Then Selma-Dallas County Chamber of Commerce hosted a 60-minute Coffee event Tuesday morning in collaboration with the Dallas County Commission.

The Coffee Shoppe provided attendees with coffee, muffins and cookies as the Dallas County Commission addressed the sizeable crowd that gathered at Trustmark Bank, where the event was held.

“It’s good to see such a big crowd here,” said Probate Judge Jimmy Nunn as he thanked the Chamber of Commerce, The Coffee Shoppe and Trustmark for making the event possible.

“It’s good to have this [event] so we can share with everyone some of the things we’re doing.”

Dallas County Commissioner Valerie Reubin was the first one to speak, stressing the importance of the upcoming 2020 U.S. Census that the Commission touched on at Monday night’s meeting.

“We got to get people counted, y’all,” she said.

Both Reubin and Nunn stressed how important good Census numbers are for Dallas County, stating that things like congressional seats, federal aid and grants are all determined by the Census results.

“For every person that isn’t counted we lose about $1,600,” said Nunn.

Dallas County Commissioner Roy Moore then took to the podium to share with the community some pieces of information related to the county’s roads.

“The gas tax,” began Moore as he addressed the crowd. “There’s a lot of questions about the gas tax and how it’ll be spent and where it’ll be spent and what commissioner gets what. It’s equally divided between the four commissioners. They can pretty much spend it wherever they want to.”

Moore then cleared up some misunderstandings about the recently passed gas tax increase.

“A lot of people think there’s going to be a ton of money coming in,” he said. “That’s not so. We’re going to get about $1 million a year, when you start paving roads $1 million dollars doesn’t go very far.”

Moore referred to many of Dallas County’s roads as “worn slap out” and stated that he understood the community’s frustration with their conditions.

Moore then shared with the room the turn lane being put in at Highway 22 and County Road 81 near Valley Grande Elementary School and the upcoming reconfiguration of Highway 41 and Highway 80 in Reubin’s district.

“We’re getting some things done,” he said.

Following Moore, Nunn introduced County Attorney John Kelly who shared with the room upcoming changes to the marriage process in Alabama followed by Dallas County Engineer Coosa Jones, who went into a little more detail about upcoming Alabama Department of Transportation Projects and inally Kevin Edwards discussed his duties as Dallas County Environmental Service Director.

Nunn then made some closing comments, sharing with the room what he always says at the end of the Dallas County Commission meetings.

“A chair is only as strong as it’s legs and Dallas County has some strong legs holding it up,” he said.