The Jefferson County Commission moved matters to the agenda of Thursday’s meeting that addressed an original mission of county government. But County Manager Cal Markert acknowledged that the fulfilment of a later mission is on the horizon. Markert presented resolutions using American Rescue Plan Act funds to purchase upgrades to emergency management systems in four fire departments in unincorporated Jefferson County. Read more.
The Birmingham City Council will hold a public hearing Wednesday to discuss predatory towing practices in the city. For more than a decade, Parking Enforcement Systems, a private towing company operating in downtown Birmingham, has been the subject of numerous complaints over its practice of removing cars from downtown lots. In May 2013, the council approved an ordinance capping towing fees at $160 per vehicle — PES had been charging more than $280 — but complaints that the company has aggressive practices have continued. In one instance in September, a 29-year-old Birmingham resident was shot and killed on a Parking Systems Enforcement lot after an argument with a PES employee over a towed vehicle escalated into violence. Read more.
Gov. Kay Ivey signed both budgets and supplemental spending packages Thursday. A plan to reduce the state sales tax on food is on the way to her desk as well. Read more.
The Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama has released a report on population trends in Alabama based on recent U.S. Census Bureau estimates. Birmingham followed a national trend of declining population in the city and its close-in suburbs as people moved farther from the city center into newer housing farther out. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Statistical Area still ruled the state, though, coming in with more than twice the population of the second largest MSA, Huntsville. Read more.
When smart water meters work, they can detect expensive leaks early. But the tech’s costly to do right — and even more so when it’s done wrong. Read more.
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.
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.
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.
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. Watch slideshow.
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.
