Sand Mountain Reporter

President Diane McClendon set new rules for speaking at Albertville City Council meetings.

Public comments will continue to be a part of council meetings and work sessions, but only when people first register with the city clerk’s office.

McClendon said at this week’s council meeting that people who wish to be added to the agenda must do so by noon the previous Friday.

Council meetings take place at 6:30 p.m. on the first and third Mondays in a month. The less formal work sessions begin at 5:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Mondays.

Citizens will be limited to three minutes at council meetings and five minutes at work sessions.

McClendon said Mayor Lindsey Lyons’ office is always open to hear from citizens, and she said council members are willing to listen to concerns or suggestions

“Often more can get accomplished in one-on-one meetings with your mayor and council meetings,” McClendon said. “Open communication is very important to all of us.”

McClendon said the weekly meetings are for conducting official business.

“Council meetings are not public forums,” she said.

Lyons and the council had a public forum in March when there was a fifth Monday in the month. Two hundred or more met at the Albertville Recreation Center on March 30.

The new rules didn’t require a council vote, but no one expressed disagreement with them.

The council had a busy meeting Monday, led off with recognition of Robert O. Johnson for his more than 60 years of business in Albertville.

Johnson closed his studio on April 28. He took over the business from his father, J. Willie Johnson, in 1949.

Johnson wasn’t in attendance for the meeting Monday, but council President pro tem Randy Amos read the proclamation anyway.

“You know in advance that he would refuse the spotlight,” Amos said.

The council passed a financial management policy which says the city will prepare annual audited financial statements and maintain a balanced budget.

Council members approved an ordinance saying the city will not pick up rubbish along U.S. 431 due to danger to workers.

The ordinance says no rubbish will be picked up from commercial property in the city limits. All garbage must be placed in the 90- or 300-gallon containers provided by the sanitation department.

Other debris must be removed by the owner or by a private contractor.

Council members authorized Morton and Associates to apply for a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant for sewer rehabilitation in the Drum Circle neighborhood.

“They’ve had a lot of flooding in that neighborhood,” McClendon said.

Councilors also approved a $3,000 contribution to the Albertville-Guntersville Metropolitan Solid Waste Authority and the $74,866.65 bid by Fitco Fitness in Tuscaloosa for fitness equipment at the fire department.

The fitness equipment cost will be reimbursed by a grant, officials said.

City leaders also voted to spend about $1,000 for recycling bins to be used at the May 16 Spring Bash event at Albertville Regional Airport.

The bins will be distributed to other areas after the show.

City attorney Jimmy Carnes was authorized to draw up a $1-a-year lease agreement between the city, Boy Scout Pack 471 and the Civitan Club, allowing the Scouts to maintain their building on East McKinney Avenue.

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Publisher: Ben Shurett

1603 Progress Drive
Albertville, Alabama 35950

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