Birmingham City Council has light workload prior to Woodfin swearing-in

The Birmingham City Council had a relatively light workload at its regular meeting for Tuesday, Nov. 28, in part because members wished to conclude the meeting prior to the swearing-in for incoming Mayor Randall Woodfin scheduled to take place at noon in Linn Park.

Virtually all of the business transacted by the council was part of its consent agenda, the usual list of routine items discussed at the beginning of each meeting, including expense accounts for city employees, small equipment purchases, cutting weeds on vacant or neglected lots or demolishing abandoned houses

As part of that consent agenda, the council approved the vacation of 7,727 square feet of alleyway perpendicular to and between 20th and 21st streets south and parallel to and between Second and Third Avenues South so that a real estate company called FF LLC may build a new mixed-use development.

The council also accepted a bid of about $3.3 million from Gillespie Construction of Jasper for work on the new High Ore Line Connector, part of the Red Rock Ridge & Valley Trail System that will connect to Red Mountain Park. The city received federal TIGER grants in 2012 to help build the system.