BERLIN — Bruce Bentley has been appointed to fill an empty seat on the Berlin Town Council.

Bentley, who has been a resident of Berlin since 2000 and is the former owner of the town’s 278 Rock Grocery, was sworn in during Monday night’s council meeting and said he is looking forward to working with the rest of the council.

“I’m excited. I like it,” he said. “Even in my first meeting, I could see good already, for the whole town.”

After Bentley was sworn in, he took his place on the council to join the discussion of its new town hall and other business.

Mayor Patrick Bates said he completed the purchase of a modular office building, and the town will now ask for bids for the concrete footing that is required before it can be moved in.

The modular office purchased from Rose Offices is a 12” by 56” trailer that is six months old, comes with a six-month warranty, and has bathrooms compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, an open space and two offices.

The council approved the purchase of the office for a price of no more than $38,000 during last month’s meeting, and the final price of the trailer came in just under that amount at $37,529.

The council also approved the final payment of a bond that was used in the purchase of 20 acres of property on County Road 1615 that will be the future home of its town hall. 

The town bought the property for around $205,000, which included a 12-month, $75,000 bond, and the council paid it off Monday night after just 10 months, making the final payment of $5,866.15.

“We only agreed to do it in the first place because it was for only going to be for one year,” Bates said. “And our goal was to not even take that long.” 

The town council also joined the Cullman County Commission and the City of Cullman in declaring a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which will enable the town to work with local agencies to combat the spread of the virus and could allow for state or federal reimbursement of any town funds that are spent in that effort, Bates said. 

To go along with the emergency declaration, the council also suspended its usual town hall hours until at least the next council meeting. 

Because the town government currently shares space in the Berlin Community Center, suspending office hours will let Town Clerk Keirstyn Maxwell work from home to hopefully avoid coming in contact with the virus, Bates said.

He said the town should be able to move into its new office in the near future, which would enable Maxwell to work there instead of at home. 

“Hopefully that will be for six or eight weeks before we get the office and get moved in,” he said. “At that point, we could go back to usual.”