Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By DAVE DOMESCIK | Staff Writer

COLUMBIANA – The Shelby County Commission passed a resolution to support the widening of Valleydale Road at a regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, March 24.

The move comes after the Hoover City Council temporarily delayed approval of an amendment to a funding agreement with the state for the project during a meeting on March 17.

The project will seek to widen 3.5 miles of Valleydale Road between Caldwell Mill Road and Inverness Center Drive, with the road being widened to five lanes and a sidewalk being added on the north side of the road.

The estimated cost of the project is $55 million, with 80 percent being comprised of federal funds in the amount of $44 million.

A local match consisting of funds from the city of Hoover and Shelby County will make up the remaining $11 million. Shelby County is set to provide $5,500,000, while the city of Hoover will provide the remaining amount.

The meeting began with the commission approving bid awards for two separate infrastructure projects in the county. The commission awarded a bid for security and electronic systems maintenance services at the Shelby County Jail and Juvenile Detention Center to Unique Security, Inc. in the amount of $45,474.50.

Furthermore, the county also approved a bid for the east paving and resurfacing project in the county. The bid was awarded to Dunn Construction Company, Inc. in the amount of $3,412,757.60.

After the county approved the Valleydale Road resolution, County Manager Chad Scroggins took time to explain the resolution itself.

“The original estimate (for the Valleydale Road) project was significantly less than the current estimate because this project has been going on for 20-plus years,” Scroggins said. “In doing so, the local match has gone up… it is now at $11 million. The city of Hoover would be our partner for 50 percent of the local match and they could not make a decision on whether to fund this or not.”

Following his remarks on the Valleydale Road resolution, Scroggins gave a report on the state of the county, beginning with the recent tornado that hit Calera. Scroggins noted that the damage to Calera and Shelby County was minimal in the eyes of the federal government.

“Typically, when (the federal government) is looking at (disaster) losses), they’re looking at uninsured losses,” Scroggins said. “The Fed’s looking at meeting the $9 million threshold of uninsured losses that have to occur to (make an event) a federal disaster.”

In the case of Shelby County, the tornado and storms that hit the area did not meet that threshold. Scroggins then recognized Jacob Tidmore, the county’s new property tax commissioner who replaced the late Don Armstrong. Tidmore was sworn in on Monday in his new role.

“We’re glad to welcome Jacob,” Scroggins said. “He’s already hit the ground running and (is) looking at ways to continue to improve the efficiencies that Commissioner Armstrong always did.”

For more information on the Shelby County Commission, visit Shelbyal.com/93/County-Commission.