold public hearings on location changes for the Sparkling Springs and Lakeview voting precincts. The request was approved and both public hearings will be held Nov. 20 starting at 2:30 p.m. CT for residents to express their views.

Four resolutions were put forward to declare government-owned items as surplus. The items included two 2009 Goshen Coach Pacer Buses and nine miscellaneous scrap items from the highway department, including tires, scrap metal and survey equipment.

All the declarations were approved and will be posted later this week for bidding on govdeals.com. Once on the website, potential bidders can search by location to find the items. For viewing of the highway department items, contact Harvill’s office at 334-864-4377.