City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay, we're going to go ahead and get started, guys. Sorry for the delay. We uh had a need to have another meeting real quick, but um I know we've got allocated time for David. Uh so let us quickly go through the agenda. David Annette, would you mind doing a quick roll call for us? Yes, sir. Mr. Cruy present. Mr. Lucas here. Mrs. Henry here. Mrs. Golden here. Mr. Cyber here. All five present.

We don't have a lot of stuff. So let's just kind of the the consent calendar. First item, we have a resolution to approve travel education expenses in the amount of 18830 for personnel of the fire department. Item B, we have a resolution to reappoint David Malone to the personnel board for a 5-year term expiring January 11, 2031. Item C, we have a resolution to approve the purchase of an APC external battery backup with run option and APC smart rack mountable UPS and related equipment from Amazon at a cost not to exceed $3,999 to be funded from the existing IT department capital account. Item D, we have a resolution to authorize the Cemetery Parks and Rec Director enter into an agreement with Morell Engineering for surveying and engineering services for Lincoln Bridgeport Park at a price not to exceed $50,000 to be funded from the existing CPR capital account. Item E, we have a resolution authorizing the amount of $17,100 to be funded from the water services department operating budget for the USGS to maintain and monitor the Swan Creek stream gauging station for 12 months and the water services director for and on behalf of the city of Athens authorized to enter into an agreement with these services for USGS. Item F, we have a resolution to approve a special events retail license for on premises consumption alcohol license for the Athens Limestone Hospital Foundation Starlight Ball. Uh that is on February 13th. And that is it for consent. So does does anybody have any questions for for anyone on those items? Okay. Who will take the consent?

I'll take it. I don't have I don't have an agenda. Somebody mind if I use their agenda? I didn't. Where is it? Yeah, she's got one. Oh, thank you, Jessica. We get an extra agenda. Thank you. So, who will take You got one. Who will take that um the consent calendar? I will.

Okay. Thank you. Item G is a resolution to grant Verizon Wireless a special use permit to modify their equipment at 204 Commercial Drive. I know David's here. Does anybody have any questions for David on this one? It's just a simple modification. They're doing a 5G technology upgraded site. They're already on the tower. They're just going to remove three antennas and add three new antennas that's capable of doing the 5G technology. U we've reviewed the application. We recommend approval by the council. Any questions for David? Anybody?

Okay. Thank you. Who will take the I will.

Item H is a resolution regarding the acquisition of real property on South Clinton Street with intentions to utilize the property for municipal purposes and more specifically in connection with a roadway project improving the intersection between South Clinton Street and Highway 72 in coordination with the Alabama Department of Transportation. Councilwoman Henry will take that. Does anybody have questions for Shane or mayor on that one? Okay. Does that need rule suspension?

I don't Will they Will this come back to the council when the amounts are determined? Okay. Will Okay. Okay. Item I. [clears throat] So, we're good. Yes. Okay. Item I is an ordinance abandoning or vacating a portion of a utilities drainage easement on real property owned by Terrence Machniki and Bonnie Judith Basin uh located at 2201 Gunner Circle. Any questions for Shane on that one? Okay. Who will take that? I'll take it.

We'll have to do a rule suspension on that. It's an ordinance. Who will do the rules? I will.

Okay. We've got a couple of add-ons. We've got a public hearing. I skipped over that section, but we do have a public hearing that's going to be added. that is um regarding some uh weed leans. A resolution ascertaining fixing and determining the amount of assessment to be charged as weed leans on certain properties as a result of the city abating overgrown grass and weeds. And it lists several addresses there where we've gone out and cut this these weeds and now we've got to collect.

That's that's right. this uh code enforcement with Athens Police Department's been involved in these these are u what is it seven real properties where during the past few months code enforcement has issued warnings and then they haven't been adhered to and so the city has gone out and has actually cut the overgrown grass and weeds and so what this is is this collects all of the expenses related to that brings them back here together for y'all to look at and review. So then if you vote and approve the resolution, those amounts are then assessed as a lean on the property. So all of these and each one is individually listed here. Now there's not a resolution for each property individually because these are typ typically going to come to you in batches as we go through. So in a few months if there are other properties like that, you know, in three or four months, expect to see another resolution like that as well. and uh code enforcement has gone through each of those and provided the information for it. Chief, anything that I've left out there?

