The Demopolis City Council voted on Thursday to approve two resolutions that would enable the Airport Industrial Park access road project to continue.

The first resolution was to accept ST Bunn Construction of Tuscaloosa as the low bidder for construction of the road going from U.S. Highway 80 to the turnoff for the new chip mill. Bunn had a bid of $41,581.19.

Jeremy Jones of the engineering firm of Almon and Associates said that Bunn was the lowest of the four bids submitted that were opened on June 22.

The council also approved a resolution to incorporate the additional $550,000 that the city was granted by the Alabama Industrial Road and Bridge Corporation last month with the existing $1.53 million that the AIRBC approved for the project in October 2008.

The council also discussed the issue of dilapidated properties, and mayor Mike Grayson asked council members if they had properties that they wanted to add to the second listing that the council has made.

Through the recommendation of a resident, the council added the property at the corner of Lyon Street and Ash Street. Council member Melvin Yelverton also asked to add the property on U.S. Highway 80 that the old bowling alley — most recently an antique mall — occupied.

The council accepted the resignation of Ronnie O’Neal from the Demopolis industrial development board and appointed Mike Evans to fill the vacancy for the remainder of O’Neal’s term, which would be about three months.

The vote was 3-2 with Grayson abstaining and council members Bill Meador and Jack Cooley voting against because of the voting procedure.

They said they would like for the council to adopt a policy of making nominations and tabling a vote until the next meeting, when council members would be able to have more information about the nominees.

They added that they were not voting against Evans personally, but against the current procedure.