MADISON — The agenda for Madison City Council’s Jan. 14 meeting was chock-full of presentations and public hearings as various organizations and the city look ahead to an exciting year.

After flute music and an invocation from Stan Long, representing the Cherokee Nation, Madison Mayor Paul Finley had a couple proclamations to make for the month of January.

PRESENTATIONS

In the first proclamation, Finley designated January 2019 “National Mentoring Month.”

In the proclamation, Finley read that children in mentoring programs like Big Brothers Big Sisters are “more likely to finish high school” and are “less likely to be using drugs (or) alcohol, skip school or be involved with violence.”

Finley also designated January 2019 “Human Trafficking Awareness Month.”

“The City of Madison is committed to ensuring our community remains on the front lines in combating this deplorable crime,” Finley said. “… We ask all residents in this community to join us in raising the visibility of this crime, whose victims are all too often invisible. Together, we can become more informed about the pressing issue and work to combat the injustices.”

Pat McKay invited anyone interested to come to a North Alabama Human Trafficking Task Force meeting, as well as a statewide summit on the matter Feb. 8 in Montgomery.

A team from Madison Street Festival then gave a presentation on grants. MSF provides educational grants, as well as two technical scholarships to both Bob Jones and James Clemens. This includes 10 grants in the amount of $8,850 and $2,000 in scholarships for a total of $10,850 given.

Grant recipients include The Riley Center, the Liberty Middle School Band, the Bob Jones High School science department, Discovery Middle School language arts teacher Monique Haselden, Discovery Middle School English teacher Leslie Hughes, the BJHS Counseling Center, Merrimack Hall Performing Arts Center, West Madison Elementary School, the Liberty middle School Choir and SpringUP Ministries and Wellness Center.

The final three presentations were given in connection with the organizations’ annual appropriations. Finley said later on that the city sets aside a little under $300,000 for outside appropriations.

The first of these presentations had Tina Clark representing Madison Arts Council. Clark gave a presentation on what 2018 held for MAC and what citizens can anticipate for 2019. As part of this, Clark touched on the new sculptures that will contribute to the SPACES Sculpture Trail.

In connection with MAC’s final event of 2018, Clark handed out awards to the winners of Christmas Card Lane who were present at the meeting.

To learn more about MAC and their events, visit artsmadison.org.

Marie Bostick presented the council with information about the Land Trust of North Alabama’s spring and fall series of hikes. Bostick said they are planning to tack on new hikes and add more educational value to each hike.

“We’ve added some more educational elements in our hikes, so we did the geology hike on Rainbow [Mountain] in October, which was one of our most popular hikes, and we also did a children’s hike in November, which was very popular, where the teachers go out with the hikers,” she explained.

In addition, Bostick touched on a few more points of interest, including their services, partners and plans to continue their summer “Tuesdays on the Trail” program geared toward elementary-aged children. Bostick added that the Land Trust of North Alabama supports the city’s greenway program and commended the city’s appointment to the Land Trust’s board, Matt Powers, for his excellent work thus far.

Louis Ramirez, vice president and CFO of the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, gave the final presentation of the evening and touched on the facility’s plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing in which Wernher von Braun and his Huntsville team played a large role. The USSRC has requested funds for their Apollo exhibit, which they plan to have open to the public starting next month, and Ramirez said the USSRC has already leased the exhibit out to a few other science museums. He also reminded everyone that the USSRC is a public nonprofit that receives only about 5 percent of their funds from appropriations.

Later in the meeting, the council voted to approve appropriations for the Madison Arts Council, Land Trust of North Alabama and U.S. Space and Rocket Center.

PUBLIC AND COUNCIL COMMENTS

In the public comments portion of the meeting, Tom Scovill returned to the podium to voice his thoughts on the “unfairness” of the proposed property tax increase to support Madison City Schools. Scovill argued that renters will be getting the short end of the stick if the tax passes and suggested “leveling the field” by assessing homesteads and rented residences at the same rate or offering an annual rebate for renters. Mike Sheehy said he agreed with Scovill that this is “not the time for new taxes,” and that it should have happened sooner. Both Scovill and Sheehy expressed concern over the city continuing to rezone land for residential purposes.

MCS Superintendent Robby Parker also took center stage to express how proud he was for MCS being one of only six school districts in the state to have each school in their district receive an “A” on their state report card. On top of that, MCS is the largest district in the state to achieve this honor with about 11,350 kids. The second-largest district to receive all A’s was Vestavia Hills, serving in the ballpark of 7,000 students.

“That’s very impressive, and I give 100 percent of the credit to the teaching staff and to the kids in Madison City Schools,” Parker said. “I’m so very proud of that.” Parker also thanked the council for their partnership and assistance to the school system since it began in 1998.