Okay. And this is utilizing the city's process for and again just because I think this first time new council's had one of these come in front of it. So, as you know, if you've got an overgrown property within the city of Athens, u you can get a warning letter from code enforcement. code enforcement police officers will come out and give you a warning letter or they'll mail them off if it's an out of town owner and so that person has an opportunity to take care of it to cut the grass, get it in order. If it if that person does not take care of it and get it in order, then a a more formal notice is issued, right, Chief? which can result in a process where they've got an opportunity to either take care of it again or to come in front of a a little sitdown or a meeting that the city clerk's office is involved in. If they do not show or they do not cut it, then and only then the city will go out and will actually cut it and keep a record of those costs. And then after several months, it will come back to you for the imposition of a weedling. And so this is uh this is the way to handle that. It can also be handled by running it through city court and going that way. Sometimes that is helpful too. The bottom line is an effort to try to keep these properties in decent shape. And so that's what code enforcement office our code enforcement officers are the ones that bring these to us to start this process. Okay. Any other questions?

Okay. Thank you, Shane. That also has a a resolution associated with it. So that's uh number 11 A. Who will take that resolution? I will.

Okay, we got two to be added on. If everybody's okay with that, I'm going to call item J. Uh the one regarding Alta, which is um uh a contract to not to exceed 73,000 with Alta to administer certain aspects of construction at Sunrise Park on an on call basis to be funded from the proceeds of the 2024 general obligation warrants. So does anybody have questions about that one?

Well, and Mr. s I'll just say uh I have we have been tracking and that tracks on a regular basis all their invoices that come through. There's some work still to be done in that phase one phase two and to keep them involved in our project along with our project manager Martin and Kobe uh initially basically they're running lower funds and this will get us through that whole next process. So, uh, and also they're doing a good job as a team. So,

so I'm fine adding this unless there's issues with somebody. Okay. Does anybody have any further questions about it? [clears throat] Okay. Who will take that one? I think Lucas, does that need a rule suspension? It will in the next one as well, right?

Who will do that rule suspension? Thank you. Okay, so that's item J. The next one we're going to call K. And it is um in regards to a change order at Sunrise for a bid package uh number three and the general contract to EMW Construction uh for $41,429.90. It's for uh additional structural framing required by the engineer. tile size change for the restroom, change of wood sealer product, added steel for roof overhang at the restroom, and added framing for gable ends of the restroom building. So,

M again, uh Jim, who's the project manager for Martin and Kobe on the uh on the Sunrise Park, three of these were structural changes that were real critical to the process of building out. You'll see two, five, and six. All of those are directly related to structural changes like adding to the steel roof, the gables and the framing as a change order, which be honest with you, as I said to them, I don't like change orders, no, but I want to do the project right. And the other is changing the tile room. We thought it was more the aesthetics was a lot better. And the other is a wood sealer product that really is necessary. So, I a question net and I talked about it and we thought if y'all are okay with it, roll them into one change order and that would be beneficial for us to move forward. I know the weather right now is 12 degrees outside tonight and they're probably not going to be down there working, but as soon as the weather breaks, we don't want this to hold them up.

I said don't bill us until you get approval. I I'm not a fan of change orders either, but I think it's unfortunately part of the construction process. So, uh, does anybody have issue with this or have questions about this? Okay, who will take that one?

I'll take Lucas. Who will do the rule suspension on that? Is that don't Okay, I think that's it. Uh, we don't have anything else correct to add. Okay. Um, so sorry to short change it a little, but is that a is that a 10-minute presentation or do we need to push it? What what [clears throat] do you think? All good news, sir.

