The Russell County Fiscal Court met for a special called meeting on Thursday, May 26, with five items on the agenda with the biggest news being that the county has entered into contract with Pulaski County to have them perform animal shelter needs at a cost of $25,000 for the coming year.

The decision after the court received a 30 day notice from Adair County requesting that Russell and Metcalfe Counties increase their contribution to the Green River Animal Shelter to $35,000 or services would automatically be suspended and that animals currently sheltered from Russell County be removed and utilization of the shelter would cease as of June 30, 2011.

Adair County made the decision based on being unequally responsible for the cost burden over the past few years.

Pulaski County Deputy Judge Executive Rita Anderson Curry presented the court with a contract that the court ultimately approved, giving the state certified shelter of Pulaski County the right to house unwanted, abandoned, or lost animals for the coming year.  

Russell County will continue to maintain its own animal control officer and be responsible for transportation of said animals from this county.

Neal Cundiff with LCADD presented the court with an offer to contract for a reapportionment project.  The project is the result of the 2010 Census in which districts in counties throughout the country are evaluated for total population and district lines redrawn to equally split population between districts.

The work is expected to be "about $400 a day," figuring on eight hour days.  The project is not expected to take over three days.

The court voted to accept the bid received to buy a road grader the county put up for auction. The 1988 Champion 710 road grader was sold to Fayette Equipment Sales for the price of $5,751.  The only other bid was for $5,300.

Bids were opened for the purchase of a used road grader for the county.  The decision was to go with a Caterpillar model because of inexpensive part replacement and wide availability of those parts.  The court voted to purchase a 1998 Caterpillar 120H from Fayette Equipment Sales for $75,000.  The grader has 5,400 miles and was the lowest bid of approximately half a dozen bids.  The county will save transportation costs as the equipment is located in Albany.