Birmingham Council approves funds for job training, jazz, Bush Hills nomination
The Birmingham City Council held its regular meeting on Tuesday, May 23, and transacted most of its business through the passage of its consent agenda.
The following are some of the most noteworthy items that were passed:
The council approved an agreement in which the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department will lease a long-vacant city-owned property for use as parking for the Metro Area Crime Center. The property, formerly the City Board of Education School Service Center, is located at 2300 Rev. Abraham Woods Jr. Blvd. and has been vacant since 2000, according to the text of the resolution. The JCSO will improve the property with paving, striping and fencing to accommodate a parking lot.
The council agreed to pay Magic City Smooth Jazz $138,000 to manage the 2017 Jazz in the Park Series in Birmingham city parks. The series will include about a dozen shows in parks and other city facilities, such as Sloss Furnaces and Arlington Antebellum Home & Gardens.
The council approved an agreement which the YMCA of Greater Birmingham--Northeast will receive $25,000 to provide job training and development, educational enrichment and workforce development programs for Birmingham residents. Specifically, the resolution states that the YMCA will provide provide employment for approximately five high-school students or young adults.
The council approved an agreement with the Alabama Historical Commission that will fund efforts to perform a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places for a proposed historic district in the Bush Hills neighborhood. The city will spend $10,000 and then be reimbursed in grant monies, to be matched in-kind with $6,666 in donated services from city staff, for the performance of the nomination. The agreement was recommended by the city’s director of Planning, Engineering and Permits and the council’s budget and finance committee.
Other business
As part of its regular agenda, the council voted to delay action on the possible revocation of the business license for the South West Supermarket, a grocery located in the Titusville neighborhood in Southwest Birmingham. The delay, for two weeks, was requested by the city’s law department. The council discussed the supermarket, which provides needed services to residents but has also become a flash point for crime and drug activity, on April 18 and May 2.
The council declined – in a 4-4-1 vote – to approve the payment of about $93,000 to the Birmingham Urban League to assist the city in providing job training and development for teens and young adults.
Councilors Patricia Abbott, William Parker, Jay Roberson and Marcus Lundy voted to approve the funding. Council President Johnathan Austin, Council President Pro Tem Steven Hoyt and councilors Lashunda Scales and Sheila Tyson voted against it. Councilor Kim Rafferty abstained.