City Council Recap: Weaver’s April 9th Meeting Highlights Road Resurfacing, Public Safety Concerns, and Buckhorn Lake

Weaver, AL – Weaver held their regularly scheduled works session and City Council Meeting on April 9th, 2024. 

City Council 

• Invocation
• Pledge of Allegiance
• Roll Call
  • Councilmember Clint Burns – Present
  • Councilmember Tim McRae – Present
  • Councilmember Cathy Hamby – Absent 
  • Mayor Pro Tem Nick Bowles – Absent
  • Councilmember Terri Summerlin – Present
  • Mayor Jeff Clendenning – Present

• Agenda – Unanimously Approved
• Minutes from March 26th meeting – Unanimously Approved
• Public Works – Director Ingram
  • The wells have had preventative maintenance and everything is looking good. The city audit should be done soon for water projects. The party that was interested in buying the leaf vacuum has backed out of the deal. Oxford or Lincoln may be interested.
• Chief Bush – March Stats were submitted. Also Officer Liam Giddy that is coming to Weaver with five years experience. Currently the police department is at $0 budget for a vehicle. It is possible to lock in a vehicle price for next year now. This would also him to place the order now, but take possession later and it would come to of next fiscal year. This would replace the K-9 unit. He is looking at a Dodge Durango.
• Chief Bunn
  • The fire department truck is back from the shop. The cost will be a little less then the quote. The other truck has blown a hole in the radiator so that will need to be replaced or fixed. Two quotes are coming. Also there was a fire with a fatality. The victim was in his 50’s. This was the second fire a that residence in the past few months.
• Administration – No Report
• Councilmember Burns – No Report
• Councilmember McRae – The Weaver Cleanup day is April 20th. He suggested all wear high boots to be safe. All other supplies will be provided.
• Councilmember Summerlin – No Report
• Old Business – None
• New Business
  • Rebuild Alabama Act Annual Grant – Project#W-001-2024 Resurfacing Various Streets Throughout the City of Weaver, Alabama – Unanimously Approved
    • Bid open was completed for repaving. The apparent low bid was $393,308.50 from Vulcan Materials for the 17 roads. The grant will cover $250,000. Commissioner Terry Howell will write the city check for $99,000. Possibly there will be additional roads added because there are roughy $140,000 in Rebuild Alabama Funds in the bank. Will be award at the next meeting.
• Mayors Report
  • Bathrooms in the park had a vandalism again. They were opened on Friday and then they were damaged again. The bathrooms will be locked at night at 8:00pm. These hours may be extended in the summer. A discussion was also held about installing cameras outside the bathrooms. Theses would be placed in strategic locations and the police would have access to them. An estimated budged was $10,000-$15,000. There was also a discussion of removing the lockers due to vandalism and potential harm that can be caused due to the damage.
  • Buckhorn Lake was also discussed. The Mayor met with the owners of the NoAlan. They want to put a rope and rope off their area and a little bit of the City’s to prevent people from walking through their area. This is something they want to have up at all times not just during events. This would be from the dock on the left to the other side to prevent people from accessing their property. The Mayor asked about the possibility of leasing or selling the land. This is not up for a vote. This is just a discussion item. This would remove the responsibility of the city for maintaining the docks and land. The city ons the poverty so there is nothing preventing this. The Mayor did note that if this is sold he would consider putting the money back into Buckhorn.
  • Railroad Street there is pipe work that is going to be done so barricade will be setup during work.
• Public Comments
  • Rob Luna spoke about his walk for Alabama to Los Angeles. He will be launching his walk from Elwell Park May 18th between 10am and 12pm.
  • Danielle Presley spoke about 15 Weaver students that came and toured the New Flyer facility.
• Adjournment – Unanimously Approved