By Nathan Prewett
SPRINGVILLE —The possibility of creating a position for park director at the Forever Wild land was discussed at a meeting of the Springville City Council on Monday night.
Mayor Pro Tem Wayne Tucker filled in for Mayor William Isley as he was absent tonight. During the meeting, City Attorney James Hill said that he drafted a job description, which would be a department head position. The purpose would be to provide oversight, maintenance and hiring staff at the park. The salary would be in the $40,000 to $50,000 yearly range.
However, questions were raised about the city affording to hire a park director. Councilor David Jones made a motion to table the matter until after a budget meeting scheduled for June 25 takes place.
“I’m not opposed to this but I feel that it would behoove us to get a good handle on what we’re already offering in capital expenditures and dollars to be spent this year,” he said.
Councilor Herbert Toles agreed, saying that the council would need to find out more after the budget meeting. The matter was tabled to the July 2 meeting with all but one voting in favor.
Later in the meeting, the council denied a request by a chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution to erect a monument in the city due to what the Council said was a lack of information. The request was made at the May 30 meeting but was tabled until tonight. Tucker said that the council had asked for more details but had not received adequate response from the chapter.
“We’re not trying to be hard on them, but we need more information,” he said.
Afterwards, the Council voted in favor of purchasing multipurpose baseball and softball field equipment for several fields in the city, as well as fencing installation.
“This is part of the $650,000 that we’re going to use (for the ball fields),” said Councilor David Vinson. “This will light four fields. They’ll light the multipurpose field that’s at the youth complex and the three baseball fields with old lighting. This will take care of that.”
The fencing installation for the Youth Complex was approved for $9,650.
The Council voted in favor of requesting Attorney General Steve Marshall’s opinion on fire department billing. Hill explained that this was related to the “provision of fire, EMS, rescue and hazardous material response services both inside and outside the city or residents both inside and outside the city.”
Hill said that the request was related to the city’s ability to ask for reimbursement of costs and fees for these services in and out of Springville. In particular are questions about services outside of the city.
“The thrust of this issue is we have an absolute right to require fees and costs with the contract outside the city,” Hill said. “That’s the primary thrust with this. We need that question answered.”
Before the meeting was adjourned, Springville Fire Chief Richard Harvey announced that the department has been working on a request to the state for additional funding for a second storm shelter. The request will have to go to FEMA for a budget cost review. He hopes that the department will receive approximately $170,000.
In other business, the Council:
- Approved a request from Harvey for $7,000 for personnel protection equipment, an increase from $3,000 Harvey requested at the May 30 meeting; and
- Considered repairs at a property in the city completed following a request by the owner who said there were flooding issues.
The next Springville City Council meeting will take place on July 2 at 6 p.m.