City Council - Regular Meeting

Six. I'm going to call this March 17th, 2026 meeting of the Andalusia City Council to order. If you will stand and join me in the prayer and the pledge of allegiance. Our gracious heavenly father, we come to you tonight and give you thanks for the many blessings that you bestow upon us each and every day. We ask that as we do business for the city of Andlujah uh tonight that give us wisdom and knowledge to make the right decisions and that those be uh honorable and and just these things we ask in Christ's name. Amen.

Attention salute pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Okay. Like to welcome everyone uh to our second meeting in March and remind everyone that we meet on the first and third Tuesdays of each month unless otherwise notified. uh with the workshop starting upstairs at 5:30 and then the actual meeting starting here uh as soon as we can get down from upstairs, usually around six o'clock. Uh members of the council, you have before you your agenda there. The first item is to consider approval of the minutes of our regular meeting held March the 3. Do we have a motion or a second to approve the minutes?

Mayor, I make a motion that we approve the minutes of the March 3rd, 2026 meeting as presented. All right, we have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Second by Mr. Dixs. Any further discussion, questions, or comments concerning the minutes? Hearing none. All in favor of approval of the minutes as presented, please indicate by raising your right hand saying I. I. Any oppose? No. And eyes have it.

No. Unfinished business. Under new business, uh, state of al we are, uh, to consider a state of Alabama alcoholic beverage control board 140 special events retail application for off the tracks LLC. Uh, Mr. Administrator, would you uh uh state you told us in workshop, but go through it again what uh what that request is. Grill is going to have a crawfish boil cookoff on March 28th and they need a special event retail alcohol license for that event. They're going to have it on property that's the parking lot next to their business that's owned by the capital improvement cooperative district of the city of Andalusia and it requires our approval which we've given. It also requires the city council to approve this special event license so that they can have it. It's outdoor. There'll be a a fenced off area for the for the event and it it requires a special event license by the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board and is uh their policy. They asked city council to review and approve any licenses like that.

Okay. The license of the license request is in your packet there. We'll need a motion and a second if you going to approve this. Mr. Mr. Mayor, I will make that motion. All right, we have a motion by Mr. Boswell. Do we have a second? Uh, I'll second that motion. Second from Mr. Craig. Any further discussion, questions, or comments concerning this request? Hearing none. All in favor of approval of this, please indicate by raising your right hand and saying I. I.

Any oppose the same sign? And it is approved. Next item is uh first reading of ordinance number 2026 uh to surplus some property from the city uh and so that and then and then deed that property uh to the development uh board and uh I'm going to ask ask our city administrator to come back to the podium and run through that again for us here in actual meeting.

Mr. Mayor, we have a proposal from uh Daniel Campbell for uh redeveloping a property in downtown Andalusia. It is at 220 222 and 224 South Three notch street. It was last uh there's a sign on it now the um Salvation Army sign on it. We've commonly referred to it as a brown brick buildings. Mr. Campbell proposes to put a restaurant and a gift shop in that property and he also has is going to have some additional space to market uh once he's finished with his space that he intends to use. But in order to do that, to consider that agreement, the city council's got to surplus the property. And this is done by ordinance. This is the first reading of the ordinance. So you're not planning to take action on it tonight. But there's also a development agreement with Mr. Campbell and the downtown the capital improvement cooperative district that we mentioned a minute ago and that will be the actual vehicle that we will travel under to do the the arrangement with Mr. Campbell. It fits the plan for the park area and those buildings that were required in the Tisdel acquisition in 2020. We uh have have always envisioned experience retail uh restaurants, bars, uh bars and grills, nightlife, that sort of thing to fit the park, the amphitheater, and the other things going on in that neighborhood. Uh Mr. Campbell proposes to spend up to $200,000 of his money to to invest in this property to make it suitable for this venue. Um, as I said again, this is an ordinance tonight that you're uh just having the first reading and we're also disclosing all the details about the uh the contract for the development. There's some discussion in the work session about some performance issues. We're going to talk about that later and address that in the contract uh before the u the next meeting and before the um the district considers the contract as well.

Okay. Uh that is again the first reading of this ordinance. John, if you will just stay up the front here for a minute and I'm going to ask you to talk about the the next agenda item, but

uh we will we will not take action on this ordinance tonight and it will come back for for a vote at our first meeting in April. Uh the next item is a request from Annalusia City Schools for from a uh sales tax request for fiscal year 2526 amendment. And uh I'll ask you if you will walk us through that. Uh I know that a portion of this money uh for this year had already been uh awarded to the school or or sent to the school and they're asking for an additional amount for an additional work. And if you will walk us through that please sir.

