The City of Andalusia improved its net position, including its unrestricted funds, and reduced its long-term debt in 2018.
Missy Pierce and Gail Hayes of Rabren, Odom, Pierce and Hayes presented a draft of the city’s FYE 2018 audit to the city council Tuesday night.
Pierce, who gave the council an overview, said the city increased its net position to $26.79 million, an increase of $1.08 million over the previous year. It marked the fifth consecutive year in which the net position increased, she said.
What is even more remarkable, she said, is that the net position includes more than $4.8 million in unrestricted funds.
“I went online and checked surrounding towns and could not find any that compared,” Pierce said. “Most actually had a deficit in the unrestricted net position.”
The net position reflects what a government would have left over after satisfying its liabilities.
Other highlights of the audit, which had no findings, include:
• The city’s largest source of revenue, its sales and use tax, increased by $300,000 over the previous year.
• The city was able to draw from its reserves to provide the matching funds for the South Three Notch Street project and other smaller capital expenses, but also replenished the reserves adequately.
• Since the new sales tax was adopted in July of 2013, the city has transferred more than $6.1 million in new revenue to Andalusia City Schools for new academic programs and capital projects.
• The city decreased its long-term debt by $1.88 million in the 2018 fiscal year. In the current quadrennium, the city has reduced its long-term debt by $4.2 million.
• The debt retirement figures are absent the $7 million bond issue done in 2018 for the improvements of Andalusia High School’s auditorium and stadium. Andalusia City Schools fully funds the payment on that note.
“The city is in extremely sound financial condition,” Mayor Earl Johnson said. “This administration has worked very hard to reach its goals of lowering debt and improving the city’s financial position. The members of the city council and our department heads are to be congratulated for this work.”
Former Andalusia Police Sgt. Wade Garrett was remembered this week as an excellent officer whose expertise as a fingerprint technician was unparalleled.
Garrett died on Monday. He was 68.
Gary Hutcheson worked with Garrett for more than 11 years at the APD before joining the investigative team in the district attorney’s office. Hutcheson said his former co-worker was so well known as a print expert that agencies in surrounding communities and even the state and federal government frequently called on him for help in investigations.
Garrett had worked with the Alabama Bureau of Investigations before joining the APD.
“The ABI had sent him through print schools with the FBI,” Hutcheson recalled. “He left them to come to APD. That boy could process a crime scene. He was an asset to Covington County and the surrounding counties.”
Hutcheson said Garrett could look at a fingerprint and almost immediately provide information about suspects.
“He would lift a print, look at me and say, ‘This is a male. This is a female. This is the print of a small juvenile male. He was that good,’ “ he recalled.
The APD eventually set up a print processing lab for Garrett, and he was frequently called to homicide investigations in surrounding communities. His work was important in investigations and prosecutions.
“Let’s say in rape investigations, he could process a bed sheet and bring a print out. That’s how important he was.”
Former Covington County District Attorney Eugenia Loggins said Garrett’s skills were well known.
“He was equally as good as anyone in the forensics department if not better,” she recalled. “And it wasn’t just fingerprints. He was thorough. Wade didn’t give up. He was thoughtful about his investigations, like a detective in these crime mysteries I like to read.
“Best of all, you could trust him,” Loggins said. “You knew he would do it right. He was not just thorough, he was a delight to work with.”
Current APD Chief Paul Hudson worked with Garrett as a member of the Drug Task Force.
“We brought him several prints that we had pulled from evidence and he was ability to help us develop suspects or confirm the suspect we had. After he retired, we last that immediate resource, and it slowed down our ability to solve crimes.
“He was an asset to the City of Andalusia and Covington County,” Hudson said.
Sgt. Garrett joined the police force in January of 1982, and retired in 2005. No services are planned.
Every K-12 student in Andalusia City Schools will have access to an electronic device when school begins on Aug. 5.
The Andalusia City Council on Monday approved the school system’s plan for use of proceeds from the city’s half-cent sales tax for education on Tuesday. The school system plans to lease additional Apple computers at a cost of $110,000 per year to complete its goal of one ipad or laptop per student.
“These are the kinds of things we set out to do when we agreed to adopt this sales tax,” Mayor Earl Johnson said. “There aren’t many school systems in Alabama that provide computer access to students at this level.”
The education sales tax also will be used to fund:
• Asbestos removal and replacement tile in the hallways of Andalusia High School.
• A music teacher at Andalusia High School.
• Leader in Me training for teachers at Andalusia Elementary School. The character program is built on Stephen Covey’s “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.”
• New fencing of the AHS baseball and softball fields.
• Sealing and striping the parking lots at AHS.
• Matching funding of $50,000 for a five-year, $625,000 grant currently being pursued by the Drug Free Andalusia Coalition and Peer Helpers.
• Debt services on the auditorium and stadium projects at AHS.
A new pumper truck is expected to make firefighting efforts inside the City of Andalusia more efficient.
The Andalusia Fire Department expects to take delivery of its 2019 KME Custom pumper truck in August, after the Andalusia City Council approved the purchase Tuesday night.
Fire Chief Russell McGlamory explained that the ISO requires the department to deliver 3,500 gallons per minute when fighting fires. At present, local firefighters have to take three trucks to a fire – two that pump at 1,250 gallons per minute and one that pumps at 1,500 gallons per minute – to achieve that standard.
A company called the ISO (Insurance Services Office) creates ratings for fire departments and their surrounding communities. The ratings calculate how well-equipped fire departments are to put out fires in that community.
Chief McGlamory said the truck – which was built with upgrades for shows – will replace a 30-year-old truck purchased in 1989. By purchasing the model truck, the city can take delivery in August. If the AFD ordered a truck that had not been used in shows, it would take a minimum of a year for delivery.
The city will pay half of the $488,471 from its capital fund, and finance half with CCB Community Bank in Andalusia. The bank is provided five-year, fixed rate financing at 3.05 percent interest.
