The Birmingham City Council voted Tuesday to unanimously approve Mayor Randall Woodfin’s plans for spending the city’s $81 million budget surplus, with money allocated to a cost-of-living adjustment for city employees, capital improvement for parks and libraries, and funding for a new amphitheater in the city’s Uptown entertainment district. Read more.
Drug overdose deaths topped gun and vehicle-related deaths investigated last year by the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office. Read more.
Eleven Birmingham schools were to be presented with checks totaling more than $600,000 donated through Jefferson County Commissioner Lashunda Scales’ county discretionary funds. “I have been a Partner In Education with Birmingham City Schools since 2004, which is longer than the time I’ve served in an elected position,” Scales said in a statement from the
Jimmie Stephens said Tuesday that it is very difficult to give public dollars to a private institution. The Jefferson County Commission president was asked by media after Tuesday’s committee meeting whether there was any update on Jefferson County possibly allotting funds to help Birmingham-Southern College, the private liberal arts college in Birmingham’s Bush Hills Neighborhood. “Our position hasn't changed,” he said. “The county has not considered that and I don't know that they have any plans to. “I can say at this time, based on our past pattern and practices, that it is very difficult to give public dollars to a private institution,” Stephens said. “If that were to happen, it would be something that we've never done before.” Read more.
The Birmingham City Council has approved a partnership with the nonprofit Aspen Institute to gather and analyze a wide variety of data about the city’s 99 neighborhoods. The project, named the Birmingham/Aspen Justice and Governance Partnership, is intended to reduce crime by gathering and analyzing hyperlocal statistics — for example, the number of traffic stops or emergency room admissions in a given neighborhood. This information would be made publicly available and could be used by lawmakers to inform policy. Read more.
Dan Dahlke was reminded of a 1970s TV commercial when he was asked about his submission to Gov. Kay Ivey to put out the months-long smoldering landfill fire in Moody. “Is it soup yet?” “It's getting there,” the St. Clair County engineer said Friday. “I've sent stuff over to the county attorney and I think he's putting it all together and trying to figure out exactly who we need to send this to (in) the governor's office. “When he finds that, we'll probably shoot this off to whoever this afternoon.” Dahlke has received proposals from a number of contractors with varied ideas for dealing with the fire that has been burning for about two months and irritating residents as far as 30 miles away. Residents have been complaining not just about the smell and the smoke, but about health effects such as asthma, coughing and nausea. Read more.
Joe Knight had kind words for County Manager Cal Markert, his staff and county department heads as the Jefferson County Commission’s committee meeting neared its end today. “All these people have put in the hard work on this,” Knight said. “I think you've got a good vision. I think you're trying to pursue that vision. I know it's a hard job. This isn't easy stuff to do. It's meticulous and it's time consuming.” Knight’s acknowledgement came after Markert listed several long-awaited projects that could this year come to fruition, including a new animal care facility, youth detention facility and several road projects. Read more.
Taking the first steps in a community-focused plan to combat homelessness, the city of Birmingham has signed on to purchase 50 units of transitional housing for the unsheltered. The purchase, totaling nearly $1 million, is the first step in a program that will require significant participation from third-party nonprofits and for which details remain fuzzy. Where the new shelters will be placed, for example, is still up in the air. That will be dependent on the results of a request-for-proposal process, through which local nonprofits can pitch locations and operational plans, including wraparound services they would offer on-site. Read more.
A “transformational” housing redevelopment project could be headed to the Smithfield Community — if the city can obtain a highly competitive federal grant. Birmingham is applying for a Choice Neighborhood Initiative Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which would supply the city with up to $50 million to construct up to 1,000 new and replacement mixed-income housing units in the neighborhoods of Smithfield, Graymont and College Hills. The scope of the grant would include redevelopment of the Smithfield Court public housing community, though the affordable housing would be decentralized and blended with market-rate housing. Read more.
Birmingham Police officers will be assigned to a new High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas task force under a partnership between the Police Department and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. The partnership, Mayor Randall Woodfin said, will “make a huge difference” in the city’s fight against violent crime. Read more.