Well, I I looked at it, so Okay, go ahead. All right. Uh, again, thank you all very much. Um, wanted to provide a brief update on our capital projects, both where we're currently at and the road ahead and how to accomplish all this. Um, so quickly we'll go over a quick review of what we've done so far to catch everybody up. So, outstanding projects, you know, we did a 2024 bond issue of roughly uh 30 million. if you want to go ahead, Justin. And so the original plan for that was a booster pump station. We had a lift station at the plant with some of the upgrades we've done from the chicken plant all the way down along the walking trail of how then we get it into the plant. We were going to upgrade our uh wastewater plant and then also we had to do dredging. So a lot of things just just with sewer in general. About you know 80% of that or 90% of it was just for sewer. So where we actually are today and one more is we are under contract to get the booster pump station finished. We have the east primary lift station almost done in the picture you see there on the right is uh the excavation we had to do for that about 42 ft in the ground or rock and then um we got the dredging done. So, we've spent roughly when all this is going to be said and done, 40% of the 30 million. Uh the lifts, the wastewater treatment plant upgrades, the preliminary budget we have for that around $35 million. So, we're going to be about we'll only have half the money. We'll have probably $17 million once all our committed money is spent. Uh and we have to do the wastewater treatment plant upgrades. We really can't wait any longer. Uh there's a lot of things on parameters. And we're also thinking we're going to have some new uh changes that we'll have to meet as far as phosphorus grows that ADM is going to be proposing probably this year. So we

really need to get under contract as soon as we can to do the upgrades. Now how do we go about doing that um is what we want to discuss on some changes to how to fund all this. And then you know right now we have impact fees that we charge. Back in 2022, we updated and we put an escalator on them every year of roughly 3%. Depending on what inflation is. Unfortunately for us, actually true inflation and the cost of projects has been more around 50% or more. And so what we collect and the impact fees we can pay for smaller projects like is the Broly Boulevard extension or Chick-fil-A road, you know, we we did some waterline stuff there and then other small projects essentially for economic development. So, a lot of the water and sewer for the new Publix or Food City is what these funds because we only get about $2 million annually from the impact fees right now. So, we can kind of take little bites of small projects. So, one of the items we want to look at is how to update those fees. And so, again, the summary of projects for the next five years that we feel like again the wastewater treatment plant is number one on our list. I know it's number four on this one. But we also are looking at the water treatment plant uh with demands going up especially this week. This weekend's one of them specifically where we're looking at keeping up with water demand. Uh we want to do some electrical upgrades to our pumps, get better efficiency to therefore get more water out of the plant to where we need it. Uh water distribution or water tanks. I know y'all have probably seen a lot. They're kind of come and do on when they need to be refurbished, repainted both inside and out. And then sewer collection, you know, we have the southeast area lift station which is in Cane Break. We need to do up upgrades to that lift station for all the customer growth we're seeing in there residential. And then we're looking at the west area of town. So along 72, um we're getting a lot of inquiries about what can we annex in on the west side of town. Uh another lift station potential trunk line to get more sewer customers on that side. And then strain road sewer

of course that we've allocated $3.2 2 million to take care of the sewer portion of what we're doing on Strain Road. And so all that right now are our highest priority projects. And the way we're looking at these is dividing them up if you go into really three different requirements. So we have regulatory compliance. What do we have to do to just keep up with our current parameters or that is being required of us based on what the state says we need to do? Asset management. So just typical things are aging out need to be upgraded. And then capacity expansion just for growth. So right now we have about $30 million that's really just for growth is what we're going to talk about tonight on fees and how we can upgrade our fee process to hopefully take care of a lot of that $30 million. So what we looked at specifically is and again our current fee structure right now today is for sewer and water we collect based on meter size. So typical every customer right now in our system a new customer that's residential is a 58 meter. So that's our base unit or our our uh equivalent unit. And then we also have a per fixture fee. So when someone comes in, you also pay per plumbing fixture. So when you roll it all in together, we get about $3500 per home from our fees for each residents. Um again, it's also by meter. So one of the things too is since we only do it by meter, not every resident unit being multif family gets charged the same. So apartments and things like that kind of they don't require a large meter. So there's a little imbalance. So one of the things we've been looking at is how to fix this. And so if you go to the next one, the American Waterworks Association, which is kind of our national board, has a template to use on true impact fees or system development fees. One of the things they

