By Keith McCoy
City City Hall 2
The Mountain Brook City Council held its regular meeting via Zoom on Monday, April 12.
The following are some of the items handled by the council.
Urgent pipe repair
Members voted to fund some urgent repairs on four large, corrugated drainage pipes at different locations in the city after a presentation by Ronnie Vaughn, the city’s director of public works.
“These all reared their ugly head during the torrential rains a couple of weeks ago,” Vaughn told members.
Vaughn said the expenditure — just under $146,000 — is not a budgeted item. However, “There is not a way we can wait on any of it,” he said.
The work is to be done by Video Industrial Services, which has worked for the city previously. “This is a very, very good company,” Vaughn said.
Members voted to allow Vaughn to move forward with the work and will approve a final contract later.
Because there are actually four separate projects, all under $50,000, awarding the work to VDS in this manner does not violate state bid laws, said city attorney Steve Stine.
Revised parking ordinance
In May 2020, during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the council passed an ordinance allowing for additional temporary parking spaces on most blocks in Mountain Brook Village, Crestline Village and English Village to facilitate contactless, curbside pickup for customers at eateries and retailers.
On Monday, the council voted to amend that ordinance after a recommendation from Dana Hazen, the city’s director of planning, building and sustainability.
The amendment is based on feedback from merchants in the villages gathered by Hazen and the Mountain Brook Chamber of Commerce.
It reduces, on a location-by-location basis, the number of parking spots designated for curbside pickup, according to a information supplied by Hazen in the council's agenda packet.
The spaces will also be designated as “Take Out Only” and shall be used only for the delivery of food and other commercial good directly to automobiles parked in those spots.
According to the merchant feedback summarized in the agenda packet, retailers were less likely overall than restaurateurs to support the continued use of the special parking areas.
LMB projects
The council also heard three presentations regarding proposed community projects by Mountain Brook High School students who are members of Leadership Mountain Brook.
One proposal is for the installation of a disc golf course at in the Fair Oaks Adventure Curriculum (FOAC) at Cherokee Bend Elementary School. The council agreed to take a further look at this proposal later.
The council approved a second student proposal to begin Phase 3 of a project that the LMB did in the past, with Phase 2 having been completed in 2014. It is the Spartan Square brick project, in which a donor can pay for a brick to be installed in someone’s honor in an area in front of Mountain Brook City Hall. Students in the 2021-2022 LMB group will complete the fundraising and installation of Phase 3.
A group of students also presented the a completed project, a new map of Mountain Brook that will distributed via the Chamber of Commerce and other sources.
Community champions
The council also recognized the owners of Lamb’s Ear, a retail shop in Crestline Village, for their receipt of The Mary Anne Glazner Community Champion Award.
The award honors the late Mary Anne Glazner, who owned Smith’s Variety for about 40 years.
The award, given since 2018 by LMB, recognizes Glazner as a model community servant and is aimed at honoring community champions annually.
LMB student Avery Robbins was present on the Zoom call to bestow the plaque on Lamb’s Ear owners Julie Howell and Elizabeth Roberts.
”We feel very, very honored and somewhat undeserving,” Howell said.
LMB is sponsored by MBHS, the city and the Mountain Brook Chamber of Commerce.
Look for updates to this post with more information about the meeting.
