Hancock County Council: 2/11/26

MEETING: Hancock Council Mtg. 

Date: 2/11/26

Recorder: Terry Bynum

BACKGROUND:

Provide relevant links and/or context for the meeting.

SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT AGENDA ITEMS AND KEY POINTS

Items that had been hanging for the last few weeks were finally resolved today. 

The sheriff will order about $850 thousand dollars of new vehicles.

And after much discussion the council agreed to allow the sheriff 5 new positions that will deal with courthouse and annex security.  Total salary cost, approximately $361,000.  They’re not sure how they will fund the benefits for these positions. 

During an ad hoc discussion with the Head of the Development Commission, one of the councillors let slip that he understands a data center will be coming to Hancock County.  He was unable/unwilling to expand on that, but apparently it will go onto property that is ALREADY zoned industrial–and the property is already in a TIFF district. Randy Sorrell also mentioned that of the 4 building in the county that are one million square feet, all of the owners are in active discussions with companies to acquire those buildings, or the buildings are already under contract. 

     The council had several public hearings to deal with appropriation of money.  No one spoke at the hearings.  All of the topics had already been addressed in previous meetings–this was just a technicality to move money around. 

Councillors spent a considerable time discussing the Prosecutor’s request to issue a Request for Quote for an efficiency study.  There were several people questioning if this is a necessary expenditure.  They said they realize the office needs more staff, and they wonder if it might not be better spending the money on staff rather than a study that they are assuming will tell them the office needs more staff.  They finally agreed to go ahead with the RFQ, just to get a firm price and determine the parameters of the efficiency study. 

Another point that was mentioned and glossed over, was the amount of salary increases in 2027–they are using 2% as a working number for now.