By Keith McCoy
City City Hall 3
The Mountain Brook City Council — at its regular meeting for Monday, June 8 — voted to cancel a city-wide curfew that it had put in place at a special called meeting on June 1.
The cancellation, an item on the Council’s consent agenda, was effective immediately. “We should end it as soon as possible,” said City Council President Virginia Smith.
Floyd, an African-American man, died on May 25 while in police custody in Minneapolis.
The Council originally set the curfew from 7 a.m. until 6 a.m. before changing it — at a second called meeting on June 3 — to 8 p.m. until 5 a.m.
The city of Birmingham also ended its curfew on Monday, June 8.
Mountain Brook was the site of a peaceful protest on Thursday, June 4, at a playing field in Crestline Village. Hundreds of people of different ages, races and socioeconomic backgrounds gathered there for the Solidarity Rally for George Floyd, led by the Alabama Rally Against Injustice.
OTHER BUSINESS
The Council passed two ordinances.
- One established an application process and a fee structure whereby builders and developers can request after hours and emergency inspections. The process was developed by Glen Merchant, the city’s building official. He told the Council that some developers had asked why the city did not have a process for these types of inspections.
- The other formally established a law enforcement retirement benefit policy for the city. The police chief is authorized to present duty weapons and badges to full-time, sworn law enforcement officers with at least 10 years of service to the City of Mountain Brook at the time of their retirement in good standing. “This is formalizing what we have been doing in practice for a number of years,” said Police Chief Ted Cook.
CONSENT AGENDA
The Council passed several items as part of its consent agenda, including the following:
Members approved an agreement between the city and Moms-Shea Bridge Co. to relocate light poles at Field 3 of the Mountain Brook Athletic Complex. Moving two light poles will allow for the enlargement of the field, said Shanda Williams, the city’s parks and recreation superintendent. The cost will only be about $5,800, she said.
The Council approved a conditional use application allowing BBVA Bank to move into the commercial building at 229 Country Club Park that once housed 32 Degrees: A Yogurt Bar. The bank is currently located at 117 Euclid Ave.
“They need to move out quickly, and they have certain specifications for the type of building they can be in,” said Dana Hazen, the city’s director of building, planning and sustainability.
The bank — due to federal regulations — can move no more than 1,000 feet from their current location without going through a more complicated application process, according to architect Emily Bullard-McClellan.
The move will only be for about two years, said Hayes Arendall, an attorney for the bank.
“I would not expect any negative impact on street parking from this,” said Hazen, who said that the bank plans to install an ATM at the building.
