Welcome to District 4!

This is the work session agenda for the Commission
meeting 12-9-2024.
The Elmore County Commission meets on the 2nd Floor of the Historic Elmore County Courthouse, downtown Wetumpka. Work Session starts at 5:00 p.m. and Commission meeting starts soon after.
If you want to share a thought or have a question on any item please let me know.
Thanks,
Bart

Below are changes in County Government Office Hours of Operation and Trash Pick up schedule  due to the Thanksgiving holiday:

Meridian Waste Change in Trash Route Pick Up Day
The week of Thanksgiving 2024 all routes will be run as scheduled Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.

No cans will be emptied on Thursday, November 28, Thanksgiving Day.

Cans on the Thursday pick up route will be emptied on Friday, November 29.

Cans on the Friday pick up route will be emptied on Saturday, November 30

Change in County Government Office Hours of Operation
In observance of Thanksgiving, Elmore County Government Offices will close at noon on Wednesday, November 27, 2024 and will remain closed through Friday, November 29, 2024 and will reopen for normal business Monday December 2, 2024.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Bart

Bart Mercer
Elmore County Commissioner
District 4
Because of limited funds available to resurface county maintained roads, the Elmore County commission prioritizes resurfacing projects based on the classification of a road, current roadbed condition, traffic count, availability of funds, and restrictions placed on those funds.

Many times, in order for a newly proposed revenue measure that would result in an increase of available funds for road maintenance to be supported by citizens and elected officials, it has to be dedicated to a specific purpose. This approach is one I don’t disagree with applying.

Dedicating funds for a specific purpose is very evident in regulations governing the use of funds to resurface county roads. These funds are so regulated that it is like navigating through a maze in order to be compliant with guidelines.  A county receives funds to resurface roads from multiple sources such as Local and State gas tax collections along with grants and direct allocations from State and Federal sources.

Restrictions on the Expenditure of Federal Resurfacing Funds:
While we appreciate Federal infrastructure dollars that come to Elmore County, much of this money comes with many restrictions on what Classification of roads the funds can be expended on. An example of this would be a road classified as a Connector Road within federal guidelines which is based on a minimum daily traffic count and usage. What the Commission encounters at times with these federally funded projects is logically the further a rural road gets from the center of a population center; vehicles will turn off the road causing the traffic count to lower. Some funds are limited to being spent only in our Metropolitan Planning Organization Boundary. It is at this point along the road federal guidelines mandate the resurfacing project ends, but it appears the Commission has abruptly stopped the resurfacing project for no reason when that is not the case. Guidelines also restrict the Commission from combining projects in these situations.

Pave My Dirt Road:
One call the Commission commonly gets is citizens wanting their dirt road paved, and we have a process to get that done. It starts with a citizen driven effort to have the needed right of way dedicated to the county adjacent to the road citizens desire to have paved. This additional right of way is necessary to accommodate storm water drainage and utilities that might be present and needing to be relocated from under the roadbed. The relocation of utilities is necessary because a utility contractor digging up a dirt road does not diminish the value of the taxpayer’s biggest investment being our countywide transportation system but when a utility contractor has to dig up a paved road even when replacement asphalt is installed, it creates a higher potential for base failures and road maintenance. The next step in this paving process is acquiring project funding and most of these dollars come from the general fund or gas tax which historically has the lowest rolling available balance for these type projects.

Revenue use restrictions are not always a bad thing, but they do at times prohibit funds from being expended on the most immediate infrastructure needs in the county.

This is the combined work session and business meeting  agenda for the Commission meeting 11-13-2024.
The Elmore County Commission meets on the 2nd Floor of the Historic Elmore County Courthouse, downtown Wetumpka.
This will be our organizational meeting and will start at 10:00am.
If you want to share a thought or have a question on any item please let me know.
Thanks,
Bart

You Should Be Able to Do That

Bart Mercer
Elmore County Commissioner
District 4

Over the last almost 8 years of serving as a county commissioner, there have been many times where a citizen will ask the Commission to take action on a particular issue that is of concern to them, and they are told that we legally can’t honor their request. The citizen’s response is normally, “you should be able to do that”. This is a result of the limited powers a county commission has per governing state statutes.

Specific to Elmore County one example is that we have no jurisdiction and ability to control junk yards that do decrease property values and are an eyesore. Another example is we can’t allow county owned equipment to work off the county right-of-way on private property. I agree with this one, but many times citizens don’t understand this when they want us to clean out a ditch on their property that is off the county right of way. Another issue that comes up on a regular basis because of the population growth in Elmore County is the fact our county subdivision regulations only include provisions that govern storm water runoff, county road access, road construction standards, utility access and lot layouts. These subdivision regulations do not allow the county commission to take into consideration anything of influence on our county beyond what state statutes allow to be included in a set of county subdivision regulations. The fact there are limited allowable powers within our subdivision regulations is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is one reason the Commission can only “react” to the effects of the population growth in our county.

The limits of the regulatory jurisdiction of the Elmore County Commission are set by the citizens we serve. Some assume county government is by default afforded the same regulatory jurisdiction as a municipality and that is not the case. If a county commission has any regulatory powers similar to a municipality, it is because the citizens of that county allowed them to have those powers.

I have said many times during county commission meetings that “the government needs to stay out of my business, stay out of my house and for sure stay off my land”. However, I do realize Elmore County is growing, and we are seeing demands placed on county governmental operations, services and our infrastructure like never before, in a county that has the lowest property tax rate in the state, a fact that does make me proud.

While solid conservative public policy and fiscal policy is a good foundation to operate from, there is an unintended downside to the County Commission being so limited when attempting to improve our county, keep up with the demands resulting from our population growth while attempting to address, and minimize those issues that will obviously have a high potential to adversely affect the citizens we serve.

This is the work session agenda for the Commission
meeting 10-28-2024.
The Elmore County Commission meets on the 2nd Floor of the Historic Elmore County Courthouse, downtown Wetumpka. Work Session starts at 5:00 p.m. and Commission meeting starts soon after.
If you want to share a thought or have a question on any item please let me know.
Thanks,
Bart

This is the work session agenda for the Commission
meeting 10-15-2024.
The Elmore County Commission meets on the 2nd Floor of the Historic Elmore County Courthouse, downtown Wetumpka. Work Session starts at 5:00 p.m. and Commission meeting starts soon after.
If you want to share a thought or have a question on any item please let me know.
Thanks,
Bart

Reminder:
Elmore County Government Offices will be closed
Monday, October 14, 2024 in observance of  Columbus Day.
Thanks
Bart

This is the work session agenda for the Commission
meeting 9-23-2024.
The Elmore County Commission meets on the 2nd Floor of the Historic Elmore County Courthouse, downtown Wetumpka. Work Session starts at 5:00 p.m. and Commission meeting starts soon after.
If you want to share a thought or have a question on any item please let me know.
Thanks,
Bart

Trash Pick-Up
Arrow Disposal Services, Inc. (ADSI) will not be operating in Elmore County on Monday, September 2, in observance of Labor Day.
Collection routes will run one day behind with operations resuming Tuesday, September 3 and running through Saturday, September 7.

Joint City/County Collection Facility
The joint City/County Collection Facility will be closed to the public
Saturday, August 31.
The facility is scheduled to reopen at 7:00am Tuesday, September 3, 2024.