Birmingham leaders on Tuesday approved a plan to spend $31.8 million from a budget surplus, with major allocations targeting infrastructure improvements, Civil Rights history and the mayor’s Cradle to Career initiative.

“This plan invests in our youth, our neighborhoods and a human rights legacy that transformed not just Birmingham but the world and continues to expand. These are shared values and I am thankful to the council for their partnership,” Mayor Randall Woodfin was quoted in a press release as saying.

The surplus comes from the city’s budget for the 2024 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30 2024. Tuesday’s measure is in addition to the $3.6 million in budget surplus money that paid for a $1,000 end-of-year bonus for city employees in December.

The plan approved Tuesday includes $500,000 for each of the city’s nine council districts.

“We have a responsibility to use this funding to move long-stalled projects across the finish line,” Council President Wardine Alexander said. “That responsibility becomes even clearer at the neighborhood level, where residents experience the direct impact of every investment we make. Whether it’s long-overdue street repairs, improved drainage, revitalized parks or community spaces that bring people together, this funding creates an opportunity to turn plans into real improvements that our neighbors can see and feel.”

The mayor’s Cradle to Career initiative will receive $3.5 million. A major centerpiece of Woodfin’s policy priorities, Cradle to Career is meant to support Birmingham’s young people from birth to the moment they enter the workforce. Programs under this project include pre-K education, mental health services for middle schoolers and trade apprenticeships for high schoolers nearing graduation. According to officials, the allocation from the budget surplus will go to early literacy instruction, technical assistance focused on high-quality child care and expansion of the nationally recognized Birmingham Talks program.

The surplus plan also provides $2 million for KultureCity’s redevelopment of the old Powell Steam Plant. Leaders plan for the initiative to be the first-ever technical college in the U.S. built specifically to train, support and place individuals with certain disabilities into meaningful employment. According to city officials, the project will also include retail and culinary spaces, an exhibit hall honoring disability rights movements and an inclusive outdoor park.

The surplus plan also boosts Birmingham’s major Civil Rights Movement mainstays, such as allotting $250,000 for the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument, $500,000 for the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and $250,000 to support a visitors and education center at 16th Street Baptist Church.

Other major allocations in the plan include:

• $2 million for sidewalk repairs.
• $5 million for improvements to the Birmingham Jail.
• $1.5 million for repairs and upgrades to city pools.
• $500,000 to the Birmingham Zoo.
• $1.5 million to replace the air handler at the Birmingham CrossPlex.
• $2 million for a pilot project under which the city and the Alabama Department of Transportation would split maintenance costs for lighting on select sections of interstate. Once the projects are selected and bids are taken, the work may take 10 to 18 months.
• $5 million for Messer Airport Highway drainage work. Currently in the design review phase, the capital project is intended to mitigate flooding in the vicinity of the railroad underpass between 33rd and 31st streets north.
• $1 million for development of a citywide stormwater, drainage and watershed master plan.
•  $2 million for the Urban Villages Initiative, which focuses on creating vibrant high-quality walkable neighborhood centers.
• $1.1 million to place 217 automated external defibrillators in Birmingham Parks and Recreation locations, including Legion Field and Birmingham Botanical Gardens. The goal is to meet the 3-minute rule of reaching an AED and returning to a patient to begin treatment in less than 3 minutes.