Tag Archives: agenda

On the agenda: relief and aggravation

Posted on December 20, 2011 | Leave a comment

Official flag of the City of BirminghamThis morning’s Birmingham City Council meeting should be an interesting one to watch.

The agenda itself is not that exciting (526 properties on the list for weed removal notwithstanding). Items 4-7 are normally boilerplate items; approval of contracts with print publications to help publicize notices, ordinances and resolutions. This year the contracts with The Birmingham News and The Huntsville Times are on consent; the contracts with the Alabama Messenger and The Birmingham Times are not.

Items 32-40 are providing for payouts equaling $79,195 in disaster relief/critical repair grants.

The more interesting conversation though should be during the mayor’s report. This morning’s Birmingham News front page includes a piece about the continuing issues surrounding communication between the mayor and council. This time it’s focused on issues related to the PACE board created to downtown ballpark.

Last week it was announced that construction on the $60 million new home of the Birmingham Barons closer to being completed in time for the first pitch of the 2013 season. Joseph Bryant’s piece points out that the loans were approved in meetings that took place prior to the appointment of two board members by the City Council – after partial demolition was approved last month.

The meeting is available via live stream on the city’s website – as always.

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On the agenda: ClasTran and neighborhoods

Posted on December 28, 2010 | Leave a comment

Official flag of the City of BirminghamIt’s a short Birmingham City Council agenda this morning but its impact could be incredible during this last week of 2010 (It’s only 5 pages).

Item 3 would make $121,500 from the city’s general fund available to ClasTran to help reduce a budget shortfall. This action was promised earlier this month by Mayor Bell, meaning that the city will fulfill its financial obligation. There is still some issue with what the Jefferson County Commission will do and where the additional funds will come from.

The folks in North Pratt will finally have their neighborhood election results certified by the city if Item 11 is approved this morning. Officers for all of the city’s 99 neighborhoods serve two year terms, meaning we’ll have our next set of elections in 2012. The Fountain Heights neighborhood will be able to erect a new neighborhood entrance sign 18th Street North near 16th Court North, adding to the signs popping up throughout the Magic City.

What happens? It wrapped before 10:30 a.m. so you’ll have to check out the video archive.

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On the agenda: Support for the beltline and parks

Posted on November 16, 2010 | Leave a comment

Official flag of the City of BirminghamThis morning’s Birmingham City Council agenda is a little smaller than normal – 15 pages to be exact. It’s the stuff covered within those pages that are interesting.

Item 35, if approved, will state that the City Council fully supports the Northern Beltline “in order to address regional transportation needs.” The item was on consent but was removed.

Item 17 will make some changes to the contract between the City of Birmingham and the Railroad Park Foundation. It will simply change the name of the agency that the City has the contract with and allow for the first of ten renewals of three years each.

Items 1 & 2 will allow for a new establishment, the Emporium Nightclub, to open in the space most recently occupied by the Continental Ballroom.

The meetings are streamed online and available for review; the agenda is available for review now.

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UPDATE: On the agenda: Amnesty and advertising

Posted on September 28, 2010 | Leave a comment

Official flag of the City of BirminghamThis morning’s Birmingham City Council meeting is already underway as I’m writing this and there are several items on the agenda of interest.

Item 27 is the first reading of a change to the city code that would alter the look of our city streets. The change would allow our transit authority, the BJCTA, “to advertise on bus stops, benches, and/or shelters” providing a new revenue stream to the agency. The item was withdrawn by Councilor Rafferty because of an addition that needed to be made to the item.

Item 30 would let Mayor Bell enter into a redevelopment agreement with the Alabama School of Fine Arts providing no more than $30,300.00 for “public streetscape and infrastructure improvements and rebate of construction fees in support of ASFA’s expansion project.”

Items 29 & 68 will make those who owe overdue taxes and parking fines respectively at least a little happier. It would allow for an amnesty period (the month of November for taxes; October and November for parking, traffic and other non-moving violations) for people to pay the amounts due without having to worry about the penalties.

Council meetings are streamed live weekly and archived on the city’s website.

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On the agenda: WiFi and vacation (of alleys)

Posted on July 27, 2010 | 1 comment

This morning’s Birmingham City Council agenda is only 30 pages long (yes, I said only) but it fits a lot in there.

Item 24 supports an effort to pursue federal funds that would allow the city to provide free wireless internet access throughout. NO word on when the

new Woodlawn United Methodist Church DesignItem 26 will set an August 31 public hearing to determine whether or not “a fence and gate can be placed across 27th Place South blocking vehicular access to Hanover Circle from St. Vincent’s Hospital.” while Item 27 will set a second public hearing on that date to determine if a second unimproved lot will be vacated to allow Woodlawn United Methodist Church to build a new structure (pictured to your left) to replace the one lost to a fire last spring. Both moves have been recommended by a council committee.

The meeting’s going right now (and is available archived) on the city’s website as is the agenda.

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On the agenda: Vulcan, jazz and transit

Posted on February 23, 2010 | Leave a comment

New Birmingham, Alabama logoThis morning’s Birmingham City Council agenda is the longest in some time, consisting of some 44 pages.

Item 21 asks the Council to approve an amendment to their contract with the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority (better known to most of us as MAX). It would allow the council to provide up to an additional $3 million to the cash-strapped agency, increasing their allocation to more than $8 million. The routes and hours are to be established by the City Council Transportation Committee.

Item 28 gives us a first glance at the Jazz in the Park Concerts sponsored by Magic City Smooth Jazz. The free concerts would be held every Sunday from July 4-25, 2010 at several locations throughout the city. The item includes the city agreeing to provide up to $10,000 towards the cost of the series.

Item 33 allows The Big Guy atop Red Mountain to have some necessary repair work done to his pedestal. Vulcan Painters of Bessemer submitted the low (and only) bid of $27,672 and acceptance of the item allows repair work to the pedestal to proceed.

The meetings are streamed live via the city’s website and archived.

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On the agenda: More XOs and safety

Posted on September 1, 2009 | Leave a comment

This morning’s Birmingham City Council agenda includes a request from Mayor Langford for permission to purchase 1,530 more XO laptops (Item 8) and distribute them to grades 1-6 while providing additional training for teachers and parents (Item 9). The total cost for the purchase and implementation – This comes less than a month after UAB was awarded a two-year $1 million grant to help integrate the XO laptop into math and science curriculum for the city’s school system and it can be said that it has been a successful program.

The city will also be moving forward with matching the $11,923.60 provided by the U.S. Department of Justice’s bulletproof vest partnership program (Item 10) ensuring increased protection for municipal law enforcement officers.

We’re pretty sure that @bhamweekly will be providing play by play of today’s meeting on Twitter… not completely sure though…

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