Swearing-in for Prattville officials Monday

PRATTVILLE — New city leaders will take office Monday morning, bringing a different look and experience level to the Prattville City Council.

The swearing-in ceremony for the mayor and seven council members is set for 10 a.m. in council chambers at City Hall. The public is invited to attend.

The mayor will stay the same. Bill Gillespie Jr. was elected to his first full term in office during the August elections with about 70 percent of the vote.

Three of the council members will be new ? Jerry Starnes in District 4, Clyde Chambliss Jr. in District 5 and Lora Lee Boone in District 7.

The three outgoing councilmen ? Tom Miller, Mike Renegar and Nathan Fank ? have a combined 36 years service on the board.

Renegar serves as president and Fank as president pro-tem.

The first order of business once the new council is sworn in is electing a new president and pro-tem, said Cathy Dickerson, city clerk. The organizational meeting will follow as soon as the swearing-in duties are completed.

Dickerson will preside at the organizational meeting until the president is elected.

The new president will preside as the pro-tem until a new pro-tem is elected.

The changeover shouldn?t mean big changes in the way Prattville is governed, Gillespie said.

?I have complete confidence in our current council, and I have complete confidence in the incoming council,? he said. ?I look forward to working with the new council members. We may see things differently from time to time, but that?s okay. I see us as a team working to make things better.

?The new council members are qualified people, and I think there will be an honest desire to continue moving Prattville forward as the new quadrennium begins.?

Passenger airlifted after crash on Alabama 14 in Prattville

A passenger in a pickup that left the roadway and struck three parked vehicles was airlifted to a hospital Wednesday.

The pickup was traveling west on Alabama 14 near Prattville about 11:30 a.m. when it passed another vehicle and the driver lost control, authorities said.

The pickup struck a culvert, flipped, struck three vehicles in front of a mobile home and came to rest atop a car.

The driver had minor to moderate injuries and was taken to Baptist Medical Center South by ambulance.

The passenger was partially ejected from the vehicle and taken by helicopter to Baptist South. Their condition was not immediately known.

Booth and Prattville fire departments responded, along with Prattville police and Alabama state troopers.

? Staff report

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Prattville ends fiscal year in better shape

PRATTVILLE — The city of Prattville ended the recent fiscal year in improving financial health, with revenues up about 14 percent over the same period last year.

Also, there is enough money in the debt reserve account to make the Nov. 1 bond payment of about $3 million without taking out another short-term, bridge loan. Interim Finance Director Doug Moseley gave the City Council the good news during his monthly budget update at the Tuesday night meeting.

There are still some outstanding bills as the fiscal year winds down, but for the most part, the year has closed out, he said.

?Year-to-date, we have received 13.96 percent more revenue this year than last year,? Moseley said. ?That?s very positive. Almost every single department is right on line with their budget. We?ve spent about 94 percent of our budget so far.

?There are some accruals that still need to come in. But we should end the year well below budget.?

The debt reserve fund has about $2.56 million now, he said.

?The additional $500,000 collected in October will put us right in line to make the November payment without taking out a bridge loan,? he continued. ?That?s always a positive sign.?

District 2 Councilman Willie Wood Jr. asked Mosley if there is any excess in the debt reserve account, and Moseley answered no.

?So we are running neck and neck with the additional sales tax making these payments that we have before us?? Wood asked.

?Correct,? Moseley answered.

The council overrode the mayor?s veto of the sales-tax extension Tuesday night. The 1-cent sales-tax increase, earmarked to pay the city?s debt service, will remain until Sept. 30, 2031, or until all the current city long-term debt is retired.

The additional sales tax, which brought the total sales-tax rate to 9.5 percent, brings in about $400,000 a month, according to records at City Hall. The bump was passed in March 2011.

The city?s financial woes started in October 2010, when it had to take out a bridge loan to pay the Nov. 1, 2010, bond payment. Another bridge loan was taken out for the May 1, 2011, payment. And a partial loan was taken out for the Nov. 1, 2011, payment. Those loans have been paid back.

No loan was taken out for the May 1 payment this year. The bond payments, used for incentives to land retail growth on the east side of town, are about $3 million on Nov. 1 and about $1 million on May 1.

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