By Sam Prickett
For The Tribune
CENTER POINT — The absence of the mayor and several councilors resulted in an uneventful meeting of the Center Point City Council on Thursday night, which largely served as a brief status report on several nascent projects the city is taking on.
Mayor Tom Henderson and several councilors were present at the annual conference of the National League of Cities in Charlotte, North Carolina, said Council President Roger Barlow. Barlow and the rest of the council spent most of the meeting fielding questions from citizens regarding city finances, particularly regarding revenue generated by auctioned cars and the purchase of a new vehicle for Henderson.
“The mayor goes to Montgomery an unbelievable amount of times,” said Councilor Linda Kennemur in response to inquiries about whether $57,614.55 was an appropriate expenditure for the mayor’s new car. “A lot of times, we all pack in it and travel.”
The council also fielded questions about the hiring process for the pending Autocar truck assembly plant. In September, Gov. Kay Ivey announced that the company would invest $120 million to open a plant positioned in both Center Point and Birmingham. Barlow said that he understood that the company was on the “second wave” of hiring, and that roughly 100 positions remained to be filled.
“These are good, quality questions,” he said.
Barlow also provided an update on plans for a city library, which is planned to take up part of the former campus of Hilldale Baptist Church, which the city is in the process of purchasing and hopes to have closed on by the end of January.
“We’re moving forward,” he said, saying that the city has “tentatively picked out a portion of the building to use for the library.” (Speaking after the meeting, Kennemur said that the rest of the facility would be used for a recreation center and for a potential performance space.)
“This will happen,” he said. “It’s going forward, and it’s a real exciting time.”
During the meeting, the council also stated that it was going forward with acquisition of a property on 20th Court NW, which is being donated to the city by its owner. Barlow said he hoped that the facility could be redeveloped into a city-run “business development incubator,” although it was too early to give a specific timeline on that project.