City Council - Regular Meeting

Everybody here

time is here and I will call the no uh excuse me the April 7 2026 meeting on Andalusia City Council to order and I ask you to stand and join Councilman Nicks as he leads us in prayer the pledge of allegiance. Will you bow with me please? Heavenly Father, we come together today to ask for your guidance and blessings upon this meeting. Please grant us wisdom to govern, a sincere desire to address the needs of those whom we serve, and the ability to work together in harmony. We pray that our deliberations and decisions today are pleasing to thee and beneficial to our community in Jesus name. Amen. 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. Welcome everyone to our meeting tonight. First meeting of the month. We meet on the first and third Tuesdays of each month with the workshop starting at 5:30 upstairs and then the regular me meeting the official meeting starting here at 5:00 or as soon as uh excuse me 6 o'clock or as soon after that hour as we finish upstairs unless otherwise notified. Okay. Uh, first item of business today will be to approve the minutes of our meeting held on March the 17th, 2026.

Mr. Mayor, I move for approval of the minutes from our regular meeting of March 17, 2026 as presented. All right, we have a motion. Do we have a second? I second a motion, Mayor. All right, we have a second, Mr. Mount. Do we Any further discussion, questions, or comments concerning the the minutes hearing? None. All in favor of approval, please indicate by raising your right hand and saying I.

I. Any opposed? No. And the minutes are approved. No. Unfinished business. Under new business, a resolution 2026-04 authorizing the replacement of the adult activities center roof. Uh this is a a the roof of the new part of the adult activities center where the kitchen is and and uh where we had our our city h city uh meeting last week and uh it is the the newest part of the adult activities had a had some wind damage uh that occurred uh I don't know back a couple of months ago and uh anyway our insurance uh is paying part of the cost and we will play pay the difference between what they're going to pay and it amounts to a total of $12,400 for the city to pay for the new roof. Uh the full cost of the replacement is $38,000. So you see we're getting a pretty good amount of of that coverage will be paid for by our insurance company and that m that money would come from our capital account. Mr. Mayor, I move that we approve resolution 2026-04 uh authorizing $12,400 to be appropriated from the capital account to replace the adult activity roof. All right, we have a motion by by Mr. Powell. Do we have a second?

I'll second that motion. Second by Mr. Craig. Any further discussion, questions or comments from the council? Hearing none, then all in favor of approving the author uh the resolution, please indicate by raising your right hand and saying I.

I. Any oppose the same? And it is approved. Our next item of business is to uh consider a resolution 2026-05 which is a uh is a yeah 05 I got it right is an abatement nuisance uh of some nuisance properties and uh two of those are located uh one of them is located at 127 Railroad Avenue the other one is 129 Railroad Avenue and then there's one at 521 Cotton Street and 4016th Avenue. And this is uh debris and weeds and grasses that need to be cleaned up. I think there there was originally 14 of these uh 14 different pieces of property that were notified in our latest round and 10 of those folks did clean up their their properties, but these are the four that have not cleaned up their properties. Uh so I recommend to you that we adopt a resolution that would require them to clean it up. If they don't, we can clean it up and uh the cost of that will be put on their property tax for next year if they don't pay it to us directly. All right. Do we have a motion to approve the nuisance abatement resolution?

Mr. Mayor, I make that motion. All right. Mr. Boswell makes a motion. Do we have a second? I second motion. Second by Mr. Mount. Any further discussion, questions, or comments from the council? Hearing none. All in favor of adopting the resolution, please indicate by raising your right hand, saying I. I. I. Any opposed? No. And the eyes have it.

Thank you. Our next item is resolution 2026-06 authorizing a business development agre agreement for synergy number six. I'm going to ask our city uh clerk if he will uh to come up and describe what this agreement provides for. And I'll say upfront that this what is called for in this resolution or in this agreement and the resolution approving it is is uh is provided for through through AL Alabama constitutional amendment number 725 and something that we use frequently to do work like this. So Mr. Mayor this is a as you said a business development agreement between the city and Synergy. Synergy is headquartered in Andalusia. They own a number of convenience stores. This particular store will be at the corner of US 29 North and Pioneer Drive. That is and as as you consider uh business development agreements like this, there are a number of criteria that you take into consideration. One of the most important is the location. And this is very important. That is a high-profile, very important location in our city. It's a there are two major businesses, Power South and Shaw Industries and and many other smaller businesses and in a hightraic area. So, it will make a a huge impression uh change the look of that intersection uh when this is complete. Synergy is is uh headquartered in Andalusia has a number of stores in the area. They're planning to grow. The owner, Mr. King, uh has been uh very aggressive in his growing of these stores. They are clean. They are um uh they have a a large offering in them. They they're very attractive to the public and these stores have been have done very well since he started since he's established them. This is a three over $3.5 million investment. There are

a number of employees. These are other criteria that the council considers when making decisions like this. Um there what you're considering tonight will be a sales tax rebate. There's no gift, no no other incentive of any kind. This is incumbent upon the business producing the sales taxes for them to be rebated. So it's it's the responsibility of the business and the business owner to produce revenue in order for a rebate to occur. The rebate that we're that you're considering is 2% for three years. So this would be of the business uh generated at the site. 2% of the city's three and a half percent sales tax will be rebated back to the business owner over a period of three years.

Okay. Uh I'll I'll add to this uh a little bit. Uh this this business is owned by Mr. King and he has got I think three or four other others in the area. I know. One, three in Andalusia or two in Andalusia. No, three. I got it right the first time. Three in Andalusia and one uh in Florella that I know of. Uh very uh top-notch, good-looking stores, well-run, extremely clean, a good inventory of of uh groceries and other other stuff that you have in convenience stores. and uh they've been very successful. I recommend to that we approve this uh resolution which will provide for the execution of this contract. I believe it will be a big improvement for that part of town and will uh do well and it will help uh grow revenue for for our city and for after three years we'll get the full three and a half cents. Uh and uh I recommend that we approve it. Mr. Mayor, I move that we approve resolution 2026-06 authorizing the business development agreement for synergy number six.

All right, we have a motion by Mr. Powell. Do we have a second? Mr. Mayor, I will second that. Second by Mr. Bosel. Any further discussion, questions, or comments from the council?

Hearing none, all in favor of approving the resolution, please indicate by raising your right hand and saying I. I. I any opposed? Same sign and it is approved. Thank you for that. That's all of the action items that we have for tonight. I want to draw everyone's attention to a cleanup day uh for our city. Uh we're asking our citizens to come out and and and uh give us some help in cleaning up our city sidewalks and along the streets streets in the city and areas that need uh cleaning up. And we always have uh we always have plenty to do. Uh we we do a lot of work every day to keep trying to keep our city clean, but this is kind of like a a special spring cleanup that we put extra emphasis on. Uh it will be held uh uh on uh April the 22nd and we'd ask folks who want to uh participate with us and we we be happy to anyone who will come out and help us. Uh that will be done uh by meeting here at city hall on April the 22nd. Is there a time time to start 8? Is it 8:00?

Yes, sir.

Yeah. 8:00 on April the 22nd. And uh you can work as long as you have time. It's not, you don't, you know, you're not not have to punch a clock, but we we'd appreciate if you could give us at least a half a day or or an maybe an afternoon morning work and afternoon work that if you can do that. Uh again, April the 22nd at 8:00, meet here at city hall and we will go from there. Uh anything else from the city council? Any member? It's all the business we have. Hearing nothing further, we will stand a journ. All right.