By Staff
Airport paving job to proceed with minimal local cost associated
By BILL CRIST, Publisher
A pair of non-agenda items ended up taking top billing at last Tuesday's Brewton City Council meeting. An update on a grant at the airport and a complaint from a local business were added before the council approved the original agenda.
That is how Earl Lambert, representing the Brewton Municipal Airport Board, characterized news about a recent grant. The city has received funding from outside sources that mean it will pay only $508 for a $305,873 project.
According to Lambert, Brewton is in the second of a three-year cycle during which the city is eligible for $150,000 in federal funds. Recent work on two of the runways, completed by the U.S. Navy, left the airport with the taxiway still in need of repair. APAC-Southeast, of Andalusia, turned in the low bid to overlay the north and south portions of the taxiway and apron, as well as a concrete fuel apron. Because the project was going to cost more than the regular allotment, the board went back to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and state for additional funds.
Those funds were approved, with the stipulation that the city match $45,508, which was the state's portion. The board approached the Navy, which agreed to contribute $45,000 to the project. That left the city to pay the $508 remaining.
Ramona Ward, representing Natural Decorations, Inc. (NDI) also approached the council with a complaint about police harassment recently.
Ward organizes tours that bring groups from around the state to Brewton to tour the NDI plant, have lunch in downtown and then shop at Brewton merchants. Two weeks ago, a group of 45 visitors from Birmingham were in Brewton and asked if they could visit the home that Jim and Beverly Clifton recently renovated on Gordon Lane.
According to Ward, while the group was walking around the grounds at the home, an unmarked police car pulled into the driveway and threatened to ticket the group.
Ward said that Clifton told her Brewton City Councilman Dennis Dunaway had sent the city employee to the home, "to find out what was going on and threatened to issue a ticket for the tour being at the Gordon house."
Ward said she had not meant to break any laws and that NDI was willing to take whatever steps it needed to operate the tours within the law.
The council declined to accept Richard McConaughy's bid for land it recently put up for sale, although it did not reject the bid. Councilman Mervin Huff expressed concern that the property might be worth more than the appraised value and wanted to look into what the land was worth. The council voted to carry over any action on the bid until its next meeting.
There were two bids for the property, with McConaughy's $127,000 bid the higher of the two. The bid includes 80 acres of city land as well as a lot in Lincoln Park.
Greg Fleming asked the council if it would consider putting an ordinance regulating cell phone usage in vehicles into place. He said we currently have laws regarding loud music and driving under the influence.
The council approved the T.R. Miller Band Booster Club's request for permission to hold a carnival at Burnt Corn Creek Park from Oct. 28-Nov. 1.
In other business the council;