The Demopolis City Council approved a bid Thursday for electrical work at the former New Era building.

The lowest bid of $20,599 went to Rice Heating and Cooling. The project will provide electricity to a separate room that the University of West Alabama will use for welding classes.

“This prepares a place for them,” said Councilman Charles Jones Jr.

Mayor Mike Grayson said Shelton State Community brought furniture this week for a truck driving school they plan to open in coming weeks.

“That’s a very positive development that we are seeing action on that,” Grayson said.

The council also approved making changes to how their minutes are saved online. The new software will allow the minutes to be word searchable by year.

The council went into an 64-minute executive session to discuss financial matters,

Grayson said a variety of issues were discussed in the meeting.

One pending issue for the city and county is an agreement with the hospital board to provide $68,000 in funding to keep the labor and delivery unit open 120 days.

During that time, a task force will explore options to keep labor and delivery open long-term.

“The council is committed to working with the county and any outside entity to come up with a feasible plan to keep labor and delivery open,” Grayson said following the meeting.

Another item approved was the rezoning of 502 North Front Avenue from industrial-2 to residential-3.

The city also joined the state and county in participating in the Severe Weather Preparedness tax holiday, which will be Feb. 21-23, and declared an inoperable 1987 Ford F-350 truck surplus property.