recommended, and a lot of this has been implemented throughout the country and in some states have actually written a law that this is how you will come up with a fee. That way it can't be uh massaged, so to speak, is a two-part process. So you have your existing infrastructure or you have a buyin cost. So what that is is you take from our audit we keep up with the existing infrastructure take out depreciation. We also take out the existing principle and the debt that we owe for the projects that we're doing because when you become a customer you pay that debt service. When every time we borrow money to build projects it kind of we have to do the principal and interest. So you're paying that. So you don't want to penalize them twice. So we did that. We took out the you know depreciation and debt service for both water and sewer because we wanted these to stand alone and we divided that by the available capacity in both the water system and the sewer system come up with the buyin cost. So the flat cost. The second part is the incremental cost. So this is standalone. How much the projects that we have that $30 million we talked about that's just for growth. And then how much capacity does that add to our current system. So you end up with a dollar per gallon for both. And then when you add them both together is what the true impact fee or development fee should be. And so when we did that, you get this cost right here on this last sheet. One more just. And so what this is showing us is right now for sewer, you'll see in the parentheses our current fee and then next to it is what we should be based on this model. Water's on the right hand side. Current fee is $925 per lot. We should be at 2524 based on just to keep up with our current assets and for what what we need for the projects just for growth. This isn't the projects for compliance or the asset management. This is the only the growth related projects.

The idea being is that the growth pays for growth. And so all the current rate payers right now are basically paying a part of this from the money we borrow. But to stand alone on its own, we need the capital to be able to keep building the new things we need to make more customers. So what we're proposing right now is to study this. We want to leave our fee process how it is on how we collect because we collect part of sewer up front and then when someone actually comes in for a permit, we collect the back end of the fees on water and things like that. We'll keep them the same way. We're just going to up the amount of the feed process by roughly a factor of three. So wanted to provide this with you as information where we need to go. And the other thing we're going to be doing on sewer for multif family is charging more in a per gallon amount either for commercial but also multif family would be charged the same as residential lots. So a 100 lot subdivision would pay the same as a 100 unit apartment complex as far as the fees go. We want to correct that sort of loophole that we have right now. So I know that was a lot. I got one minute to spare. Any questions? Here's what I'll say because I know this is first pass for D and I have had this. Um, this could be a, you know, a couple hour discussion. I I would I if if you guys are okay, let's digest it. Since we've already had the privilege of having it, the the conversation, uh, our ask to you and it's great presentation. We appreciate it. We've got good issues, right? We're trying to keep up from an infrastructure standpoint with growth and not everybody has that issue. We've got a good issue. Uh, our ask was that you go talk to some of the developers, which they've done. You've talked to some. I don't know if you talked to a bunch. Just nobody needs to get blindsided with any of this. I mean, I know it's not official, but uh, if we decide to make changes, we don't want them blindsided. So, y'all are doing that. And the other one would sur get the surrounding municipalities and see kind of how we rack and stack in terms

of these fees with them. And y'all are in the process of gathering that. That's correct. Everyone's they all have pretty much finished their study. They haven't advertised there yet. I don't want to speak to what they're doing. Um we're all going up. I'll just put it that way. Yeah. But again, I don't want to speak too much what our neighbors are doing, but everyone sees the same need. Um yeah, we're all experiencing this growth and and trying to keep up. So I think as a next step, we once we've gathered all that, we reconvene. I don't know, you know, maybe we break it down to allow for lots of questions in smaller groups, but I think we come back together before we make a Well, and not only that, we may uh Miss S may be a time where we call a work session. Yeah.

And call it in order where you all hear and you get into the details into the sausage making a lot more because it's a very complicated process and uh these guys are doing a great job. But it's a fact of if we go borrow money somewhere it's got to be paid for right we right now we don't we we've got to have you know what how many million gallons a day in just in the sewer plant got right now we received 26 million gallons as of 48 hours ago after the heavy rain after the heavy rain and what we got capacity 9 million gallons is what we're under permit but I I'd hesitate to say you know we didn't We didn't grow.

We didn't say that out loud, did we? No. We had a lot of rain and we're still getting a lot of rain water into our system. These guys again are trying to offset that uh with the smoke testing and everything else. It's just a lot of very complicated process, right? No, we can get 30 million gallons through the plant, but we're we're creeping up to Yeah. getting close to that edge. That's right. Okay, David. Thank you. And I think we get back together, Mr. And

yeah, when we have all everything and uh I think we can get together and this will give us everybody time to digest this. I mean, but I think bottom line, we've got to make some changes. It's just a matter of how much. So do it. Does anybody have any just Okay. Thank you, David. Thank you. We appreciate it. Thank you, David. Jim. Okay. Well, we are right on time. Anybody need a recess or we going to roll right in? Take Okay. We'll take a short break and we'll be back in just a couple

We're going to It's cold. We're going to try to get y'all home. Try to stay on stay on somewhat time here. We appreciate everybody showing up and what is it now? Two degrees outside or something? I don't even know. Um, so we'll go ahead and start the regular meeting. Annette, if you don't mind calling roll. Sure. Mr. Cruy here. Mr. Lucas here. Mrs. Henry here. Mrs. Golden here. Mr. Cyber here. All five present. Our invocation is going to be offered by Councilwoman Henry and our pledge of allegiance by Mayor Marks.

