City Council - Regular Meeting

November 18, 202025 meeting of the Andalusia City Council to order. And I'll ask if you will stand and join Councilman Powell as he leads us in the prayer and the pledge of allegiance. Join me as we pray. Almighty God, we thank you for our city. We thank you for the citizens that make it such a great place to live. We thank you for those that work for the city that make our life here even more enjoyable. I pray that you would grant wisdom to us as we make decisions that affect our citizens. Help us to make decisions that are pleasing in your sight in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen.

Attention. Salute. Pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. like to welcome everyone with us tonight. I'm sorry that we're running a good bit late, but we had a lot to talk about in our workshop and we ran over a good bit. The first thing we're going to do tonight is to recognize this great group of young men, our eight and under soccer state champions. Congratulations, [applause] So, what I'm going to do now is I'm going to walk down front here and read a resolution to you all and I'm going to present one to each member of the team and coach is going to help me get that done and then we're going to take a couple of photographs. So, I'm going to be right down and do that. resolution. Whereas Andalusia's eight and under soccer allstars did win the 2025 ARPA state tournament in Gadston. And whereas the team members include Hank Atkins, Daniel Beasley, Harrington Farut,

Remley, Hines, Matt Kelly, Von Mayor, Chase Murphy, Mason Padet, Leon Price, Landon Rig, Landry Rigdon, uh, Ken Samuel, and Parker Williamson. And whereas the team was coached by Jody Beasley, Thomas Price, and Russell Rigdon. And whereas the Allstars defeated the Fort Payne, Troy, and Gadston in the state tournament to advance to the finals where they bested Alexander City 4 to one in the championship game. And whereas they represented this represented Andalusia with class learning valuable lessons from the experience of working together to be a successful team. Now therefore be it resolved that I mayor Earl V. Johnson on behalf of the city council of Andalusia, Alabama and all its citizens do hereby recognize and 20258 under soccer all stars and extend to them our congratulations for their success for representing our community so well adopted and approved this 18th day of November 2025. Congratulations guys. [applause]

[applause] How we going to do this? Okay.

Then they're going to go right over there and stand in the line. Hank Atkins, come up here, buddy. [applause] [applause] Come stand right here.

Hey, boys. We'll work our way down. Okay. Daniel Beasley. [applause] Harington Farret, [applause] Remy Hines [applause] Matt Kelly, [applause] Von Mayor, [applause] Jace Murphy, [applause] Mason Padet, [applause] Landon Price, [applause] Landry Rigdon, [applause] Carson Samuel, [applause]

Parker Williamson, [applause]

and coach Jody Beasley. [applause]

Wow.

Coach Thomas Price [applause]

and coach Russell Rigdon. [applause] Okay. Thank you all. [applause] Dad

Good job. Okay. What a great looking group of young men. Our first item of business tonight would be to consider approval of the minutes of of our October 21st, 2025 organizational meeting that was actually held on November the 3 and the [clears throat] meeting on November the 3rd, 2025.

Mr. Mayor, I move for approval of the minutes as you have described for the October 2125 meeting and the organization meeting of November 3rd, 2025 of the Anal City Council as presented. All right, we have a a motion to approve these minutes by Mr. Nicks. Do we have a second? Mayor, I'll second that. Second by Mr. Craig. Any further discussion, questions, or comments concerning the minutes? Hearing none. All in favor, please indicate by raising your right hand and saying I.

I. Any oppose? same sign and the minutes are approved. Uh no unfinished business under new business. Uh number one is resolution number 25 20 uh 39 cost of living. Uh let me get my paperwork straightened out here. Cost of living adjustment pay raise for our city employees. Uh if you get turn to that, you will see that the cost of living uh is about uh not about exactly $640,000. That that will be added to our city employees uh uh total cost of our payroll for the city. And that amounts to I think 1.9% of of the payroll for the entire city. So it a 6% I I'll say upfront the 6% is one of the best uh cost of living raises I've seen or heard anything about in this part of the state or or this part of the country. uh before the in in this resolution proposing a cost of adjustment for employees of the city. We feel that this is necessary given inflation means the cost of goods and services continues to rise. The step will will help all of our employees to be able to put food on their tables and buy the other things that they need for their families. The proposed cost of living increase for our current employees represents 1.9% of our total budget for the fiscal year. And we have room in the budget to do this and we should do it. I highly recommend that you approve this resolution

again, resolution 25-39, cost of living adjustment. Mayor, I make a motion that we approve resolution 2025-39, a cost of living adjustment for our dedicated city employees. All right, we have a motion by Mr. Mount. Do we have a second? Second. Second by Mr. Powell. Any further discussion, questions, or comments concerning resolution number 2025-39? All right, hearing none. All in favor of of adopting the resolution, please indicate by raising your right hand saying I. I.

