SPANISH FORT – In 2021, residents should be able to view meetings of the Spanish Fort City Council and other City Hall proceedings as part of municipal upgrades being done with support from federal coronavirus relief funding.
Spanish Fort Mayor Mike McMillan said the city will be getting more than $400,000 in funding through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, Act. One item that will be paid for with the money will be a video system for the City Hall auditorium that will allow meetings to be shown on social media.
“If you notice in the back, you’ll see some of the wiring for cameras that will be coming with the CARES Act,” McMillan said. “We have struggled, honestly, to have reached the maximum numbers of dollars that were granted to us because of time limitations for what we’ve qualified for. We’re close to $410,000, $415,000. The problem is the process has to be done by the end of this month.”
McMillan said the city is eligible for about $460,000 in funding. Items must be installed or on back order by Dec. 30 to be paid for under the CARES Act.
City Clerk Rebecca Gaines said some of the most expensive items that will be purchased with the money are an ionization system to kill viruses in the air at City Hall and a safe room for Spanish Fort first responders.
The city has also installed a scanner to check the temperatures of anyone coming into City Hall.
Spanish Fort is buying computer equipment for the police and fire departments and City Hall, Gaines said. Laptops and printers will be installed in police cars to allow officers to run tickets from their vehicles without having to write handwritten citations.
“We’re getting a few laptops and things like that in anticipation that people will have to work from home at some point, whether it’s because they’re quarantined or because we end up having to shut down at some point,” Gaines told council members.
In addition to video equipment to present city meetings, Spanish Fort will also install two smart boards to allow remote meeting participation when council members, city employees or other participants cannot attend meetings.
“We wouldn’t have to hold the phone down to the microphone and that sort of thing,” Gaines said.
McMillan said the CARES Act will pay for the items, but the city will have to wait to be reimbursed.
“You’ll see a lot of changes, but with that comes a big price tag and so I want y’all to be aware,” McMillan told council members. “These are some items that we’ll have to pay for up front and we’ll get reimbursed. We don’t know exactly when that will be. So, the year being the way that it’s started with COVID and hurricanes, we’ve had a lot of outlaid cash.”
The city has also paid $1.32 million to clean debris from Hurricane Sally, Gaines said. The Federal Emergency Management Agency will pay 75 percent of those costs and the Alabama Emergency Management Agency will pay 12.5 percent.
Gaines said the city may also be eligible for CARES Act funding to pay the cost of lost wages due to COVID-19.
