By Terry Schrimscher, For the Tribune
Irondale – The Irondale City Council met Tuesday night, Aug. 15, for the second regular meeting of the month. The Council covered the agenda items quickly, approving several resolutions, and gave an update on traffic at the intersection of Grants Mill Road and Old Leeds Road.
“We posted on our Facebook today that the roundabout will be opening tomorrow,” said Police Chief Jason Wiggins. “They originally told us it would open up at 6 a.m. We’ve been advised since then it will open in the afternoon.
“We still advise everybody to use the detours because there’s still a lot of construction going on. A lot of construction workers and heavy equipment, so we do recommend that everybody still use the detours.”
The roundabout is part of the expansion project on Grants Mill Road leading to I-459 and will service the intersection near the entrance to the Cahaba Crossing shopping center, which is under construction. The shopping center will be anchored by a Publix grocery store.
The Council approved Resolution 2023-R-101, allocating $2,500 from Mayor James Stewart’s discretionary fund to Grantswood Community School to be used for a reading initiative, the Read to Them book program. Councilmembers Cindy Cuellar and Robert Box each added $1,000 to the allocation from their own discretionary funds resulting in a total of $4,500 to the school reading program.
The Council also approved the purchase of two 2023 Polaris Ranger Crew all-terrain vehicles from Bama Buggies in an amount not to exceed $33,177 per vehicle. The Polaris buggies are to be used by Irondale police to patrol off road areas and speed up access to areas where regular vehicles or foot traffic would be cumbersome.
Additionally, the Council approved a request to rezone property at 1880 Edwards Lake Road from C-1 Commercial District to a C-2 Commercial District. The property is currently a Shell gas station and will be renovated into a new Shell station, but the request was made to comply with current zoning.
In other business, the Council approved:
- Resolution 2023-R-103 adopting a transportation plan as required by the Rebuild Alabama Act.
- Resolution 2023-R-104 agreeing to join the Alabama Association of Fire Chiefs Mutual Aid Consortium
- Resolution 2023-R-99 declaring vehicles from Public Works to be surplus
The next meeting of the Irondale City Council will be held on Sept. 5, at 6 p.m., at Irondale City Hall.