Henry County holds outdoor county commission meeting on the courthouse lawn — ‘Take that, #COVID-19!’

It is not just the private sector that is suffering from the mandatory stay-at-home orders imposed by the state of Alabama. At its lower levels, the public sector is as well, including many municipal and county governments that have been forced to alter their schedules.

However, Henry County in southeastern Alabama has found a way to get around one of the challenges presented by the state’s efforts to mitigate the spread of the virus. Henry County Probate Judge David Money, who in that role also serves as the chairman of the Henry County Commission, determined that given the good weather, he could chair a commission meeting outdoors and avoid some of the limitations that have come because of the coronavirus.

In an interview with Yellowhammer News on Tuesday, Money explained how the meeting, which took place under two 80-year-old pecan trees on the Henry County Courthouse lawn in Abbeville, came to be.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B–a58iAZLh/

“We’re a smaller county,” he explained. “We meet once a month every second Tuesday. Today was the day.”

“It seemed the last couple of weeks, counties around the state were postponing or canceling their commission meetings,” Money continued. “I knew ours would be held to nine or less if we held it inside. I was thinking, you know, let’s check the weather. We kind of looked at the long-range forecast, and it looked pretty positive. So I called the commissioners one at a time, and said, ‘Would you be opposed to meeting outside?’ They liked the idea, and we have a courthouse that has some large pecan trees on it. And it just turned out to be a great morning — 65 degrees when we had our admin meeting at 9, and at 10:30 it was just perfect.”

Money said, given the setting for the meeting, passers-by took notice, which he said was an unusual occurrence.

“You know, what’s so interesting is we live in an age of apathy, and we had more people interested that were casually walking the streets around the courthouse that stopped and listened than we would have ever had inside,” Money said. “It may be just a good idea to have it out there occasionally. It worked well.”

He said he was encouraged by Sonny Brasfield, the executive director of the Association of County Commissions of Alabama, an organization in which Money serves as the president, to highlight the meeting.

As far as Henry County’s handling of coronavirus pandemic and the unusual circumstances put upon everyone in Alabama, Money acknowledged his county had been fortunate enough to have avoided a significant fallout from the illness.

“Henry County is rural,” Money continued. “Dothan is our metropolis. So, retail is not real strong in Henry County anyway. I think, all in all, our citizens are handling it really well. You have those that need to be kind of reminded of what’s going on and what our individual responsibilities are. And to comply with what’s going on. So, I think, all in all, we’re well.”

Money also expressed his confidence in Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth’s efforts to restart Alabama’s economy, predicting businesses could reopen within days.

He spoke about one situation of an Abbeville furniture store with just two employees, and how that business would be able to abide by the letter of the law but could not under the current guidelines.

“It’s really not doing folks like that well when you have the big box stores that may sell a piece of furniture as well or something,” he added. “I think the common-sense element is about to resurface.”

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly and host of Huntsville’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 2-5 p.m. on WVNN.