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Demopolis City Council, Thursday Feb. 6

Road work, document storage, and a missing concrete slab dominated the discussion at Rooster Hall Thursday night during the first Demopolis City Council meeting of February.

Mayor Woody Collins started off the Work Session at 4:45 p.m. with a quick run through of the night’s agenda, to amend and add a few items to new business. One item that was removed was the decision to accept a contract for professional services from Civil Southeast for a Community Block Grant to address a problem with MacNamara Road.

“We voted on this last July,” Mayor Collins said before going on to explain why it was back on the agenda. According to the Mayor’s statements and agreement among council members, the type of grant the city will use to pay for the project only allows one to be open at a time. The city already has one of this type of grant funding the Sportsplex project, which is the reason the already-approved MacNamara Road project has not yet begun. Once the Sportsplex is finished, MacNamara will begin.

Replacing the MacNamara project on the agenda was a problem at the intersection of Ash and Monroe. It has recently come to light that a drainage pipe is no longer functioning, and water is running around the pipe under the pavement in the intersection, eroding away the ground beneath the road. The council agreed this should be dealt with urgently. The project to keep the intersection from caving in is estimated to cost between $8,000 and $10,000.

The Mayor also added a Public Works issue to the agenda, asking Public Works Director Ashford Jackson to address the council and describe the problem of a missing concrete slab. Mr. Jackson presented the council with photos of the area in question: a bare patch of ground that garbage is dumped on until it can be transported to the proper location. This has long been the routine, according to Jackson, and years ago there was a concrete slab there to keep the area cleaner and easier to navigate with the heavy equipment required for moving the city’s trash. Only a small piece of the old slab remains, according to Mr. Jackson. 

A question was raised as to what happened to the old slab, since it seems a necessity. After some mildly heated discussion it was agreed that the previous administration had removed the slab because of damage over time from the steady abuse inflicted by heavy loaders.

Once all were in agreement that a new slab needed to be built, the question of the price tag came: $60,000 to install a reinforced, 8-inch-thick slab, strong enough to hold up to the heavy abuse. The mayor proposed earmarking $10,000 per month the city receives from the Water Board, to pay back what they would need to take from the reserve fund to pay for the project up front.

In other business came the state regulation issue of storing old official documents safely and securely. Lengthy discussion resulted in agreement to remodel the top floor of the Rosenbush building, giving a two-room, secure-locking, and air conditioned facility (for the sake of document preservation) that would put the city into compliance with State of Alabama rules. 

“We can’t digitize and destroy,” the Mayor said on the regulation. Even though all documents are being converted to digital formats, they must keep the original paper as well, in perpetuity. The project will cost roughly $25,000. 

The Council entered a closed-door executive session for the last several minutes of the work session, adjourning the work session upon return. They immediately then called the Council Meeting to order at 5:15 p.m.

All members were present except Councilman for District 2, Nathan Hardy.

After an announcement that the city was awarded a $2million grant for work on Highway 80, passionate discussion erupted, spurred by frustrations from Councilman Charles Jones over the absence of street lights from the planned project. 

“How is it…we can’t light up a dense retail section?” Jones said before replying to Mayor Collins that he would be glad to take up the project of getting better lighting along Hwy. 80. This statement seemed to set off Councilman David McCants, who had strong feelings over the situation of lighting, traffic lights, speed limits, and more, where it came to Highway 80 especially.

“What kind of confidence does anyone in this city…have in the State doing anything right when it comes to Highway 80? Since they’ve been in charge of it, ain’t nothing but an accident waiting to happen,” McCants ranted.

“We have some input,” the Mayor responded, “but ultimately it’s a State Highway and they have final say.”

After cooling the jets, the council went on to approve all items voted on. Besides points of previous discussion, these included:

• Demopolis Chamber requested permission to host the Annual Chamber Membership Celebration on Thursday, Feb 27, 2025
• ABC Special Event – Reginald Gracie – Black Out Affair at Demopolis Civic Center on Friday, Feb 14, 2025
• The Marengo County Historical Society requested use of city streets for Public Assembly for Rooster Day, including an entertainment zone, on Saturday, Apr 12, 2025.

The next council meeting will be held Thursday, Feb 20, 2025.