County faces federal funding cuts

HALEYVILLE    - A comparison of figures from last year’s to this year’s Winston County Commission budget shows the county had some funding triumphs with grants funding projects and employee raises, while also showing significant funding cuts in some key areas.
Winston County Commission Chairman David Cummings was the keynote speaker at the Friday, Jan. 9, Haleyville Area Chamber of Commerce meeting, giving a state-of-the-county address on the financial roller coaster the county faced over the past fiscal year.
Although the county was able to give employees a raise this past year, those raises came with a cost for the county, Cummings explained.
“It costs the county about $270,000 a year to give all the employees a 50 cent per hour raise,” Cummings pointed out.  “That’s why it’s hard to come up with giving everybody a $2 an hour, $3 an hour raise.”
Cummings said his job as commission chairman was to look across the board at all the county’s finances.
“We’ve had some cuts from our budget last year,” Cummings said. Addressing funding from the federal government, he added, “They have killed us in the last six months on cutting our funding.”
The county’s budget for its emergency management agency is approximately $126,107, according to Cummings.
“The federal government took $52,000 of it that we’ve always gotten every year, a reimbursement we were supposed to get in October,” Cummings continued.
“In November, they said, you are not getting it,” Cummings emphasized. “That was for the year (20)25.  Now, it looks like we’re not getting it again.
“We can’t do away with our EMA,” Cummings stressed. “That is something we are going to have to come up with, $52,000 to fund that department.”
While discussing the federal government, Cummings mentioned the Rural Schools Act, which provided the county over a year ago with $182,481, which is divided between the Winston County Road Department and the schools in the county, Cummings explained.
“This year, they did cuts to that,” Cummings emphasized. “We received $55,622.
“Last year we split $182,000. This year, we split $55,000,” Cummings further explained. “Every department in the county, even education, is taking a hit from some of this stuff going on at the federal level.”
Although the county is seeking answers from its legislators, an answer regarding if the above-mentioned funding will be restored to the county, Cummings informed Chamber members.
Cummings stressed he was planning a trip to Washington, D.C. next month to meet with federal officials to seek answers.
For those who claim county officials are spending county money on trips to Washington, D.C., Cummings responded, “If you don’t put yourself in front of these people, you are not going to get anything.
“You have to participate in these groups.  You’ve got to go to NACOLG (Northwest Alabama Council of Local Governments.) You’ve got to go to Washington. You’ve got to go to Montgomery or you are not going to get anything,” Cummings continued.

County owes $5 
million on
 judicial building

“One of the big expenses for Winston County is the judicial building,” Cummings continued. “We owe about $5 million on that building.”
Judicial building costs for the county include $100,000 taken from court costs, $100,000 from the road and bridge fund, $100,000 from capital improvement funds and $100,000 taken from the general fund, Cummings told Chamber members.
“In this previous budget, we increased the road department budget $100,000, to put the money back into the road department,” Cummings said. 
 “That was to make up for that money that was coming out of road and bridge to pay for that judicial building,” he added. “I didn’t like taking away from road and bridge to pay for the judicial building.  We’re not taking away from road and bridge, to make that payment.”
Chamber member Stan Watson asked what the source of funding for the $2 million roadway project to resurface a portion of County Road 77 or Helicon Road, in the Arley area, will be.
“That is going to be a grant from Rebuild (Alabama),” Cummings responded. “This gas tax money is 10 cents (added to every dollar of gas purchased statewide.).  They (The state) give (every county) X amount of dollars a month.” 
Cummings added this was a competitive grant among other areas of the state.
Isn’t it true that Winston County runs about $3 million to $5 million a year less than Lawrence County?”  Watson asked Cummings.
Cummings explained that Winston County receives less funding than other counties in general.
“We get no property tax out of the Bankhead National Forest,” Watson then stressed. “I own a lumber business.  That is the poorest-managed forest I have ever been in and I have been in a lot of them.”
“If the federal government paid us land taxes on that national forest, that would be $4 million a year for that 88,000 acres,” Cummings pointed out.
Cummings explained the federal government has a user agreement with the county that they provide funding for what are considered co-op roads.
“I am trying to figure out how do we, somehow, someway, address this in a different way,” spoke out Chamber member Matt Hyde.
“I have been to Washington at least three times talking about the national forest,” Cummings stated. 
“Is there an opportunity to pull together, all the forests, and go for it,” asked Chamber member Cherie Sibley. “I know 88.000 (acres) is a lot.”
Cummings noted now would not be a good time to approach that, with all of the federal cuts ongoing in Washington, D.C. 
“You need to be fighting to keep what you have got instead of trying to get something new right now,” Cummings responded.
Concerning the county industrial park located on Highway 13, Cummings stated nothing has been secured yet, but “we also have other empty buildings in the county. As long as we can get somebody, I don’t care if they go in the industrial park or if they go in some of these empty buildings.”
Cummings added that current businesses need help to grow, so a focus should  be placed in that area, as well.
Concerning better financial news, Cummings emphasized the county has been awarded a $274,000 grant, requiring a $200,000 county match,  to resurface at least 2.3 miles of roadways.
Cummings would not release the specific roads that will be resurfaced, pending a visit from Winston County’s state legislators, who helped secure the money, he explained.

Commission website, community calendar

The Winston County Commission’s new website is being developed, and the public can contact the commission at (205) 489-5026, to provide information or updates to keep the online community calendar updated, Cummings continued.
“Events throughout Winston County we want to put on this calendar, where everybody can go see what is going on,” Cummings stated.
“I hope everybody in Winston County eventually has this app on their phone,” Cummings added. “That’s where we’re going to on the weather alerts. It is going to alert you.  If there is a road closure in the county, we can send out an alert on that.”
Cummings added he did not want these county alerts to become so frequent that they disturb people who silence the alerts.
“We are not going to be sending out unnecessary alerts,” Cummings stated. “It’s going to have to be weather-related or a very dangerous situation before we send out an alert.
The commission also has a Facebook page, where the public can see all of their meetings live each second and last Monday of the month at 9 a.m., according to Cummings.
“We are also going to start posting our agendas at 2 o’clock on Friday, where everybody will know what is going to happen at the meeting,” he said.
“If you have a concern on something, feel free to be there (at the meeting), or call us and give us your advice before the meeting,” Cummings emphasized. 
The county is also switching phone service, from being a $7,200-a-month customer of Brightspeed to a different phone service, according to Cummings.
“So the 14th of this month is the last paycheck they (Brightspeed will) get from Winston County,” he pointed out.  “We’re swapping over.  That is saving us about $24,000 a year.”