By Nathan Prewett
For the Tribune
CENTER POINT — The Center Point City Council approved two items related to the newly established library at a regular meeting on Thursday night.
Several speakers spoke before the council at tonight’s meeting. Among those speaking were Oscar Mann, running for re-election as president of the Jefferson County Board of Education, and Raymond Johnson, running for county District Attorney.
Rachel Hollifield, who is an assistant principal at Center Point Elementary requested support from the council on Sister’s United Expo, a non-profit that will be holding a program on goals, self esteem and other things on May 12. The council asked her to come back to the next meeting as they deliberate on what to do to support it.
During the public comments portion of the meeting, two residents spoke. First was Ric Weide, who asked the council about the status of lighting in the streets. Mayor Thomas Henderson said that he has met with Alabama Power on several occasions and learned that the company has an “LED division” that has propose to replace the current lights with LED lights on different streets in the city.
Center Point resident Billy Hagood asked questions about the expenditures on the agenda. He asked how much money would be saved in using LED street lighting, Henderson said that it would be $3,486 per year. Hagood asked about a $1,808 expenditure to Cornerstone Media at Hillcrest Manor, with city clerk Tameeka Vann saying it was for advertising. Council President Roger Barlow said that the advertising was featured in a magazine that would run for three or six months.
The library budget, presented by board chairman Angie Pace, was approved by the council as resolution 2018-29. The budget was set at $100,000 through September. The council also voted in favor of “authorizing and funding” membership in the Jefferson County Library Cooperative for $15,000, which is included in the $100,000 budget that was approved.
Afterwards, the council voted on entering an agreement for Professional Engineering Services for work on the splash pad project. The motion was offered by Councilor Linda Kennemur. All on the council voted “yes” to accept the agreement, with Councilor Terry Leesburg being the sole “no” vote.
In other business, the council agreed to authorize a parking exemption request to a 71-year old resident who has to be transported via ambulance for treatments. The council voted in favor of purchasing LED lights to be put up through parts of the city during Christmas time for $23,173.
The council also approved to accept a proposal to replace 18 lights at the community center with LED lights for $5,616 with a yearly saving of $3,486.
Henderson reported that the waterwheel at Reed Harvey Park was operational again, along with the installation of sewage pumps at the Center Point Ball Park, as well as air conditioning units and that $4,000 was saved in repairing them instead of buying new units. He said that new restrooms are also at the park. New doors will be installed on April 13.
Henderson also reported on Polly Reed Road, saying that the city “wrote the check to the last right of way recipient” to get acquisition of the right of way completed. He said that after the Alabama Department of Transportation approves, utilities can be moved to the road and bids on the project can be put out.
“We are making progress on that,” he said. “After seven years of working at it, so that’s something we’ve been working at for a long time to make that safer and a better looking area also.”
The next Center Point City Council will be held on April 26, with pre-council at 6:45 p.m. followed by the regular meeting at 7 p.m.