The Birmingham City Council has approved its first official travel since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic last year.
During a virtual meeting Tuesday, the council approved last-minute funding for Council President William Parker to take a two-day trip to Montgomery to meet with Alabama legislators.
Councilors approved Parker’s travel without many details. His request paperwork, submitted Monday, was not provided in the council’s meeting packet; instead, he briefly held a copy of the document in front of his webcam.
The trip, which will cost $225.30, will be focused on instituting the Jefferson County cemetery board, which was established by state lawmakers in 2017 as an authority over all for-profit cemeteries in the city. The board still hasn’t met, and appointees say they haven’t received official notification from lawmakers.
Parker said the “last piece of the puzzle, the last thing to make sure it’s fully functioning and fully enforceable” is for the Jefferson County House and Senate delegations to appoint a chairman to head the board. But the delegation has been unable to reach a quorum to do so.
Parker also said his trip will involve meeting with the Alabama Historical Commission to discuss naming Legion Field a national landmark.
The council also approved funding to send several police officers, including Chief Patrick Smith, to Montgomery next week. Smith, along with Deputy Chief Ronald Sellers and Assistant Chief Darnell Davenport, will attend the Alabama Association of Chiefs of Police winter conference, which will cost an estimated $1,019.05 each. Smith is currently attending an FBI-run training program in Quantico, Virginia.
Roughly 30% of Alabamians are fully vaccinated.
Two local environmental groups are appealing a Jefferson County Circuit Court’s recent decision to throw out the lawsuit against the Birmingham Water Works Board.
A drive-by shooting at Club Euphoria in west Birmingham left 21-year-old Lykeria Taylor dead and another male injured. Earlier that night, gunfire broke out at the club, leaving three others with non-life-threatening injuries.
Mayor Randall Woodfin and the CEO of Vulcan Park and Museum announced this week a series of events to celebrate Birmingham’s 150 anniversary.
Landing, an apartment rental company, will relocate it headquarters to Birmingham, creating more than 800 new jobs.
Over Memorial Day weekend, at least 26 shootings were reported in major cities across Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama. At least 10 people were killed and 17 others were injured. It was the latest example of rising homicides and gun violence across the Gulf states this year.
