Thursday was a hair-raising day at the Jefferson County Commission meeting as commissioners made a grand entrance. Four commissioners were wearing pink wigs; Commission President Jimmie Stephens wore a pink pompom.

The gesture, while done in jest, was done to bring attention to breast cancer. Representatives of Susan G. Komen North Central Alabama were on hand for the acknowledgement.

“We want to bring awareness,” Stephens said. “This disease is curable and preventable. We want to remember those who have had it and those who have gone through it.”

Commissioner Sandra Little Brown is in the latter category. She will have been cancer free for five years in September.

“The main message that I want to get across, especially to the black community, is early detection is the key,” she said. “Get checked and stay checked because it slipped up on me. I was like one year out from having my mammogram” when she was diagnosed.

“It makes a difference between life and death.”

The commission also presented a resolution to Tommy Rouse, who has been in charge of

Jefferson County Youth Detention since 1988 and has been a civil servant since 1963.

“The experience and institutional knowledge that Tommy Rouse brought to Youth Detention Center is going to be very, very difficult to replace,” Stephens said. “Tommy is an icon around here and is very well thought of.”

 

Voting Precincts

The actual business of the day was handled via a consent agenda, including an increase in payments to voting precincts. Commissioners increased the rental and cleanup fees to $100 apiece.

Registrar Barry Stephenson said the fees had been $25 for rental and $40 for cleanup. That, he said, was not enough for those venues to host an election.

“These areas have a lot of materials left behind by candidates and there’s garbage left by the voters whether it’s a parking lot or in the lobby,” he said. “We’re just trying to keep goodwill with our precincts.”

Commissioner George Bowman announced a Veterans’ Training Outreach Program will take place 9 a.m. to noon, Friday at Workforce Training Center, 3500 Sixth Avenue South.