If you'll join me in prayer, please. Dear heavenly father, thank you for giving us the opportunity to come here today to celebrate the work of the city of Athens, to help us make decisions for the city that we love's future. To help us to remember why we are doing what we're doing, and to guide us in the work [clears throat] that we do. Please be with all of our city employees, both here and those who are traveling to help other people who are also at this time going through a rough time. Keep them safe, hold them in your protection, and help us to remember them as they go about their work. Is in your son's name we pray. Amen. Please join the pledgece to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you to Councilwoman Henry and mayor for that. I Well, let's go ahead and move. I've got one thing I want to say, but um we need to approve the city council minutes and the work session minutes. Could we get a motion for that? Move. Second. Okay. Could we get a roll call on that, please? And that Mr. Lucas? Yes. Mrs. Henry? Yes. Mr. Crees? Yes. Mrs. Golden? Yes. Mr. Cyber? Yes. Five. Zero nays. Uh we don't have any special city council minutes, standing committees, nor special committee. So, we'll go to our report of officers, Mayor Marks.

Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Cybert. Uh, just real quickly, I just want to I've said it to the guys and the ladies, but hats off to our crews, uh, from utilities to Blair to Hunter and to everybody out there, public works. You've been on the streets early in the morning, late at night, and our police and fire departments. And I just want to tell them, and I know you have expressed the same, thank you for that. We got a six-man crew in Oxford, Mississippi. They've got over a 100 150,000 people out of power. And uh mind blinked today, Blair. And I like to panic cuz uh I'm thinking, man, just uh good luck to those guys and think of what they do. We have reciprocal agreements and we respond. They respond to us and they have in the past. And uh hats off to those guys and just hope and pray that they're safe. And thank God we didn't need them here. So, uh, thank you,

Shane. Did you have anything? Nothing for me, Mr. President. Uh, Mr. Casey, I'd just like to reiterate what Mayor Marks spoke about that, you know, the these guys coming out in the in the cold, in the dark, in the rain. Uh, and they don't they didn't just do it this week. They do it over and over and over again. And and I think that one of the reasons that our city is the place it is to live is because of these guys that come out and and do the hard stuff for us.

Very true. Mr. Lucas, it's like say ditto to what's already been said about the employees doing such a good job. But uh I was blessed to have water and and electricity all day up until I got ready to leave the house and I went to get some water and my water was off. But I know they've been working around town, so hopefully it'll be back on soon. Thank you, Miss Henry. Thank you, Miss Golden.

I will echo that as well. Um, I can tell you the only thing probably worse uh is than two hours without power is the poor person that's on the pole out there fixing it. And so, um, we we appreciate it. it becomes very evident when we have weather like this and they don't get the thanks they deserve and um same for water when it's froze. You just want it on and they get out there and fix it quickly. So, we appreciate it and uh we appreciate the keeping the peace with the police and fire and everything you guys do during these potential crisis, but we dodged it and we're very very lucky on that front. So with that, um, we do have an opportunity for public remarks on any agenda items if anybody'd like to come up and speak about any of the items we have tonight on the agenda. Just gave us your name and address and you'll have three minutes.

Hi, my name is John Soie. I live at 805 [clears throat] 805 Frasier Street. I just wanted to say about the water and sewer presentation. Um, I come from a city where developers ruined it. So, I just would suggest jack up the rates to whatever the water department suggests you jack them up to. Don't listen to when the developers say, "Oh, no. We can't do it for a profit." Okay? You know, whatever they're going to tell you. I'm just saying do what they say.

