City Council - Regular Meeting

today. Remind everyone that we meet on the first and third Tuesday, ordinarily on the first and third Tuesdays of each month with the workshop starting at 5 30 and then the official business starting after that usually around six o'clock. This is a special setting today of our last meeting of the month which would have been yesterday ordinarily but that was voting day and we didn't want to interfere with with the uh for the voting and one of our council members, Mayor Pro Tem, Mr. Powell, is involved in running the polling place out at the fairgrounds and so we moved the meeting to today in order to accommodate him in that piece of work. First thing we have to consider are the minutes of our meeting held on The second day of May. Do we have a motion?

Mr. Mayor, I move for approval of the minutes from the regular meeting of June 2nd, 2026 as presented.

Thank you. I misstated it. It was June 2nd meeting, not the May 2nd meeting. All right. We have a motion by Mr. Dix. Do we have a second? I second the motion, Mayor. Second by Mr. Mound. 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 and saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, no. And the minutes are approved. Thank you for that. No unfinished business. Under new business, the first item for consideration is a request by Aldi Inc., the new grocery store that's going to be located out at Covington. shops out on River Falls Street. And the State of Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board 50 Retail Beer Off-Premises Only License and a ALDI 101-130 Excuse me, an 0170 retail wine, table wine license, off-premises only. Again, that's for Aldi Inc., new grocery store coming to town. It will be located at Cubding Mall. Do we have a motion to approve that?

Mayor, I make a motion that we approve the State of Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board license for retail beer and table wines for Aldi's.

All right, we have a motion by Mr. Mount. Do we have a second? Mayor, I'll second that motion. Second by Mr. Craig. Any further discussion, questions, or comments concerning this? All in favor, then, please indicate by raising your right hand and saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Any abstentions? Aye. We have one abstention. Motion carries, then. The matter is approved. Next item is 5B, resolution number 2026-15, authorizing Retiree Longevity Bonus Act. This is an act from the Alabama legislature, Act 608, the last term of the state of Alabama legislature, for a one-time payment to our city employees, our city employees who are retired. This is a statewide act. The cost of this to the city will be a one-time cost of $22,306. Again, this amount will be distributed amongst those employees who have retired and will be put in our 2027 budget for a one-time payment. Do we have a motion to approve that?

Mr. Mayor, I move that we approve Resolution 2026-15, paying the longevity bonus to our employees and that it be included in the 26-27 budget. All right.

We have a motion. Mr. Powell, do we have a second?

Second.

Second from Mr. Nix. Any further discussion, questions, or comments? All in favor of approving the resolution, please indicate by raising your right hand and saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? None opposed. Next item is resolution number 2026-16, abatement of nuisance properties. You have a list of those in your packet there. I think there's six properties, one on Smith Street, one on Lurie Lane, one on 9th Street, one on Op Avenue, one on 1st Avenue, and one on Will Coleman Drive. Most of these are grass and weeds. and cleanup. Do we have a motion to approve declaring these items to be cleaned up under our nuisance abatement act?

Mr. Mayor, I move for approval of resolution number 2026-16, providing for the abatement of public nuisance properties.

All right. Heard the motion by Mr. Nix. Do we have a second? Second. Second by Mr. Powell. Any further discussion? Questions or comments? Hearing none, all in favor of approving the resolution as described, please indicate by raising your right hand, saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? And the resolution is approved. Next item is resolution number 2026-17, authorizing a contract for an engineering services for rebuild Alabama grant project. And I'm going to ask our city administrator, city clerk, to come forward and go through this with us because it's quite a bit of work that's going to be done in this project.

Mr. Mayor and council members, this is a Rebuild Alabama grant that we have been approved for. If you will notice on the second page in your materials there, it is a $642,750 project. It will resurface a number of streets. It will resurface College Street from 3rd Avenue to East 3-Knot Street, 1st Avenue from 2nd Street to Ray Street, All of David Street, Jerry Drive, and Short Streets on the north side of town. And there are also a number of intersections. There are problematic intersections. All of these are around the high school at the intersection of First Avenue and Second Street, Second Street and Fourth Avenue, Third Street and Fourth Avenue and Fourth Avenue and Henderson Street. And that last one, Fourth Avenue and Henderson Street, is particularly problematic. There's a lot of drainage issues at the bottom of that hill where the girls' softball field is, a new addition to Andalusia High School. There's a lot of traffic there. In addition to the drainage problems and some curbs and gutters that are fouled up, the intersection just needs cleaning up terribly. So this is going to address all of those intersections. And the other ones are short or narrow intersections. There's sharp corners at them. It's going to clean all those up significantly. So the way this shakes out, this is our fourth attempt. Rebuild Alabama was established by the legislature four or five years ago. It's got sort of different elements to it. It allows the DOT to carry on additional projects beyond maintenance, future projects. It also sets aside money to be for competitive grant projects like this. And as I said, this is our fourth attempt, so they're very competitive. It also sends some revenue directly to us in addition to our existing projects. Gas six and seven tax accounts. We have now rebuilt Alabama account and we're proposing to use that for our match So as I said, the the project is six hundred forty two thousand seven hundred fifty dollars the grant maxes at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars so that leaves us with 292 750 dollars and we're proposing to use our as I mentioned rebuild Alabama funds we have about half a million dollars roughly in that account and and we need $292,750 as our match, and also the authorization to enter in a contract with Southern Engineering Solutions to provide the design and engineering services for the project. And if you approve this resolution, that will do all of those things.

Okay. Any questions? Mr. Thompson? Hearing none, all in favor Adopting the resolution as described, please indicate by raising your right hand and saying aye. I need a motion. Oh, excuse me. I'm sorry. I completely missed it. I need a motion first.

Mr. Mayor, I move for approval of resolution number 2026-17, providing for the activities so eloquently explained by our city administrator.

Thank you, sir. Do we have a second? I'll second. Second by Mr. Craig. Any further discussion, questions, or comments concerning this resolution? Hearing none, all in favor of adopting the resolution, please indicate by raising your right hand and saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, same sign. And that is approved. Our last item for consideration is a State of Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board 140 Special Events Retail Application for Off the Premises Trax LLC, which is a restaurant that's on the south Cotton Street. They're going to have a barbecue showdown contest there, and I'm not sure of the date on that, but it's not far off.

27th of June.

It'll be a one-day event, and we'll be... conducted there in the primarily there in the parking lot next door to his restaurant so we'll need a motion in a second to approve that mr. mayor I'll make that motion all right mr. Boswell made the motion do we have a second I second the motion it's like mr. mount any further discussion questions or comments all in favor please please indicate by saying I raising right hand say an aye any opposed Any abstentions? Aye. One abstention. Ayes have it. And that takes care of all of the business on our agenda. Do we have anything from any members of the council to come before the council this afternoon? All right.

Hearing nothing, we will stand adjourned, and we will retire upstairs for lunch.