Craig Ogard speaks about traffic on Halbrook Lane during the Sept. 25 Mountain Brook City Council meeting. Photo by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.
The Mountain Brook City council has approved a $50 million budget for FY24.
“Out of that $50 million, we have a budgeted surplus of $500,000,” said Lloyd Shelton, the council’s finance committee chairman. “It includes a 3% cost of living (pay increase for city employees), but it also includes a 10% upgrade for public safety. The Jefferson County Personnel Board designated a 10% bump for our fire and police so it includes that, systemwide.”
Shelton said the budget process went smoothly because City Manager Sam Gaston and Finance Director Steve Boone had vetted the budget submissions from department heads, separating the “desires or wants” from “have-to's.”
“We're really paying attention this year to capital projects; our capital project funds have taken a hit,” Shelton said. “We're keeping our eye on those projects and seeing what we do. It should be a good budget.”
Council hears from residents regarding traffic problems
Residents of two Mountain Brook streets told the Mountain Brook City Council how they would like traffic on their street altered.
Halbrook Lane residents asked for their street to be closed to through traffic, while persons living on Winthrop Avenue voiced their opinions on a proposal to make that a one-way street during school pickup times while restricting parking to one side of the street.
During the pre-council meeting, Craig Ogard led a contingent of Halbrook Lane residents who complained about motorists using their street as a cut-through to avoid traffic on other thoroughfares.
“Richard (Caudle, a traffic engineer) came out there and did a study,” Shelton said. “The thing that shocked me is there are more cars that come down Halbrook than come across Knollwood Drive. Halbrook became a cut-through and it was never designed to be a cut-through.”
The discussion included the impact on the response times of public safety vehicles in the area. There were also questions about how closing Halbrook would affect neighboring Vestavia Hills.
Shelton compared pedestrian traffic in the area to the video game "Frogger", darting about to avoid motorists. Several from the area complained about speeders, saying that sidewalks wouldn’t address that safety concern.
Caudle advised that the area be professionally surveyed to determine jurisdiction before proceeding.
“We obviously can't legislate outside your city and county and you don't want to do it right on the line either, because it's a flow-through,” City Attorney Whitt Colvin said. “There are property rights. It's not just the people who live on one particular corner or another.”
Eddie Burg was the first of the Winthrop Avenue residents who filed to the podium during a public hearing during the council meeting. They came to address the suggestion that their street be made one-way during pickup times at Mountain Brook Junior High.
Burg suggested that part of the problem stems from people trying to avoid the established line of vehicles picking up students. He explained that making the street a one-way may only shift the problem to other streets.
“At pickup time at the junior high, we have a problem on our street, no doubt about it,” Burg said. “If you do one-way from Alden Lane down to Overbrook … they're going to park on Norman and Winthrop between Alden and Norman, pick their children up and cut through Alden and then cut back down Overbrook. If you've ever been on Alden Lane, there are children everywhere all the time on that street.”
Billy Pritchard and Graham Smith agreed to meet with Caudle to consider the concerns and look for an alternate solution.
Mountain Brook joins AAFC Mutual Aid Consortium
The council approved the city joining the Alabama Association of Fire Chiefs Mutual Aid Consortium. Fire Chief Chris Mullins explained that the consortium is similar to the agreement the city has with surrounding fire departments in Jefferson County.
“This just expands it statewide,” the chief said. “It's more of a mutual aid agreement instead of a disaster proclamation.
“If there's an emergency in Gulf Shores, a hurricane comes on shore, they can request services that quick and we can be en route within 24 hours,” Mullins said. “It kind of takes that piece of the puzzle out, waiting on a declaration (of a state of emergency). It's kind of like neighbor helping neighbor.”
That call for help could come while authorities await an emergency declaration, which is needed to receive reimbursement from FEMA. If the emergency doesn’t meet the FEMA requirement, there would be no reimbursement.
“Then it’s on the city’s dime,” the chief said. “There are 44 departments on this already throughout the state, and that number is going to grow. They'll do a rotation. They'll put certain departments on an on-call list for a month. With all those departments, you might be on call once a year. It might be once every 18 months and so.”
In other business, the council:
- Approved a contribution agreement with the Board of Education for construction management services for the Mountain Brook Junior High drainage and athletic facilities improvements project.
- Authorized a multi-site Regulated Medical Waste agreement with Environmental Biological Services to dispose of regulated medical waste.
- Approved a salary increase for the city manager.
The next meeting of the Mountain Brook City Council is 7 p.m. on Oct. 9.
