Photo by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.
Chiropracter Ellen Witt makes her case as to how a development plan for a new Piggly Wiggly near the intersection of U.S. 31 and Oxmoor Road should be altered during a public hearing with the Homewood City Council's Planning and Development Committee on Monday, Oct. 30, 2023.
The Planning and Development Committee of the Homewood City Council Monday got a preview of a pair of public hearings regarding a proposed new Piggly Wiggly grocery store.
The hearings will be Monday, Nov. 6, at the regularly scheduled meeting of the City Council. One hearing addresses a request for a zoning change at 1906 Courtney Drive from an office building district to a neighborhood shopping district. The other hearing addresses the final development plan for the project at 3030 Independence Drive, 3008 Drake Street, 1909 Oxmoor Road and 1906 Courtney Drive.
The lone divisive point was the location of the loading dock of the new grocery. Developer McConnell White & Terry Realty and Insurance Co. wants the loading dock on the south end of the building, but some residents want it on the north end.
“The loading worked out really the best by far on the side of the building, on Courtney Drive,” said Victor Fortenberry, the lead architect on the project. “This has been proposed from the start. We’ve had some opposition on that. That was the idea — that we should try to move the loading to the north end of the building. We then did a study on that — really, two or three studies — and found out that this would not work at all.”
Ellen Witt, whose Witt Chiropractic practice has been on Courtney Drive for nearly 30 years, disagrees. She said the south end location of the loading dock will turn Courtney Drive into a delivery lot.
“They [delivery trucks] will have to go back across a crosswalk and then back over a sidewalk,” Witt said. “There are a lot of concerns for vehicular traffic interference, for pedestrian traffic interference and then the subsequent safety that [location] would cause. My particular concerns are for kids walking to school, and then the vast amount of traffic through here.”
Fortenberry and Witt were the only persons to speak during the committee meeting. Committee Chairman Andy Gwaltney said more voices can be heard during the hearings on Nov. 6. The request for rezoning and the final development plan were moved to the full council without recommendation, pending the hearings.
The Planning and Development Committee also sent to the full council a request to approve the final development of the former Second Presbyterian Church, pending a public hearing on Monday, Nov. 6. Applicant Eric Rogers of Progressive Properties is looking to build a 20,125-square-foot, single-story medical office building.
CREDIT CARD POLICY
The Finance Committee moved to the full council an updated policy for employee use of city-issued credit cards. Barry Smith spelled out the policy, which includes:
- The credit card will be issued in the name of the department head and other employees designated by the mayor. Department heads can authorize employees in their departments to use the credit card but will be responsible for all charges made to the card by employees in their department.
- Department heads are responsible for ensuring that employees in their department adhere to this policy, thereby ensuring adequate controls are exercised to minimize the risk that these credit cards are used for non-authorized or fraudulent purchases.
- The cardholder may be asked to surrender the card at any time deemed necessary by the city.
- The city credit card cannot be used to obtain cash advances or to purchase alcohol.
- Only official city expenditures that are pre-authorized can be used with this card. Charging personal expenditures to a city credit card is not acceptable under any circumstance. When used for travel, only the employee's eligible expenses (conference registration and associated fees, lodging and transportation — airfare or fuel depending on distance) are authorized to be charged on this card. If meals while traveling are charged to card, the employee must adhere to the daily reimbursement rate of $75 per day and submit fully itemized receipts. Charges that go above the daily reimbursement rate or items not allowed in the policy will be deducted from the employee’s next compensation payment if not reimbursed by the employee.
- This credit card is not intended for purchases that can be made via normal city purchasing procedures — obtaining a purchase order and the city remitting a check during the accounts payable process.
- If a department head authorizes a department employee to charge approved city expenditures on this card, a credit cardholder agreement must be completed.
- Infractions of the conditions of this policy will result in cancellation of the card and withdrawal of city credit card privileges. It can also lead to disciplinary action against the employee. In all cases of unauthorized use or misuse, the city reserves the right to recover any monies from the cardholder by withholding the amount of the unauthorized or excessive expenditure from the next compensation due the employee. Employees authorized to use the city credit card will be required to sign a declaration authorizing the city to recover, from their next compensation, any amount charged to the card in violation of this policy.
The Finance Committee set 4:30 on Dec. 11 as the deadline for submitting bids for phase two of a sidewalk on Delcris Drive.
The committee also advanced to the full council Mayor Patrick McCluskey’s offer of a one-time opportunity concerning retiree health insurance at a single rate of $200 and a family rate of $500. A retiring employee must notify the city by Dec. 31, 2023, and must retire by March 31, 2024.
The Public Safety Committee sent to the full council the criteria for events that impact the normal street flow and access. The committee will tweak the plan later to add rules for public notice of the event via the city’s website.
The committee set 30 days as the minimum time that paperwork for the event, such as a road race, would need to be submitted. Jennifer Andress, who was absent Monday, previously said that organizers of runs generally have their paperwork submitted 60 to 90 days in advance of their event.
With the approving vote of the committee, Andy Gwaltney declared that “we’re off to the races.”