I. Any oppose? Same sign. And uh happy to approve this resolution. Next item is a Candyland budget for the Andlusia uh for our Candyland operation. Uh wait, I skipped one. Excuse me. Oh,

that's right. Candy Candyland budget. Uh let me find my notes on that. Went too far. All right. the uh we had a in the workshop we had a detailed review of all the items in the Candyland budget for this year and this the uh chamber of commerce is asking us to approve their their budget in the amount of 121,000 excuse me yeah $121,1358 so I would recommend that that we approve that that includes a capital a capital amount of some $12,000 for for some additional uh capital improvements for this this year's Christmas candyland.

Mr. Mayor, I'll make that motion. All right, we have a motion by Mr. by Mr. Bosle to approve the budget for the chamber for this amount. Do we have a second? Mr. May, I'll second that motion. Mr. Nick second it. Any further discussion, questions or comments concerning this hearing? None. All in favor, please indicate by raising your right hand saying I. I.

I. Any oppose? The same. And it is prove approved. I would like to nominate some appointment reappointments not uh reappoints for for two agencies in the city. First the the uh Andalusia Industrial Development Board. I would like to nominate Miss Beth Mrs. Beth Woodard who is has served on the board for quite a time and has asked to be reappointed and she's done a great job. I've been to every meeting they've had. They do great work. And Mr. Jimmy Black, who also has been on the board for quite some time and has asked to be reappointed. Uh so I would nominate uh those two people for those for that uh organization, the Industrial Development Board. Are there any other nominations for that board? All right. Hearing none, those approving uh Beth Woodard and Jimmy Black for reappoint, please indicate by saying I and raising your right hand. I any oppose the same and they are reappointed. Also would like to nominate uh Miss Elizabeth Bennett for the uh for the board for the Andalusia public library and she has served on that board for a number of years has done a great job and I would uh nominate Miss Elizabeth Bennett to be reappointed for another term on the board. Do we have any further nominations? All right, hearing none. [snorts] All in favor of Elizabeth Bennett being reappointed to the Andalusia Library Board, please indicate by raising your right hand saying I.

I.

I. Any oppose? The same. And they are approved. And thank the you folks for serving on these boards. So important to our city that our good citizens work to help the city provide the services that we all uh like and deserve and need. All right. The next item is resolution number 2025-40 bid for carousel for Heritage Park. Uh we talked about this at at our most recent uh workshop I think and uh got a bid on a carousel that would be constructed uh in is it California? Is that correct?

Not sure. you follow where the carousel is. The carousel is being Where's the carousel coming from? Uh California. Yes, sir.

California. Okay. Uh this this is would be a brand new carousel. It's something like you would see at a major fair quite frankly or uh uh it's beautiful piece of equipment. It's got seats uh and horses and all kind of animals on there. I think there's uh 39 seats. is also it's also ADA compliant. It has a cover that can be cover it when it's not in use to protect it from the from the from the elements. Uh and it will be built in California and hopefully get it to us in six to eight months and the col the the bid that we received was $569,000. Uh this money is in we have this money in our bond issue. uh to pay for this. And uh I I recommend that we go ahead and get it ordered so we can get it here. That includes the shipping. It includes sent uh the company sending their people here to uh train our folks how to put it together, how to operate it, how to maintain it, and maintenance issues and all those kinds of things. And uh if we going to try to get that here in time for uh the opening of the park, we're going to have to order it now. So, I recommend that we go ahead and approve this this uh uh bid and get the thing ordered.

Mr. Mayor, I move that we approve resolution 2025-40 bids for the Carousel for Heritage Park, uh, the low bidder of $569,000 with the funds coming from the 2022 series A bond fund. All right, we have a motion by Mr. Powell. Do we have a second? I second the motion there. Second by Mr. Mount. Is there any further discussion, questions, or comments concerning the carousel bid? All in favor of approval, please indicate by raising your right hand saying I. I.

I. Any opposed? Same sign and it will be uh will be ordered right away. Thank you for that. Uh next item is a resolution number 202541 uh for some work additional work to be done in in the park. I get got to get the right page in front of me. All right. This is resolution 2025-40. Uh, well, that was Heritage Park that we just did, right?

Yes.

