The Baldwin County Board of Commissioners voted on Tuesday to take out a $5 million tax anticipation note (TAN) during its regular meeting at the new county annex.
A TAN essentially is a line of credit. Century Bank & Trust is the issuer of the loan. The interest is 5.25 percent.
“We’re going to have two or three months that will be tough to make ends meet,” said Interim County Manager Sammy Hall. “We don’t anticipate using (the full $5 million).”
Commissioner Andrew Strickland addressed those in the audience, saying that “issues have been addressed.”
“The $100,000 spending authority that was given to the county manager, we’ve reduced that dramatically. Also, we’ve instituted changes where commissioners review requisitions, which in the past wasn’t the case,” he said.
Hall added more context later in the meeting.
“Nothing is being spent without a purchase order. No change orders are done with approval,” he said. “We’re holding everybody’s feet to the fire to make sure that things are accounted for the way they’re supposed to be.”
Later in the meeting, commissioners discussed an incident at the new Splash Baldwin waterpark from over the weekend. A female patron wearing a thong bikini became upset after a Splash Baldwin staffer asked her to cover up. A photo of the thong in question then began circulating and was viewed by different county commissioners.
“I saw the same bathing suit that I see when I go to any beach I’ve ever went to,” Commissioner Kendrick Butts said.
Commissioner Emily Davis agreed.
“Hotel pools,” she said. Added Butts: “If it continues to be an issue, we’re going to have to address it as a board and make a decision. We can’t do this. We’ve got to be defined exactly on the rules what we consider appropriate and unappropriate.”
Commissioner Scott Little then said that “whatever the rules end up being, if we put children at the forefront of our thinking, we’ll come out on the right end of it.”
Butts responded. “What might be appropriate to your kids might not be appropriate to my kids,” he said.
Strickland was more blunt.
“Running around in a thong is probably inappropriate,” he said.