The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday approved $1 million to create a mental health program for students at Birmingham City Schools. The money is part of a yearlong agreement with the Birmingham Board of Education, under which the board will increase the number of school-based licensed counselors and provide students with school-based consulting services. Read more.
Birmingham residents who attended a budget hearing Monday night expressed concerns about many of the issues they said they bring up every year, including street paving, blight and the neglect of less prosperous communities. They weren’t debating line-items in a budget proposal for fiscal 2025 because there isn’t one. As Birmingham Council President Darrell O’Quinn explained, for the time being, the spending plan for next year is identical to this year’s budget. City officials are using the $554 million 2024 budget as a stand-in for the coming year to allow staff to catch up on work lost due to what the city called a computer network disruption, which several news organizations have reported as a ransomware attack. Read more.
The Birmingham City Council put penalties on spectators who watch exhibition driving, regardless of whether they're involved. That and setting a hearing on a lounge where street racers congregate are the latest actions in the city's campaign against exhibition driving. Read more.
Seven Birmingham residents spoke before the City Council on Tuesday urging city leaders to adopt a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Read more.
The old Stockham Valve & Fittings site in Kingston could be rehabilitated under a plan presented to the Birmingham Council on Tuesday. The council approved an incentive package for the $340 million redevelopment project in which the Coca-Cola Bottling Company United of Birmingham intends to build a new campus at the Stockham site. Read more.
The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday narrowly passed a measure to create a citizen observer patrol unit, with some council members expressing concerns about safety for both the unit and the public. “In your opinion, do you not think this a liability nightmare for the city of Birmingham,” Councilor Hunter Williams asked city attorneys about the unit, which would be composed of 200 volunteers overseen by the police department. City attorney Nicole King told the council, “I can say, with the type of training that is in place, that this will be a success, but of course you can never anticipate.” The council also approved a measure establishing a police department-trained auxiliary police force of volunteers. Read more.
The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday approved zoning amendments that include removing parking minimums citywide, a measure supporters say will make Birmingham more walkable, bikeable and accessible to public transportation. Read more.
The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday approved $421,833 in incentives for a planned Japanese restaurant in downtown Birmingham, and it changed landscaping, buffering and screening ordinances to increase landscaping requirements and protect trees, among other changes. Read more.
The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday voted to pay $67,000 for a consultant from Newark, New Jersey to develop a strategy to reduce violent crime in the Magic City. The council also votes to use $100,000 from ARPA for Princeton BMC Healing Garden. Read more.
The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday voted to apply for a $200,000 federal grant to offer mental health services to law enforcement workers in the city. Read more.
