CORDOVA — Several Cordova Water and Gas employees were in Fultondale on Tuesday assisting their counterparts in turning off gas to homes after the community was devastated by a deadly EF3 tornado on Monday night.
Mayor Jeremy Pate informed members of the Cordova City Council during Tuesday night’s meeting that three employees made the trip and worked for about eight hours.
“They (Fultondale) helped us so much two different times. One was the tornado and then during the gas explosion. They came and helped us relight pilot lights and stuff like that,” Pate said.
Pate was referring to the dual tornadoes that struck Cordova on April 27, 2011, as well as a house explosion on McCrory Street that killed one man in January 2015.
“It was good for those guys to be able to give back to the ones who helped us so much when we needed it,” Pate said.
In other action, the council
• passed a budget for the second quarter of the fiscal year. Former Mayor Drew Gilbert elected to submit a budget for the first quarter only before leaving office in November, allowing Pate and the current council to establish their own priorities.
The adopted budget reflects additional funds for the street department, which saw increased expenses in the first quarter related to the first phase of the park project on the Indian Head Mill site, as well as for the police department.
• learned that residents should have received a letter on Tuesday about the new “Deep Clean” street cleaning campaign.
The campaign, which runs through April 1, covers residences in the city limits and is intended to improve the appearance of the city by offering an opportunity to dispose of debris, junk and general clutter at no cost.
Residents can have their clutter picked up for free by taking it to the curb and calling City Hall at 483-9266 to start a work order to have the items picked up.
The letter spells out which items will not be accepted, including toxic materials.
The campaign is intended to serve as a grace period for those who are in violation of the city’s nuisance ordinance, which covers unsafe structures, inoperable vehicles, weeds, junk and dilapidated mobile homes.
Pate said the city will be contacting specific houses that are in violation of the ordinance after March 1 to notify them of the 30-day window for participating in the campaign.
• heard from Pate about steps the city will be taking to address the stray dog problem.
Pate, who noted that he saw eight dogs go past City Hall in one 30-minute span on Tuesday, said dogs will be captured and taken to the Walker County Humane and Adoption Center.
“We’re going to start actively and aggressively trying to catch these dogs with no collars and get them up there to the county as quickly and efficiently as possible,” Pate said.
• received a positive report about operations at the city’s wastewater treatment plant.
Council members voted in June to hire Birmingham-based Living Water Services to operate the plant, a response to a civil suit filed against the city by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) for being in violation of the Alabama Water Pollution Control Act and the state-issued permit that sets limits on pollutants being discharged into the Black Warrior River.
After being at the plant five days a week in the beginning to evaluate and correct problems that contributed to the violations, Living Water Services is now on-site three days a week.
Pate announced that a low-flow test and a high-flow test will also be conducted. The latter will attempt to isolate where storm water is infiltrating the system.
The city will also be applying for a $350,000 Community Development Block Grant to address deficiencies with the sewer system.
• learned that dirt has been hauled in for site prep for the new downtown pavilion. Public works employees will be preparing the pad as soon as the weather clears.
Employees have also put out almost five tons of patching material on city streets, Pate reported.
“It’s hard to deal with when it’s raining every other day. I’d love to put it out every day, but it’s costly. We don’t want to waste money with it coming right back out,” Pate said.
• received a report from Fire Chief Dean Harbison about his department’s activities in 2020. The department had a total of 674 calls, 47 of which were for structure fires and 431 of which were medical calls.
Harbison also informed the council that the department has received a grant to replace the digital sign in front of the new fire station with a larger sign similar to one used by Cordova High School.
• heard from Renee Sides, chairman of the Cordova Economic and Industrial Development Authority, that three Little Free Libraries will be installed around town soon. Residents will be invited to take books of their choice from the libraries as well as leave titles for others to read.
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