Birmingham City Council Delays Approving Funds For New Kingston Fire Station
Residents from the Kingston community showed up at the Birmingham City Council meeting on July 5, to ask leaders (again) to go ahead and replace their fire station. But, again, they learned they will have to wait.
The council did not approve the $3 million request for the new station, even after a lengthy, intense discussion. Instead, it will discussed during the Council’s next Committee of the Whole meeting.
Councilors and the mayor agree about the need for a new station. They’re just at odds on how to pay for replacing the existing building. It shut down earlier this year because of mold, a leaking ceiling, and other problems. The city has a list of public building and equipment needs that totals about $17.4 million. Only $11.9 million is available at this time. That means some projects may need to be trimmed or eliminated, and council members are torn between priorities.
“We can fight later, but the people in the neighborhood need protection as soon as possible. I know how long it takes to build a new building, but if we don’t start on the new building, it won’t get finished any time soon,” says Councilwoman Valerie Abbott. “Let’s get started now and duke it out in private over all these other issues that we have,” she suggests.
Mayor William Bell cautioned the council on delay, saying, “Each day that we delay is another day individuals that live in that community run the risk of having a dangerous situation that we can not respond to in an adequate amount of time.” “We are all in agreement that the station needs to be replaced. Let’s go ahead and replace it,” he continued.
Councilman Steven Hoyt says the city could get started with preliminary work even though the funds have not been approved.
“There’s nothing in what the mayor suggested that we can not do with respect to acquisition of property. We’ve got money in the bank right now,” Hoyt says. “We’ve got to do a title search. We’ve got to get clear title. None of that stuff happens in two days. It doesn’t happen in thirty days and maybe not 50 or 60 days.”
The council’s Committee of the Whole usually meets the fourth Wednesday in each month. Meanwhile, the Kingston Community waits.
There was no rapture this week, so the quiz returns. Can you score a perfect 11?
This week, Jimmy Kimmel returned, a weird statue vanished and no one (to our knowledge) got snatched up to heaven.
Trump’s TikTok deal payment criticized as ‘shake-down scheme’ by experts
The U.S. government will collect a multibillion-dollar fee from the American investors who will take over TikTok. Some experts call the fee and other deals like it "extortion."
What schools stand to lose in the battle over the next federal education budget
Education researchers warn budget proposals from the White House and House Republicans would impose steep cuts on some of the nation's most vulnerable students and disadvantaged school communities.
I remember doing the Time Warp: The ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ turns 50
Fifty years ago, on Sept. 26, 1975, The Rocky Horror Picture Show flopped at the U.S. box office — then became the longest-running theatrical release in history.
Fired feds, Trump lovers and veterans: Meet the people applying for ICE jobs
At a recent DHS career expo in Provo, Utah, many attendees hoped to get hired to help with the Trump administration's deportation efforts.
Trump’s Tylenol warning echoes past misconceptions about mothers and autism
Medical scholars say, efforts to find a singular cause for autism has historically led to scrutinizing parents and fueling stigma about autism
