SILVERHILL — Residents in Silverhill will soon have online options to pay their bills following a pair of votes by the Silverhill Town Council on Monday, Oct. 4.
At its regular meeting, the council voted unanimously to accept the low bid from Front Porch to revamp the town’s website, which will include an option to pay bills online.
“For about a year now, we have been looking into the possibility of updating the look of our website,” Mayor Jared Lyles said. “One of the most important aspects of that will be the ability to link our website to the municipal court and utilities to pay bills online.”
Front Porch was the low bidder with an initial set up fee of $1,900, plus a maintenance fee of $22.50 per month.
Business Information Solutions (B.I.S.), which designed the town’s current website, also bid on the project, coming in slightly higher at $2,000 for initial set up, plus $39 for maintenance.
Graphic Penguin also bid on the project with a $3,500 initial set up fee and monthly maintenance to be determined.
Customers will also have access to an app that will link to the town’s website after the council voted Oct. 4 to contract with OneAppWay. The company, which has recently contracted with other municipalities in Baldwin County, such as Robertsdale and Magnolia Springs, agreed to set up the app at no cost with a $75 monthly fee. The app will be provided at no cost to customers.
Customers will be able to pay bills through the app and the town will also use the app to alert residents of any happenings in the town.
“The way the app is set up, whenever someone updates our website or our Facebook page, it will also go out over the app,” Lyles said.
In other business Oct. 4, the council approved a bid to contract with GreenCo. for emergency debris removal. The town also received bids from DRC.
The contract, which is required for FEMA reimbursement in the event of a disaster, includes specifics for 30 different items, primarily the removal and disposal of debris from the right of way. Of those, Lyles said, Greenco was the low bidder on 22 of the items. Of the eight remaining items, five have never been used by the town, including the potential of providing a mobile command unit, air quality monitoring and water quality monitoring.
The town also contracted with Greenco for Hurricane Sally cleanup last year and was the bid contractor for Hurricane Ivan in 2004.
The council also approved a resolution granting an additional 10 days of sick pay to employees who have tested positive for COVID-19. The resolution was made effective Sept. 20, when the council voted to approve the measure, but it was agreed to add language to the resolution making it retroactive to any employee who has tested positive for COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic and is in need of additional sick pay up to the allowable 80 hours.
The council also voted Oct. 4 to approve Chamber sponsorships for 2022, including the annual Prayer Breakfast and Honoring Our Heroes lunch, both scheduled for May.
The council also voted to continue operating under the 2020-21 budget, which was scheduled to end Sept. 30, until the council could pass it’s new budget for 2021-22; and tabled renewal of internet support with Datatrust.
