The Scottsboro City Council held a work session on Monday, with eight items being listed on the agenda.
The first item was a tourism grant fund application from the Art Society of Jackson County. Amanda Crawford spoke on behalf of the Art Society about potential grant funds for the first annual Full Moon Art Festival, which will be held at the Scottsboro Silos on Oct. 28. They’ve already reached out to surrounding areas, utilizing social media to assist in reaching the Chattanooga and Huntsville areas as well as working with Wild Country 98.3 in order to reach the DeKalb county area.
“This is the first year for us to do the Full Moon Art Festival but we don’t plan on this being the last. We’ve hosted other events through this past year and they’ve been very successful and we plan for this event to be even more of a success than those before,” Crawford said.
The city council added this tourism grant fund application to next week’s meeting.
Next, Spay-Neuter Jackson County Alabama requested a tourism grant fund for an event they’re looking to host.
Since 2017, Spay-Neuter Jackson County has fixed over 3,450 pets since 2017, with 480 fixes this year at the cost of $14,000. The previous year, they fixed 590 pets for $32,000.
“We’re 100% volunteer, we don’t get money from anybody except for donations, fundraising and the occasional grants that we get… We’re always struggling,” volunteer Nancy McLoda said. “Our main fundraiser is a silent auction that we run every year and it nets us between $6 and $10 thousand but we’re always trying to figure out ways to get more money because there’s an endless supply of people that need our services. I’m booking transports now for October, that’s how full we are.”
McLoda says that they are planning on Bingo day on Nov. 26 at around noon. It would be their first time running such an event though McLoda mentions them wanting to model after the Lion’s Club. Should the event go well, they may look to hold more throughout each year, possibly every quarter. City Council President Richard Bailey informs McLoda about ensuring that a bingo event would be possible for Spay Neuter with the district attorney due to gambling laws, citing that the Lion’s Club hosts a Hot Dog Dinner that includes bingo. The city council added this application to next week’s meeting.
Next, Jim Olyniec spoke to the city council about the progress of the Pickleball Complex. The complex held a soft opening on Aug. 19, with many arriving before play officially began at 7 a.m. Though the opening was a success and Olyniec cited courts being played at night throughout the weekend, the work is not fully completed. Work on the pavilion is expected to begin in the next two weeks and take about two months to conclude, at which point the grand opening of the complex can officially be held. While the pavilion is under construction, Olyniec said that there will be cones taped off to assist in directing people away from the working area while playing at the complex. Olyniec also spoke about Shane White approaching Recreation Director Donnie Wood about starting a Pickleball league through the Rec-Com, saying that notifications about signups for the league should be available within the next couple of days.
Next, Solid Waste Director Stacy Ledwell brought a proposal to the city council for a budget amendment to acquire 504 garbage cans. Ledwell reported that they are out of garbage cans at the moment though funds for the current budget year have been exhausted. The city council added this item to next week’s meeting, with Bailey commenting that this is “one of those problems from the growing pains.”
Next, the city council discussed the City’s Transportation Plan pursuant to the Rebuild Alabama Act, estimated revenue gained from the Rebuild Alabama Act would be expended towards a project or projects within the next fiscal year. City Clerk Whitney Phillips reported that the city’s estimated revenue is $102,000. Bailey suggested listing the Micah Way project, saying that it would nearly cover two different sections of the project. The item was added to next week’s meeting.
The city council then discussed a pair of HVAC bids, one for the Rec-Com and the other for the Civic Center. The Rec-Com HVAC bid is the same that had to be rejected and re-bid last council meeting due to the unit they previously had bid out breaking in transit. The low bid for both items came from Central Air Conditioning and were added next week’s meeting.
Police Chief Ron Latimer then spoke to the city council regarding a budget amendment for repairing repeaters on the radio system. Latimer reported that during the Dec. 24 blackouts, their entire radio system went down. While they were able to switch over to analog during the holidays. A technician was sent out and found that all four repeaters had lost power sources and were burnt up. Sharp allowed them to borrow two repeaters while they took two of the broken ones, repaired and then reinstalled them. Now that the work on that has been completed, Latimer is requesting a budget amendment of $7,401.56 to cover the costs of the work. The item was added to next week’s meeting.