All right. Next item is a resolution allocate allocating funding for Heritage Park for sod from uh Huggin Sod Farm in the amount of $8,000 for Hydro Seed Holloway Land Solutions LLC $26,800 a sprinkler system from J Kelly Scapes and Designs $45,000 for miscellaneous expenses in the amount of $10,000 which is uh basically top soil and stuff like that to be brought into the park. And then of course asphalt for the paving of the large uh running track uh and bicycle track and all that stuff that goes around the entire park in the amount of $75,000. So the total amount of that is $164,800. This money also is is in the 2022 series A bond account and uh was put in there uh was included in that bond issue for this particular purpose. So I recommend that you approve uh that uh spending there.

Mayor, I make a motion to approve resolution number 2025-41 for the improvements of Heritage Heritage Park. All right, we have a motion by Mr. Craig. Do we have a second? I second that, mayor. All right, Mr. Boswell makes a second. Is there any further discussion concerning uh resolution 2025-41? Hearing none. All in favor of approving resolution, please indicate by raising your right hand saying I.

I. Any opposed? Same sign. And that is approved. Next item is resolution 2025-42, bids for playground for Robinson Park. Uh this is for uh a playground, a children's playground. All new m all new equipment. The old equipment will be moved away. And uh this is part of a of a bond of a excuse me of a grant that we received uh to purchase this equipment. and the bidder is Strruther's Recreation LLC in the amount of $585,651. Again, we have the money. This was also covered partly by uh a DECA a DECA grant. I recommend to you that we approve this resolution uh purchasing this equipment. Mayor, [clears throat] I make a motion that we approve resolution 2025-42 bids for the playground for Robinson Park.

All right, we have a motion by Mr. Mount. Do we have a second? I'll second that, Mayor. Have a second by uh Mr. Bosel. Any further discussion, questions, or comments concerning resolution 20 uh 2025-42? Hearing none. All in favor of adopting the resolution, please indicate by raising your right hand saying I. I.

I. Any oppose? Same sign. And the resolution is approved. Uh we were to have a hearing uh that was scheduled to be a hearing tonight uh concerning a business license for Econo Lodge uh here in Andalusia due to some some uh continuing uh conflicts with getting these folks here uh at this meeting and having uh their lawyers present to make us some guarantees that certain conduct would would be uh would be taken care of at this uh at this location and that certain people would not be allowed to be uh be located there any longer until after this hearing. We've agreed to continue the hearing on this license uh business license to January the 20th of the new year. So that that hearing will be continued unless it's resolved between now and then. Next item is resolution number 2025-43 agreement with Emerald Coast Utilities Authority for the processing of city of Andalusia recycling material recycled materials. Excuse me. This is a an extension of the contract that we already have in place with Emerald Coast. The exact same agreement, the same payment there. No changes. uh we're just extending the contract so they continue to take our uh material. And so I recommend to you that we re uh uh that you give me authority to through this resolution to execute this contract with u with the recycling company.

Mr. Mayor, I move that we approve resolution 2025-43, the agreement with Emerald Coast Utilities Authority to take care of our waste and recycling materials. Okay, we have a motion. Do we have a second? I second the motion. We have a second. Any further discussion, questions or con uh 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. Any opposed? The same sign. It it is approved. Thank you for that. Uh our next resolution is a resolution uh regarding the Andalusia Police Department for the purchase of uh is it four automobiles, chief? Four uh police vehicles and their equipment. Uh these uh the bids went out uh to our local uh operators uh vehicle uh companies and only one responded with a bid and that's Ford uh in the amount of $183,82 uh that would come uh to pro to approve the purchase of vehicles for that amount and then additional uh $8,400 necess neessary to outfit the vehicles

each sir 8400 each vehicle 84 for each vehicle I'm sorry okay thank you for correcting that uh so u we need a a motion and a second to approve this bid Mr. Mayor I make a motion of 2025-44 and I would also like to comment it's it's great that we do it with local vendors Yes sir. All right, we have a we have a motion to approve the resolution. Do we have a second? Mr. May, I second that motion.

Second by Mr. Nicks. Any further discussion, questions or comments? Hearing none. All in favor of approving the resolution, please indicate by raising your right hand saying I.

I. Any oppose? Same sign. And that resolution is approved. Finally, we have uh first reading of ordinance number 25-04. This is an ordinance regarding the sale of alcohol within the municipal limits of the city of Andalusia. So that would uh would uh make lawful the sale of alcohol beverages uh after 12 noon on Sunday. Uh and this would be of course only those people who are already licensed to to sell alcohol uh in uh in the city limits of Louisia. So, this is the first reading of that. Under state law, uh you have to take an ordinance up twice before you can vote on it. So, this will be the first reading. We'll take the the second reading and and take it under uh for a vote at our next council meeting, which will be two weeks from today. Any further discussion or questions or comments? Hearing none, I will declare this meeting ajourned. All