City Council roundup: Training for Lawson State students, grant for Fire & Rescue

The Birmingham City Council, at its regular meeting for Tuesday, Oct. 8, had a relatively light workload. Here are some of the items the Council dealt with.

The Council passed an ordinance that authorizes Mayor Randall Woodfin to execute a three-year agreement between the city and Lawson State Community College to allow clinical education students attending the school to volunteer with the Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service. This clinical affiliation will provide students an opportunity to gain experience and knowledge while providing assistance to the city’s first responders. The item was submitted and recommended by Woodfin.

Members passed a resolution authorizing the Mayor to enter into an Agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for a grant worth about $1,477,000. The money is to be used by the Birmingham Fire & Rescue Service Department to buy 237 self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) at a unit price of $6,500.00 and 401 SCBA masks, to equip each certified firefighter, at a price of $210 each. The city is to provide $147,700 in matching funds. The item was recommended by Woodfin and the Council’s Public Safety Committee.

As part of their consent agenda, members passed a resolution authorizing Woodfin to execute a grant agreement with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The city will spend and be reimbursed $100,000 in grant money to develop historic structure reports for Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Parsonage, Bethel Baptist Church and Parsonage and St. Paul United Methodist Church, all of which are contributing resources associated with the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument. The city will pay a match of $17,500. The item was submitted by the city attorney and recommended by the Director of Planning, Engineering and Permits and the Council’s Budget and Finance Committee.

The Council voted to delay a public hearing on one of the agenda items for one week, until October 15. The Council will hear from Morningstar Storage, which is appealing the suspension of an application to build a mini-storage building and commercial office building at 1905 Richard Arrington Jr. Blvd. near Vulcan Park & Museum. In July, the Council declared a 180-day moratorium on new storage facilities in the city. Morningstar’s appeal was also taken up at the Council’s meeting on Aug. 27.