By Fred Guarino
The Lowndes Signal

The Lowndes County Commission voted 3-2 Monday night to approve a $3.5 million bond issue to purchase the Hayneville Plaza building as a hub center for the South Central Alabama Broadband Cooperative District.

The cooperative district was formed to provide broadband infrastructure for an eight-county area including Lowndes County.

The bond approval followed a commission meeting/public hearing that lasted nearly four hours with Commission Chairman Charlie King Jr. and Commissioners Marzett Thomas and Robert Harris voting yes and Commissioners Dickson Farrior and Joseph Barganier voting no.

The official bond statement approved is subject to two agreements being executed, according to Lowndes County Attorney Henry “Hank” Sanders.

He said one is a real estate lease agreement between Lowndes County and the Broadband Cooperative District that will provide for rent to pay the bond and an agreement between South Central Alabama Broadband Cooperative District, Karl Bell, owner of the building, and Lowndes County that $500,000 of the bond proceeds will be set aside to pay that. The county will have no responsibility for paying the $500,000 or the interest, said Sanders.

Commission Harris made it clear that 1,200 jobs projected related to the bond issue will not be located in Lowndes County alone.