Butler County is about to join the World Wide Web. The County Commission approved the creation of a website during Monday’s monthly meeting.

While the website – created by Sturgis Web Services – will give county offices its own online presence, it will also allow citizens to make secure payments for taxes on-line to the county’s revenue office. The service will cost the county $430 per month plus a one-time cost of $195 for debit/credit card readers inside the revenue commissioner’s office. Online payments will be made through the Internet e-commerce company PayPal.

Revenue Commissioner Deborah Crews said she hopes the website will be online and available for use by the public by October.

In other business, the commission:
– Awarded a bid for $22,845 to CK Contracting for maintenance and repair to the Courthouse Annex building.

– Awarded a bid of $7,367 to Lee Electric for a new air conditioning unit for the Butler County Health Department.

– Renewed contracts with the cities of Greenville, Georgiana and McKenzie to house prisoners in the Butler County Correctional Facility.

– Awarded the following bids for annual road department materials based on county engineer Dennis McCall’s recommendation: A joint bid to Kelvin Developing Co. and Scott Callen Sand & Gravel for sand/clay gravel; to Harvey Culvert Co. for concrete pipe; to Wiregrass Construction Co. for hot mix asphalt; to Harvey Culvert Co. for metal pipe; to Southeast Materials Corp. for stone and materials; to Harvey Culvert for plastic pipe; to Ozark Safety Services LLC. for channelizing (barricades) devices; to Hunt Refining Co. for liquid asphalt; to Ozark Striping Co. for traffic striping; the use of state bids for cold mix, grease and oil, and gasoline and diesel fuel; the use of the Association of County Commission’s joint bid program for herbicides and road signs.
McCall said costs for several of the materials have seen a decrease from last year, including concrete (down 22 to 25 percent), barricades (down 15 to 20 percent), and metal pipe (down two percent).

– Changed the meeting date in October from Oct. 11 to Oct. 12 due to Columbus Day.