By Crystal McGough
PINSON — Pinson City Councilor Dawn Tanner announced at the July 15 council meeting that Pinson’s annual National Night Out event will be held Aug. 3, at Bicentennial Park.
“This is for our citizens,” Tanner said. “Of course, we’ll be inviting our Center Point and Palmerdale fire departments and our deputies because it’s a way for the community to meet these workers and get to know them.”
The city will provide free hotdogs, chips and drinks for the members of the community.
“It’s a great opportunity to get out and meet your neighbors,” Mayor Joe Cochran said. “That’s why they call it National Night Out: meet your neighbors, meet first responders, interact with those guys and get to know them one-on-one and put a face with a name.”
The city will also be holding a Back to School Bash on Aug. 6, at Bicentennial Park. This event will also be the Movies in the Park finale, showing “Black Panther” at 8:15 p.m. While the public is welcome, the event is primarily geared toward the local schools and students.
“We will be doing hotdogs, chips and drinks,” Tanner said. “It’s open to all the schools.”
The last regular Movies in the Park event will be July 23, showing “Raya and the Last Dragon.” ONEeighty Church will be serving free hamburgers, hotdogs, chips and cotton candy.
The council unanimously approved a motion authorizing the mayor to accept a quote from Tyler Technologies for a new city-wide operating system, which will service city hall, Park & Rec., Public Works and Pinson Public Library.
“It’s a full-management suite,” Cochran said. “It will get us into the permitting business, business license, people will be able to do an awful lot of what they need to do with us online. … It’s basically playing in the big boy world of ‘we’re now a municipality.’ We really need to be doing things in a way that’s conducive to ease on the public, as well as efficient here at city hall.”
The plan includes a one-time implementation fee of $74,710, which will come out of the city’s savings account, not the regular budget. Then there will be an annual maintenance fee of $29,782.
The council also approved up to $12,000 for the purchase of broadcast services and equipment from BoxCast and SlingStudio.
“As we broadcast here at council meetings, I’d like to extend that offering,” Cochran said. “In addition to watching it on Facebook Live, my hope is to have a YouTube channel in the future — and the other platforms — and broadcast across all of those.”
Cochran said that while the city will use the BoxCast system for live-streaming because of its ability to send the stream out across multiple social media platforms, they will pair it with SlingStudio video equipment.
Other city business:
- Councilor Kirkland opened discussion regarding “Welcome to Pinson” signs
- Council approved Ordinance 2021-20, annexing 8391 Hwy 75 and 8478 North Valley Road into the city of Pinson
- Council approved Resolution 2021-20, setting a public hearing for Aug. 19 to consider the adoption of certain building and related codes
- First reading of a resolution authorizing the issuance of an invitation to bid for a monument sign at Bicentennial Park
- Council authorized mayor to apply for an 80/20 match grant for electrical vehicle charging stations
- Council approved $1,700 for a new wrap for PVHS football trailer
Additionally, the Pinson City Council moved to change the location and time of its next council meeting. The next meeting will be held on Aug. 5 at 2 p.m. at the Palmerdale Homestead Community Center.