The Brookhaven Recreation Department is getting a new homefollowing action Tuesday night by the city board of aldermen.

With the national guard moving into its new armory on Highway84, aldermen voted 5-1 to have the recreation department locate inthe old armory facility on Highway 51.

“It’ll get them away from the cramped quarters they’re in andget them away from the railroad. It’ll be bigger and better for therecreation department,” said Alderman-at-large and formerBrookhaven Parks Commission member Les Bumgarner, who made themotion on the move.

Last year, some neighbors around the old armory objected tospeculative plans to locate the city’s street and sanitationdepartment services there. Officials touched on those concernsduring last night’s brief discussion.

“They don’t want the old trucks dripping with oil…,” saidMayor Bill Godbold.

Godbold repeated his earlier intentions to locate the street andsanitation departments at the landfill. Since those departmentswould be displaced by a proposed multi-modal facility, the mayorhoped to be able to use part of a federal appropriation to coverrelocation costs.

Ward 2 Alderman Terry Bates was the lone objector to therecreation department move plan. Mentioning an earlier appearanceby Robert Tyler, representing King’s Daughters Medical Center, thealderman suggested waiting to see what ideas the hospital had inmind for the old armory.

“I know what they got in mind: us give it to them,” Godboldsaid.

With the recreation department gone, Ward 1 Alderman DorseyCameron urged careful consideration of plans for the old depot.

“We need to put a hold on it until we decide what to do withit,” he said.

Several officials mentioned the possibility of the old depotbeing converted into a museum on Brookhaven history or some otherarea.

“I’ll be ready to go in it,” joked Godbold.

A timetable for the recreation department’s move was notdiscussed.

In other action Tuesday, aldermen approved an approximately$3,500 relocation of Brookhaven Police Department communicationequipment from a 100-foot tower downtown to the county’s new toweron city property west of town. The equipment will be about 300 feetup on the new tower and greatly improve communications and rangefor police officers, said Chief Arlustra “Pap” Henderson.

Officials also heard from Chad Vaughn and Lee Brewer,representing the Human Performance Center, regarding renewal thecity’s contract for employee drug testing. Currently, the city hastwo contracts: one with the Human Performance Center and anotherwith Carr and Associates.

Vaughn touted E-screen, a new state-of-the-art testing system,that can provide negative drug test results in two hours. Resultsthat test positive would take around 48 hours for medical reviewand verification.

Vaughn said E-screen is the first automated system approved bythe Food and Drug Administration and is “above and beyond” othertesting methods because of the quick response.

“The turnaround time… will be very beneficial to the city,”Vaughn said.

Aldermen took no action following Vaughn’s presentation. Theyindicated they would review both companies’ proposals.

Also Tuesday, aldermen named Juanita Williams, Bonita Bullockand James Tillman to the Brookhaven Election Commission. Williamsand Bullock were re-appointed while Tillman replaces MardessieBlack on the election oversight board.

Tillman is the city’s Democratic Executive Committee chairmanand cannot serve on both boards simultaneously. Tillman, who haddiscussed his election commission appointment earlier but wasunaware of last night’s action, said today that he will review hisoptions.

“If I need to step down, I’ll step down,” Tillman said about hisexecutive committee duties.

Tillman added there are several executive committee members whocould easily assume chairmanship duties.

The issue of city employee travel surfaced briefly duringTuesday’s meeting when Bumgarner questioned procedures forapproving overnight travel. Questions regarding Godbold’s travelexpenses were raised by former aldermen and mayoral candidates JohnRoberts and Henry Newman during this year’s election.

City Attorney Joe Fernald said there is a State FiscalManagement policy that addresses the travel issue, but it has neverbeen adopted by the board. Fernald was expected to obtain a copy ofthe policy for review by aldermen.

In another matter, Fernald said he hopes a personnel policyexpert can meet with city officials during a meeting in September.The current policy was adopted in 1985 and officials areconsidering developing new personnel rules.