All councilmembers and the mayor were in
attendance today (for the first time since
June). This was a relatively short meeting.
Of General
Interest
21b: On August 25th, council
will be voting on an ordinance to donate land at
the corner of Max Luther Drive and Memorial
Parkway to Huntsville City Schools for
construction of a career center for students.
This site was originally going to be a mixed-use
development, but due to zoning regulations it
won’t be possible to subdivide the site as the
city had originally expected. A school board
representative spoke on this matter during
agenda-related comment and was very excited
about the possibility (as was Shane Davis from
Urban Development, who presented the
ordinance).
Public Comment
Dr. Angela Sommerset spoke again about her
concerns relating to Huntsville Utilities’
allocation of pandemic relief credits applied to
purchased power bills from TVA. She has still
not received a response from the board to her
questions about this matter. You can find more
information about this in my notes from July 28.
Councilmember
Comments
Mayor Battle: Stated that beautification
awards were given out recently, and Oakwood
University (in District 5) received the
“best-kept property” award.
Jennie Robinson:
Announced this year’s Christmas event at
Ditto Landing. That event will include a model
train display and large plywood “Christmas
cards” decorated by folks from the area who are
willing to pay for them. Sounds like fun!
Announced that Ditto Landing River Trail is
open, as well as a new multi-use path on
Weatherly — I’m not sure exactly where this is,
but it sounds like this path connects two trails
(including Aldridge Creek Greenway) to create a
16-mile loop.
Bill Kling: Described an instance recently
where he worked with Huntsville Utilities to get
out-of-country IDs accepted for non-US persons.
Stated that “Huntsville is inclusive.”
Devyn Keith: Announced the upcoming budget
work session on August 18th and acknowledged the
City Hall interns present.
Frances Akridge:
Acknowledged that there were “a lot of
linemen here” (see below “oddities”)
Requested that money be set aside for LIDAR
speed detection equipment for the police
department in the upcoming budget process
Wants to have a chat with the Mayor about
“green infrastructure,” to include a discussion
of the Tree Commission, green spaces, tree
protection ordinances, landscaping requirements
for commercial zoning districts, and minimum
parking requirements
Gave a recap of the recent HPCAC meeting
(about the mental health co-responder program
and police crisis intervention training more
broadly)
Requested that Public Works be less cagey
about sharing details of the ranking system used
to prioritize road work
John Meredith: Mentioned beautification
awards given out recently and gave a recap of
the recent Office of Diversity, Equity, and
Inclusion forum.
Other Notable
Items
20j/k: The construction
contract for John Hunt Park Championship Soccer
Complex Phase II has been rescinded and given to
another contractor after Gregory Construction
Services was unable to obtain a performance bond
in time.
Parliamentary
and Other Oddities
About 60 Huntsville Utilities linemen were
in attendance, and nobody seems to know why they
were there. None of them spoke and there were no
Huntsville Utilities items on the agenda.
The meeting adjourned three separate times
due to some confusion about who was registered
to speak (see the above note about 60 linemen
showing up).
Reference
People
Battle: Tommy Battle,
mayor.
Keith: Devyn Keith, city
councilmember, District 1.
Akridge: Frances Akridge,
city councilmember, District 2.
Robinson: Jennie Robinson,
city councilmember, District 3.
Kling: Bill Kling, city
councilmember, District 4.
Meredith: John Meredith,
city councilmember, council president, District
5.
My interpretations / editorial notes are
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parentheses are my interpretations or editorial
notes.
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