By Lee Weyhrich
PINSON — The Pinson City Council has once again reached what it believes is the final step before work on the city park can commence.
The council will need to approve material testing at the park in order to meet building codes. The testing includes material strength and ground compaction on areas that will have load-bearing structures placed on them. This will keep structures from settling.
This graphic shows the particulars of the park.
file photo
The resolution was originally to let Goodwyn Mills & Cawood do the testing, but Councilman Robbie Roberts suggested allowing a third party to conduct testing as an extra level of oversight and security.
Before another company can provide this service, geotechnical data is needed, as well as the park plans. A construction schedule would also be helpful.
Councilman Joe Cochran suggested the council provide this information to the third party companies Roberts has been in contact with so that proposals and estimates could be ready by the next council meeting, scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 4.
In other news, Pinson will extend the sidewalk near Pinson Valley High School on Innsbrooke Parkway. The sidewalk construction will be entirely covered by grants and will cost nothing to the city. The city will have to pay for other improvements associated with the sidewalk, however. The council voted to add streetlights and look into getting a radar speed detector installed on a nearby power pole to monitor traffic.
The council also voted on a new budget, which will include properties as a line item. The council voted to approve a new budget as proposed by Roberts. The largest difference between the budget proposed by Roberts and the one proposed by Mayor Hoyt Sanders is the way different categories are separated into smaller line items, including real estate owned by the city.
Comcast has got the Center Point Fire District burning mad, Cochran said at last Thursday’s meeting.
The fire department has six televisions, five of which have been rendered useless by the company’s conversion to digital. Unless the department purchases additional cable boxes, or the cable company decides to make an exception for public services, it looks as if the fire department might be out of luck.
There are times when a situation might require more than one channel to be monitored. There are also times when firemen need the down time.
“These guys work 24-hour shifts, so there is a certain amount of time when they’re not on call, just as we might want to go home and watch a little television, these guys want the same thing,” Roberts said.
Cochran has asked that the council ask for intervention from state representatives to get an exemption made for emergency services.
