Author: Virginia Martin
City Calls on Neighbors to Cut Overgrown Lots so City Can Concentrate on Parks
The city of Birmingham is shifting its strategy for dealing with overgrown private lots, encouraging landowners and neighbors to take more responsibility instead of relying on the city to address the problem.
“The city of Birmingham is not responsible for cutting private property,” Mayor Randall Woodfin told councilors Tuesday. “It is the responsibility of the owner of that private property … . We’ll continue to cut as many as possible, but I believe the public deserves the hard truth: there (are) not enough public tax dollars to cut every private lot, and we probably can’t get to your neighbor’s private lot more than once in a fiscal year.”
While the city seeks a “better way,” the mayor encouraged neighborhoods to collectively address overgrown lots themselves. Read more.
Grocery Taxes Face the Chopping Block in South Dakota (and Alabama)
High food prices and the end of extra food-stamp allotments mean hard choices around the country for lower-income people.
“You’re having to make the decision between ‘am I paying my mortgage, or my medical bills or my medication or buying food?’” said Stacey Andernacht with hunger relief organization Feeding South Dakota.
But in her state, there’s yet another factor pushing up costs: South Dakota is one of just three — along with Mississippi and Alabama — that levies its full sales tax rate on groceries without a credit or rebate to offset the costs. Read more.
The Missing Children of Alabama
Forty-three children have gone missing in Alabama and never been found.
Forty-three children who didn’t sleep in their own beds last night or didn’t go to their usual classrooms this morning, or hang out with their friends, or report to their jobs, or have families of their own, as far as anyone knows.
That’s just the active missing children cases being investigated by law enforcement agencies in the state now, according to the Alabama Center for Missing & Exploited Children website, as the country marked National Missing Children’s Day on May 25.
There are seven children missing from Jefferson County alone: Eric Raymundo Brito and Miguel Bernal Raymundo, both now 15, of Pleasant Grove; Mardela Beatriz Sebastian Mateo, now 17, of Tarrant; Jefferson Santos, now 6, of Pinson; Danasia Goodon, now 16, of Birmingham; Jason Sims Jr., now 24, of Fairfield; and Asandra Peri Pineda-Orellana, now 18, of Lipscomb.
Some of the children listed as missing by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Community Information Center search site for missing children have been gone for a day or a month; one has been gone since 1984 and would be 51 today. Read more; see the cases.
JeffCo Commission to Steve Ammons: ‘Now It’s Time to Say Goodbye’
The Jefferson County Commission today bid farewell to Steve Ammons, who attended his final commission meeting as a member of that body. Ammons recently announced that he’s stepping down from the commission to be the CEO of the Birmingham Business Alliance.
Commissioner Lashunda Scales acknowledged that she and Ammons didn’t always get along when they began their time together. But their relationship has improved, she said.
“We started being oil and water and we’re ending being nothing more than balsamic vinegar,” Scales said.
“Sounds just like grease,” Commissioner Joe Knight joked as Scales continued. Read more.
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Not Now, JeffCo Commission Tells Advocates Who Want Biking/Walking Trail Along Diaper Row
Bryce Stephens left the Jefferson County Courthouse a bit disappointed this morning, learning that he’ll have to wait before his vision of improving pedestrian and bicycle traffic along 21st Avenue South can come to reality.
“It’s complicated,” said Stephens, president of the Red Mountain Cut Foundation. “Birmingham would like to handle it a different way. I think they support the improvements on the street. I think that is no question.”
Stephens had hoped that the County Commission would make the appropriate approval for the county to apply for a federal TAP grant. Read more.
An Alabama program helps residents stormproof their homes. Louisiana wants to copy it.
Strengthen Alabama Homes gives residents up to $10,000 to retrofit homes to the Fortified standard. Other states see it as a model for their own insurance woes. Read more.
Fairfield Rep. Plump Resigns as He Faces Conspiracy and Obstruction of Justice Charges
State Rep. Fred L. Plump Jr., D-Fairfield, has been charged with conspiracy and obstruction of justice and has agreed to resign from the Alabama House of Representatives.
Plump is accused of conspiring to funnel taxpayer money from a community service fund to a nonprofit of which he was executive director, then paying about half of the money in kickbacks to another individual. Read more.
Need More Room for Garbage? City Says OK to Ordering Another Bin
Birmingham residents living in single-family homes can now order a second city-issued garbage cart. The Birmingham City Council approved revisions to the city’s garbage ordinance on Tuesday that will allow single-family residences to procure a second uniform trash bin for a $120 fee, which will cover the cost of the cart, delivery and one year of once-a-week pickup service. Some non-residential properties also now can purchase up to two uniform trash bins. Read more.
Cahaba Lily Season Draws Crowds, Inspires Conservation Efforts
Alabama is thought to be home to the world’s largest population of the rare flower, which is only in bloom a few more weeks. Read more.
COVID by the Numbers
COVID-19 has had a lasting impact on Alabama in the 38 months since the first case was reported in the state.
One in three Alabamians have had the virus, and 21,138 Alabamians have died with it, according to numbers from the Alabama Department of Public Health. Just this year, 251 people in the state have died with COVID, illustrating that, while the “emergency” is over, the virus is still out there. Globally, COVID has killed almost 7 million people so far. Read more.
