New Merkle House
New Merkle House
Senior citizens can expect to have a new senior center for New Year’s, after the bid for the new New Merkel House was approved at the June 22 Vestavia Hills City Council meeting.
The low bidder was Argo Building, which submitted a bid just shy of $950,000, which is about an $85,000 increase from the original projected cost of the project.
Council member Kimberly Cook asked what caused the increase to the project. City Manager Jeff Downes said the increase in cost was due to increased site cost in order to be ADA compliant, as well as the building of a dog park added to the bid. Downes said the location of the dog park had been changed during the course of planning the project, and while it was always part of the work done in Cahaba Heights, which includes the now-completed Cahaba Heights Park, it wasn’t clear at first whether the dog park would be part of the ballfields and park, or part of the New Merkel House bid.
The new senior center is expected to be completed by January 2021.
Downes added that since there was about $238,000 saved from the original cost of the Cahaba Heights Park project, the total amount of work done in Cahaba Heights as part of the Community Spaces plan came in about $54,000 under its original budget.
In his report to the Council, Downes said utility relocation work is beginning on Crosshaven Drive as part of a plan to improve and widen the road and add sidewalks. Downes said bids are being sent out for a sidewalk project on Mountain View Drive and sidewalks are being finished near the intersection of Dolly Ridge Road and Rocky Ridge Road. Significant progress has also been made on the Poe Drive improvement project, which is a public-private partnership, Downes said.
The Council also approved a consent order with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, which assessed an $8,000 fine on the city for failing to comply with the city’s stormwater management plan. Downes said the incident happened about two-and-a-half years ago and was the result of the failure of software used to notify city employees to inspect ADEM-permitted sites. The problem has since been fixed and no similar issues have been reported, Downes said.
Two residents, Albert Measel and Larry Durham, spoke about their concerns about a property in Jefferson County, on Rocky Ridge Road, that is before the Jefferson County Commission for a possible rezoning from single-family housing to multifamily housing. Pat Boone, the city attorney, said it would not be improper for the city to send a representative to the meeting and send along their resident’s concerns to the Commission.
In other business, the Council:
- Approved an agreement with Jefferson County for municipal election services and equipment, at a cost of $15,200 to the city.
- Approved the levying of Jefferson and Shelby County taxes.
- Introduced items that would name an election manager for the municipal election, as well as an item approving the use of electronic vote counting and ballot marking devices for the same election. Those items will be discussed at a future meeting.