All right. Probably not the best city council platform, but okay. [laughter] Anybody else? Okay, like I said, we'll promise to get y'all out of here quick. Thanks for coming out. First item we have is a public hearing uh and it's regarding a resolution on uh weed leans. Um so a little history on it Shane has prepared for me. Uh this resolution deals with the assessment of weed leans on the following seven properties within the city. Five vacant properties on Madison Street South located located near the intersection with Forest Street. The properties are located on the east side of South Madison on the north side of West Forest in the same area. When they had structures on them, three of them had addresses of 318 West Forest, 701 South Madison Street, and 605 South Madison Street. The city clerk has the the tax parcel numbers on these if anyone's interested. Also 704 Judy Drive and 703 East Sander Road. Uh during late 2025, the city's code enforcement officers cut grass, overgrown grass and weeds on these properties. And now it's time for us, the city council, to consider the imposition of the city's cost as a weed lean on these properties. The city did this pursuant to the local weed abatement act. We have been presented with itemized reports showing the cost of removing these weed nuisances. These reports have been previously sent to the owners of the lots. We'll now have a public hearing on this matter. So, our public hearing is open. Um, is somebody big chief, you going to speak to us on that one? These are all overgrown grass except one

of them. It was also overgrown grass plus it had a lot of trash that people had brought in and dumped on the property. They were served. Each owner was served a letter, did not respond. Had a hearing with Miss Barnes, did not respond to the hearing. So after that, city went in and uh we contracted with a company to cut the grass and do the cleanups. What just so everybody understands this isn't a quick process. So they get a notice, they got how long before they got a long time to correct it. What's the general timeline? It's a fiveday notice that we send them and then though they can respond.

They can respond. You know, if they say it's going to take six, seven, we try to work with them before it gets to this. I mean, obviously, we're sitting here in January and grass hadn't grown in 3 months. So, it's a long process. People have a lot of time to get it cut, I guess. My point. And we had no response from these people. So, they didn't respond to the notices or anything. Does anybody have any questions about any of these? Mr. President, if I could on something, Mr. Lucas was eagleized with respect to the itemized statement of expenses on the first one and and chief and I have confirmed with code enforcement that there was a materials cost of $20 on that one. Mr. Lucas, there was a typo. The two was left off of there, but that was 20 bucks.

We'll get that corrected pen and ink. We can and we can make a note of that for the minutes, too. So, they can be below this in the minute book. Thanks. Thank you. Does anybody have any further questions for Chief Presman? Okay. Thanks, Chief. Thank you. Are there any owners that would like to address council? Anybody that Anybody that'd like to address the council on this? Okay. Well, public hearing is closed. Uh we'll take up the resolution. Council

res a resolution ascertaining fixing and determining the amount of assessment to the charged as weed leans on certain properties as a result of the city abading overgrown grass and weeds thereon. Whereas the city received numerous and persistent complaints about the overgrown grass and weeds of the properties described in this resolution. Whereas the city abaded the public nuisance at the at the city's expense, whereas it is now the desire of the council to fix the cost which it finds were reasonably incurred and connect in connection with the abatement of the public nuisance and assesses the cost against the subject properties as weed leans. Therefore, it be resolved. We get a second on that, please.

Second. Second by Councilman Lucas. Any questions on that? Final questions. Okay, N. Would you mind calling roll on that? Mr. Casy? Yes. Mr. Lucas? Yes. Mrs. Henry? Yes. Mrs. Golden? Yes. Mr. Cyber? Yes. Zero nays.

Okay. Next, we'll have the consent calendar. Councilwoman Golden. A is a resolution to approve travel education expenses in the amount of 18830 for personnel of the fire department. B resolution to reappoint David Malone to the personnel board for a 5-year term expiring January 11, 2031. Uh C is a res resolution to approve the purchase of an APC external battery backup with run option and an APC smart rack mountable UPS and related equipment from from Amazon at the cost not to exceed $3,9.99 to be funded from existing IT departmental capital account. Resolution or D is resolution to authorize cemetery parks and recreation director to enter into an agreement with Morell Engineering for surveying and engineering services for Lincoln Bridge forth park at a price not to exceed $50,000 to be funded by the existing cemetery parks and rec capital account. E. a resolution authorizing the amount of $17,100 to be funded from the water services department operating budget for the USGS to maintain and monitor Swan Creek stream gauging station for 12 months. And the water services director for for and on behalf of the city of Athens is authorized to enter into an agreement for these services with USGS. F. A resolution to approve special event retail license for on premises consumption alcohol license for the Athens Limestone Hospital Foundation, Inc. Starlight Ball at 114 Prior Street West

Athens, Alabama. The event date is February 13, 2026. We get a second on that. Second. Second from Councilman Cesy. Any final questions on any of these? Okay, we get a roll call on that, please. And now, Mrs. Golden, yes. Mr. Cesy, yes. Mr. Lucas, yes. Mrs. Henry, yes. Mr. Cyber, yes. Five, zero nays. Item G. Councilman Cesy. Resolution to grant Verizon Wireless a special use permit to modify their equipment at 204 Commercial Drive, Athens, Alabama. We get a second on that. Second.

