Dogs banned from city fields

Declaring that dogs and people sharing fields is not working, the Mountain Brook City County on Monday banned dogs from fields in the city.

“It's not working,” Councilman Billy Pritchard declared, acknowledging having received several reports on the matter. “Now they're starting flag football for younger guys so until the middle of November, they're going to be out there, even on Sunday for a lot of time every afternoon, including weekends and Fridays. 

“I think what we need to do is prohibit dogs out there, at the very least until the middle of November, period,” he said. “It's not working with a hybrid model.”

The council approved the ban during its Sept. 13 meeting. The matter was again extensively discussed during the pre-council meeting when dog owners present again pleaded for some other solution.

“We've tried,” Gerald Garner said. “We've had people that came in here and talked about (how) we can self-police. Well, that's not happening. We know that and we've heard from our parks and rec department, all of our athletics. We hear from our schools.”

Pritchard said the real problem is people not following the already established leash law. 

“We can always change it down the road,” Garner continued, “but for now, I just think that we have too much bad behavior.” 

The council meeting began with John Michael Chandash being awarded the medal of valor for his heroic effort to roust Mountain Brook resident, Nelda Pugh, who was asleep in her house that was on fire. Chandash, a senior at Vestavia Hills High School, was visiting his grandparents in Mountain Brook when he observed the fire. 

In other business, the council:

• Amended the budget for fiscal 2022, showing the $3.2 million that’s left over from federal ARPA funding.
• Heard from Bill Shea concerning a change order for work that’s been done at Field No. 1 at the Athletic Complex. A subcommittee of council members will continue discussing that matter.
• Heard an update on the house at 751 Bentley Drive, which was targeted for demolition. 
• Had a discussion of a request for a stop sign at the intersection of Sherwood Road and Brookwood Road. Council President Virginia Smith suggested that bushes that may impede visibility be cut back to see if that will remedy the situation.
• Granted a conditional use application was granted to Rougaroux. The eatery can have inside dining during the lunch hour, but not use its 22-seat patio behind the building. 
• Granted an application for MPower, allowing the fitness center to expand some of its operation.

“What they got approved last night was to add a group class which goes from 10:30 a.m. to 11:10 a.m.,” senior planner Tyler Slaten said. “They basically expanded their front-end allowance for group classes. They also, in that middle-of-the-day window where they were previously allowed to have three clients (and) one instructor, they were approved to have six clients, two instructors. The things that we're still trying to determine is whether or not the proposed 1:30 group class is approved,” Slaten said. “I just don't feel like they completely addressed that explicitly.”

• Accepted the proposal of Wright Construction Company for the Old Leeds Road sidewalk project. It also authorized the contract between the city and The Barrett Group for architectural design of Fire Station No. 2.
• Approved installing crosswalk warning signs with LED flashing lights at Montrose Road and Mountain Park Drive.
• Approved a contractor agreement  between the city and Civil & Structural Solutions LLC to repair the roof on the Parks and Recreation Building.

The next regular meeting of the Mountain Brook council is 7 p.m. on Sept. 26.