City creates city engineer position

The Homewood City Council at its March 29 meeting voted to create a new city engineer position.

The decision came following the retirement of Greg Cobb, who was the director of building, engineering and zoning. He retired Feb. 1 after 22 years working for the city.

The building, engineering and zoning department will now be split into two departments: one will be building inspections, and the other will be engineering and zoning. The engineering and zoning department will have a licensed Professional Engineer hired by the city.

“This will also help out in the fact that we won’t need to farm out a lot of engineering, which is what we’ve been doing for quite some time,” said Mayor Patrick McClusky at the March 15 Finance Committee meeting.

Applicants will apply for the position through the Jefferson County Personnel Board, and the position will be Grade 32 Step 7. The regular salary for this step is $4,030.40 biweekly and $104,790.40 annually.

According to the job description on the JCPB, the city engineer will plan, direct, coordinate and inspect all engineering activities involved in the city's traffic, roadway and drainage systems. The engineer will also review private and municipal construction projects to ensure compliance with state, county and city building codes, such as new subdivisions, commercial buildings and residential properties. The engineer’s work will be under the general direction of the mayor.

The city council amended its general fund budget for fiscal 2021-22 to provide for the following transfer of funds for the position:

$54,008.00 from Carryover Fund Balance to Salaries (Engineering) 

$4,132.00 from Carryover Fund Balance to FICA Insurance (Engineering). 

$7,840 from Carryover Fund Balance to Pension (Engineering). 

$2,730.00 from Carryover Fund Balance to Health Insurance (Engineering). 

$66.00 from Carryover Fund Balance to Life Insurance (Engineering). 

$46.50 from Carryover Fund Balance Disability Insurance (Engineering). 

$845.00 from Carryover Fund Balance to Workers Compensation (Engineering). 

These budget amendments were based on a guess of when the engineer would be hired, said City Clerk Melody Salter.

Resolutions to create the position and to amend the budget were passed in the council 11-0.

Also at the meeting, the council approved a rezone from mixed use to commercial retail shopping district at 2713 18th St. S. for the Edgar’s Bakery development. 

“It would rezone this property in line with others just like it up and down 18th Street,” said BEZ department head Wyatt Pugh at the March 29 meeting.

Ward 2 Councilor Nick Sims asked where restaurant patrons will be directed to park.

“That’s something to keep in mind, if we do have people from out of the area who come to these new establishments, that we have some type of wayfinding to direct to public parking,” Sims said.

Council president Alex Wyatt said patrons could park on 18th Street, in the SoHo parking deck or any of the other public parking options. Wyatt also said that wayfinding for parking is something he plans to focus on in the future.