District 5 Councilman Tommy Overcash also commended Madison City Schools and the board of education for their hard work and excellent achievements. Overcash called all present board members to the front of the room to publicly recognize them for their efforts. He then presented each board member with a city coin as part of the council’s initiative to recognize outstanding citizens at once per month at a council meeting. The board members are, collectively, the third recipients of the city coin after BeBe Oetjen and Jack Clift.

Following public comments, the council approved all items on the consent agenda and finance committee report. Most of these items involved work relating to road projects and construction on the multi-use venue stadium for Town Madison.

They also approved all donations, which included the following: a $2,500 grant from Alabama’s District 2 Sen. Tom Butler for the new Dublin Park fountain; a $2,000 grant from Alabama’s District 10 Rep. Mike Ball also for the new fountain; $100 from Virginia Lackey and Billy Pyne for the Senior Center and $50 from Virdie Johnson, in memory of Teddy Martin, for the Senior Center.

During the council’s presentation of reports, the council not only approved the appropriations, but they also approved changes to the job classification plan. This involves a bump to Public Works’ pay grade using available funds.

Council members also reminded the public about a few events coming up, including the Kid’s Kingdom cleanup for the National Day of Service (Jan. 21), Connect 2019 (Jan. 25) and ReadyFest (March 30). District 7 Councilman John Seifert also reminded citizens of children’s sports registrations and noted the newly leveled infields at Palmer Park. Seifert also thanked Public Works for recently installing a sidewalk ramp at West Highlands Park to increase accessibility.

PUBLIC HEARINGS

Five total public hearings were held at the Jan. 14 meeting. The first of these was concerning a Madison Station Bar and Grill’s request for a restaurant retail liquor license for their location on Madison Boulevard. The council voted to approve this request.

The next three hearings were concerning the rezoning of property within Madison. The first was to rezone about 64 acres on the south side of Powell Road, east of Segers Road, from an agriculture zone to a residential cluster zone. Scovill told council that approving more residential space in the city would be “reckless,” and would be difficult for the school system to support the incoming students, though council members disagreed in this case.

“We’ve consulted with the school board on every part of this,” said District 4 Greg Shaw. “… We study this day and night. … We would never do anything to hurt this city or this school system.”

Overcash, along with District 1 Councilwoman Maura Wroblewski and District 3 Councilman Teddy Powell, explained that after careful consideration, this particular rezoning falls in line with their growth policy/philosophy that they developed in the latter part of 2018. Wroblewski and Powell also emphasized the council’s focus on smart, controlled and strategic growth.

The council decided to continue discussion to the next meeting on Jan. 28. They decided to do the same with the next public hearing for a planning agreement which, if approved, would also rezone nearly 56 acres on the south side of Hardiman Road east of Segers Road from agriculture to a residential cluster zone.

The fourth public hearing involved a request to rezone a home property on the east end of Roy Drive from residential to commercial. Planning Director Mary Beth Broeren said the Planning Department was recommending that the council deny the request. A total of nine residents of Roy Drive took to the podium to also request that the council keep the property residential, with many expressing concerns over increased traffic and noise in the neighborhood that may occur with more business coming to their street. One resident even brought a petition of 39 names to keep the property from being rezoned to commercial.

Council voted unanimously to deny the request and keep the property residential.

The final public hearing came at the end of the meeting concerning the “dangerous building” at 8000 Old Madison Pike. This was continued from the Nov. 13 and Dec. 10 meetings. City Attorney Megan Zingarelli said the city has worked out an agreement with the building’s owner, which the owner has already signed. The agreement would get the ball rolling on fixing the building to comply with building and fire codes, which would involve repairing the roof and fixing electrical issues, as well as repairing the exterior and catwalk and having an environmental inspection. The building owner has a total of seven months to accomplish these tasks. The council expressed a desire to follow up regularly with the owner to make sure the work is progressing.

Oetjen said the building has been an eyesore for at least 40 years.

Prior to the evening’s last public hearing, the council voted to approve all items on the agenda for Court, Engineering, Police, Planning and Legal departments. These include the following: the reappointment of the municipal judge; the acquisition of right of way for the Short Street Improvements project; the renewal of office lease for police; and a professional services agreement with QTS for services relating to the structural steel for the new stadium. The Legal Department also gave a first reading for an amendment to the trash pickup fee schedule, which would increase the fee by 20 cents per household in the Athens Utilities service area.

Madison City Council typically meets on the second and fourth Mondays of every month at 6 p.m. in the council chambers on the main level of Madison Municipal Complex, located at 100 Hughes Road. Stay up to date on city and council matters at www.madisonal.gov.