Photo by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.
The Vestavia Hills City Council on April 24 named Kyle Whittington as the newest member of the Vestavia Hills Board of Education.
Kyle Whittington received congratulation at the April 24 Vestavia Hills City Council meeting for earning five years of phone calls.
But the latest appointment to the Vestavia Hills Board of Education said he’s up for that challenge.
“I do financial planning,” Whittington said after the meeting. “I deal with financially-upset phone calls all the time, so I think I can handle it.”
Indeed, it was Whittington’s profession as a financial planner that made him the council’s selection from seven applicants for the open board position. Whittington will replace outgoing board President Jennifer Weaver.
Kimberly Cook, the council’s liaison to the Board of Education, said this is a unique year for making a board appointment because of the upcoming May 9 vote on 1Rebel 1Future, a tax initiative that would increase the city’s ad valorem millage rate by 9.8 mills.
"If it passes, and I certainly hope it does, it will be important to have a board member who can evaluate financial statements and understand decisions about the timing of exciting projects,” Cook said.
“If this doesn’t pass, there will be tough decisions ahead,” Cook continued, citing potential cuts to current services to accommodate replacing aging facilities and paying for the maintenance of two new campuses, along with replacing roofs and aging HVAC equipment. “We heard loud and clear from our current board that having someone on the board with financial planning expertise would really help in this oversight.”
Whittington, owner and president of Meld Financial, said the future for the school system could be really positive with a lot of good financial decisions to make or it could be difficult.
“Either way, I spend every day talking to people about financial security, and sometimes those conversations don't go well,” he said. “You don't like to have them, but the conversations have to be had. You do what you gotta do. You’ve got to be straightforward with people.”
City Manager Jeff Downes gave a progress report on the U.S. 31 South project, saying the city is on track on the demolition of the old Days Inn Hotel and Bar 31 site, with active demolition set for late April or early May.
“We will see as we get into the summer, the completion of the razing of the eyesore that was there,” Downes said. “Our planning charrette went extremely well. We took what was a 3-acre site, and we grew it to about 10 acres with the collaboration of other property owners. I have had follow-up meetings with those property owners, and they continue to be excited about the potential of what can happen in that corridor.”
Downes noted the city’s efforts in addressing stormwater infrastructure and identified what public projects could work to improve stormwater infrastructure. The city is able to obtain some federal funding for projects as long as it meets certain criteria, he said.
“We have been in collaboration with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, and we feel like one of our projects on our stormwater master plan over at Ridgedale meets the criteria,” Downes said.
Downes told the council he would be asking the council to approve a request from ADEM for $150,000 in funding for the project.
Downes also told the council about discussions with the offices of Senators Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville about congressionally-directed spending for stormwater improvements.
“We have submitted our Upper 31 stormwater plan document that was ready to hand to them, and within a week we had a young member of Tuberville's staff come and visit to take a look at that stormwater plan and get more facts,” he said. “We're very encouraged with two funding sources that help facilitate stormwater master plans we put together.”
The council also accepted a bid for improvements to Altadena Valley Park. The first phase of work will include moving dirt to make way for a parking lot, improving walkways and landscaping. The low bid was submitted by Forestry Environmental Services and is about $700,000.
In other business, the council:
- Passed an ordinance authorizing the city manager to use opioid financial settlement proceeds that will be received during the next 10 years. The city expects to collect $790,000. The spending plan for those funds budgets $20,000 for paramedic training, $9,500 for advanced life support, $8,000 for opioid response supplies, $75,000 annually for an additional school resource officer and $40,000 that will be used periodically for community education.
- Ended its association with Uprise Health as its employee assistance program provider and will engage Employee Assistance Services.