Second from Councilwoman Golden. Do we have any further questions, final questions on that? Okay, we get a roll call, please. Now that Mr. Creasy, yes. Mrs. Golden, yes. Mr. Lucas, yes. Mrs. Henry, yes. Mr. Cyber, yes. Bob, yay. Zero nays.

Item H. Councilwoman Henry. Whereas the city council of the city of Athens, Alabama wishes to acquire certain property about 33 acres located near the intersection of Highway 72 and Clinton Street and intends to utilize the property for municipal purposes, more specifically in connection with the roadway project improving the intersection between South Clinton Street and Highway 72 in coordination with the Alabama Department of Transportation. Therefore, be it resolved that the mayor [clears throat] is authorized to acquire the property from the owners.

Second. Okay, we got a second from Councilwoman uh Golden. See, any further questions on that? Get a roll call on that, please. Announce. Okay. Mrs. Henry, yes. Mrs. Golden, yes. Mr. Cesy, yes. Mr. Lucas, yes. And Mr. Cyber. Yes. Five. Zero nays. Item I, Councilman Lucas.

Item I is ordinance abundant vacating a portion of utilities and drainage easement on real property owned by Terrence Mcniki and Bunny Judith Bathing. Therefore, be it ordained by the city of city council of city of Athen, Alabama while in the meeting that this be approved.

Can we get a motion to suspend the rules? Move to suspend and a second. Second. Okay. Can we get a roll call on the rules, please? Annette. Mrs. Golden. Yes. Mr. Casy. Yes. Yes, Mr. Lucas. Yes. Mrs. Henry, yes. Mr. Cyber, yes. Zero nays. And then can we get a second on the uh the ordinance? Second. Second by Councilwoman Henry. Any any further questions on that one? Okay, we get a roll call on that, please. Mr. Lucas, yes. Mrs. Henry, yes. Mr. Cesy, yes. Mrs. Golden, yes. Mr. Cyber, yes.

Abier, zero nays. Item J is an addition. Councilman Lucas be it resolved by the city council of city of Ama, Alabama to approve a contract not to exceed $73,000 with ALA to administer certain aspects of construction at Sunrise Park on and all called basic to be funded from the proceeds of the 2024 general obligation warrant. Move to suspend. Second. Okay. Seconded by Councilwoman Golden, can we get a roll call on the rules, please? And that Mrs. Henry, yes. Mrs. Golden, yes. Mr. Creie, yes. Mr. Lucas, yes. Mr. Cyber, yes.

Five, zero nays. And then could we get a second to Councilman Lucas? Second. Second by Councilman Cesy. Any final questions on that one? This will keep momentum moving at the park. Okay, we need a roll call on that, please. Mr. Lucas. Yes, Mr. Crees. Yes, Mrs. Henry. Yes, Mrs. Golden. Yes, Mr. Cyber. Yes. Five yay, zero nays. And then we have one more add-on final item K. Councilman Lucas.

Yeah. Be it resolved by the city council of city of Bath, Alabama to authorize the mayor to approve the following change order that Sunrise Park for bid package. Number three, general contract to EMW Construction Incorporation as detailed below. Cost of these change orders is to be funded from the proceed of the 2024 general obligation warranty. uh a total of $41,429.90. Move to suspend. Second. Second by Councilwoman Henry. Could uh we get a a roll call on the rules, please?

Mrs. Golden. Yes. Mrs. Henry, yes. Mr. Cesy, yes. Mr. Lucas, yes. Mr. Cyber, yes. Five, zero nays. And then can we get a second to Councilman Lucas? Second. Second by Councilman Cesy. Any final questions on that one? Okay, we get a roll call. Mr. Lucas, yes. Mr. Creasy, yes. Mrs. Henry, yes. Mrs. Golden, yes. Mr. Cyber, zero nays. Okay. We don't have any further business to add on anything. Okay. Uh final section here is for general public comment on any matters that are pertinent to city business.