So at the last meeting you approve and city schools request for uh allocation of uh sales tax education sales tax. Every year the school board brings a request to you and the way the ordinance is written the the city council and the school board work together to appropriate education sales taxes every year. So this is part of that process. At the last meeting, you approved $1,120,000. That's every item on their request with the exception of the capital improvement project. There's still some work left to be done on that. The school board's planning to build a new facility at the elementary school. There's also some discussion about a need for some capital improvement at the high school campus. So, uh, you asked them to set that aside, which they did. So you you approved everything on their request except for $3.5 million capital improvement which is a million1 $120,000. It also had $200,000 for a new project that is a sidewalk project very similar to what we've just completed on Third Avenue. There's going to be a new sidewalk in front of the high school. There's going to be new signage. There's going to be an additional sidewalk through the campus uh next to the baseball fields. There's there's a a parking area with a a curb you have to cross and drive up on. So, all that will be totally redone with this grant. Uh, at the time you approved the previous one at the last meeting, we had 200,000 or the school board had $200,000 in their request for the matching funds for this grant. Since that time, the uh estimate has now been refined and they've added another $481,000. There's several things in that project that are not grant eligible, including the sign. There's got to be a retaining wall as a part of that sign. quite a bit of extensive work. So, we need to we're asking you to amend that request by $481,770.

The grant maxes at $800,000. So, the ineligible items and the other match is the difference, the $200,000 plus the additional $481,771 that we're asking you to amend that previous request by. All right. So, the $481,770 is is what you're asking to be increased by. Yes. All right. All right. Members of the council, you heard that request. Uh that money is in place uh and available to be sent to the school upon your approval.

Mr. Mayor, I move for approval of the amended request submitted by the Analia City School Board uh as elaborated on by our city administrator. All right. We have a motion by Mr. Nicks. Do we have a second? I second the motion. Second by Mr. Mount. All in favor, please indicate by raising your right hand and saying I. I. I. Any opposed? No.

And so that uh request is is approved. Next item is a request uh for uh $60,275 for for work here in this room that we're in right now for a new air condition HAV system. Uh that money we have the money in our bond issue uh that's already in the bank to to take care of that. The amount of the request is $60,275 and uh we need to approve that. And of course that would be uh go into our uh into our general fund for payment for this uh work on the building. Mayor, I'll make a motion that we approve resolution 2026-03 for the purchase of a HBAC system for the auditorium in the amount of $60,275

money to come from the bond issue. Excuse me. Yes, sir. Okay. Do we have a second? Mr. Mayor, I'll second that. Second by Mr. Craig. Any further discussion, questions, or comments concerning this resolution? Hearing none. All in favor of approval of the resolution, please indicate by raising your right hand and saying I.

I. I. Any opposed? No. And that is approved. Uh members of the council, that is all of the items that we have to take action on. All right. I have a a note here that I I want to read that I read upstairs except now I don't know where it is. Michelle, you got a extra copy. I don't know where I put it. Office. Never mind. Got it. Got it. Okay.

Tonight we are announcing two town hall meetings set for Tuesday, March the 31st. That's the last day of this month. The meetings will be similar to those held in the year 2021 in which local residents provided input into updating the city's comprehensive plan. Concordia being the architectural and community planning firm with which the city partnered to update that plan will facilitate the town hall meetings. The meetings are set for the adult activity center. There'll be two meetings. Uh the adult activity center is I failed to mention is at 401 Walker Avenue. Everybody knows where that is behind the uh behind the uh right off Church Street uh there. And uh it we have we'll have two meetings. One beginning at noon in the adult activity center and another one starting at 5:30 p.m. in the adult activivity center. You don't have to come to both. You need to come to one or the other. Uh but we want to re uh encourage people to come and be uh get their input into what they see as important for our city for the future. Again, that will be uh the 31st of this month at the adult activity center. Two meetings, one at uh at noon and the other one at 5:30. uh we'll have this information available on our website and also on social media pages. So uh please make an effort to be there. We'd love to have you. All right. Is anybody from the council have anything else to come before the council this evening? or hearing none. We will stand adjourned.