County Commission approves equipment warranty, discusses truck traffic on County Road 21 South

The Fayette County Commission approved an extended warranty on a piece of county road equipment and discussed restricting through-truck traffic on County Road 21 South during its Aug. 10 meeting. All commissioners were present except Shane Hughes. The commission approved minutes from its July 27 meeting before approving $22,505.91 in claims for the period. Of that amount, $17,594.73 was attributed to the county’s General Fund. The commission approved its annual contract with the Alabama Department of Youth Services related to the detention of juveniles who have been charged with offenses. Freeman explained that juveniles cannot be housed in the county jail, requiring the county to pay for placement in an appropriate juvenile detention facility. The state provides some funding toward those costs, Freeman said, but the amount is generally exhausted quickly, leaving the county responsible for the remaining expense. The responsibility applies to juveniles from throughout Fayette County, including those from municipalities. Freeman said the cost of housing a juvenile is approximately $150 per day and can add up quickly depending on the number of juveniles requiring detention and the length of their stays. He said the county has had years in which juvenile detention costs reached tens of thousands of dollars, while other years have seen costs of only $4,000 or $5,000. Because the need varies significantly from year to year, he said it is a difficult expense to predict during the budgeting process.