PHOTO CUTLINE- Carolyn Jackson of Caldwell Mill Trace addresses the council regarding her street during the Feb. 26 Mountain Brook City Council meeting. Photo by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.
Some people relish living on a private street.
However, Carolyn Jackson and her Caldwell Mill Trace neighbors said they do not want their street to be private.
“We do not and we haven’t been for 33 years,” Jackson said during the pre-council meeting on Feb. 26. “There’s been nothing special. We’re like every other public road. We’re used like every other public road. We would like to be a publicly maintained road and then anybody can use it, which they have been already. We would like equal treatment under the law. There's another cul-de-sac right next to us that's public and we are private and there's no difference.”
Mountain Brook City Attorney Whit Colvin explained that the designation of a street being private is not impacted by traffic on that street. A private street is not in the public domain, he said, “kind of like a driveway. It’s not a public road just because people use it.”
Colvin added that there is a difference between the city having an obligation to make Caldwell Mill Trace a public street vs. the city having discretion. “That’s a request,” he said. “Not an obligation.”
Gerald Garner said that it is a fair conversation for the city to look into what it would take to declare the street public if residents are willing to donate property that currently extends into the street.
“I think that’s a fair conversation to have,” Garner said. “Understand, it will then be a public road, therefore there will be no ability to keep people off of it.”
“And, we’ll be fine with that,” Jackson said.
City Manager Sam Gaston said on the surface the street appears to meet the standard for being a public road.
“We don’t know what’s underneath it,” Gaston said. “We’ll have to do some boring. According to the regulations, it was to have been built to city standards but standards have changed a lot since (19)89.”
In other issues, the council also heard concerns from Norman Jetmundsen about drainage issues at his home on Thornhill Road.
“It seems to me that we’ve got to do something about it because it’s an ongoing problem, Jetmundsen said. “It seems to me the City of Mountain Brook has got to fix it for me because I’m paying y’all taxes. I’d like to work with y’all to try to find a solution.”
Virginia Smith cited a study that was conducted years ago on drainage in that area. She suggested that Mark Simpson of Schoel Engineering “take a look at it with a fresh set of eyes.”
During the meeting, Jason Harpe and Rian Turner of Carr, Riggs & Ingram, LLC presented their annual financial audit of the city as of the end of the fiscal year that concluded Sept. 30, 2023.
Harpe said it is obviously important to have a healthy fund balance in the general fund and Mountain Brook more than checks that box.
“The rule of thumb is to have about 90 days of operations in your general fund fund balance in reserve,” Harpe told the council. “You've got about 185. You're obviously twice above what the rule of thumb is. That's very important.”
Turner said the audit included their annual report on compliance internal controls.
“Every municipality I've ever worked with for 20 years always gets the same finding of a lack of segregation of duties,” he said. “You just can't hire enough people to fully segregate your duty so that's a rinse and repeat that we do every single year.”
The council denied a request for a street light to be installed on Overton Road at Knollwood Lane. Virginia Smith said the requested light was said to be more obstructive to area residents and is not needed for safety.
“The people who live right there don’t want the light installed,” the council president said. “Our policy has been to listen to the neighbors.”
Said Billy Pritchard, “That’s a big N-O.”
The council approved the contract with LibraryPass for O’Neal Library for a new service that will begin March 1.
“It's a subscription service and they'll be digital comic books,” librarian Lindsy Gardner said. “You'll be able to go online and digitally check out comic books. We call them graphic novels,” Gardner said. “Essentially, they're comic books for all ages. They're amazing now. They're a much more recognized genre.”
The council also established an Environmental Sustainability Advisory Committee, defining the purpose and outlining the committee’s duties. Clay Ragsdale, Laney DeJonge, Jeffrey Lisenby, Emily Deuys and Helen Harmon were appointed to the committee for a term that ends Feb. 26, 2027.
The council also took the following actions:
- Ratified the professional services proposal with MAK Engineering LLC for the storm shelter review at Fire Station No. 2.
- Accepted the proposal with Mobile Communications America for the location of amplifier and base radio at Fire Station No. 2.
- Authorized the sale of certain surplus property.
- Authorized issuing a purchase order for labor and materials for the mayor’s deck project.
The next regular meeting of the Mountain Brook City Council is 7 p.m. on March 11.
