Seats on several Birmingham boards and authorities will be up for grabs next month, including city council-appointed positions on the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority and the Birmingham Land Bank Authority.
Five transit authority seats will become vacant on Aug. 10, when the terms of current board members Theodore L. Smith, Darryl Cunningham, LeDon James, Willie S. Davis and Kevin Powe expire. The nomination process is handled by the council’s transportation committee — though, as with all these positions, a full council vote will be required to confirm nominees.
Two positions on the city’s cooperative board with the science and engineering nonprofit Southern Research will become vacant on Aug. 29. Those seats currently are occupied by William E. Harden Jr. and Tamika Wren; new nominations will be decided by the city council’s economic development committee.
A similar cooperative board, the Alabama Special Care Facilities Financing Authority of Birmingham, also is seeking to fill the vacancy left by Anthony C. Hood. His term expired in November 2017, but since the council did not appoint a replacement, he continued to serve for an additional 3½ years. He submitted his resignation letter to the council on June 28. Nominations for his replacement will be determined by the council’s public safety committee.
Vacancies on the Stormwater Appeals Board and the Solid Waste Authority will be filled next month, with nominations closing on Aug. 15.
Nominations to fill the second director’s seat on the Birmingham Land Bank Authority also will close on Aug. 15. Those looking to fill the position for its four-year term can email their resumes to District 6 Councilor Crystal Smitherman at [email protected]
Rainfall was higher than normal this summer across much of Central Alabama.
The coronavirus pandemic’s fourth wave has not changed state-wide back-to-school plans in the Gulf South, where cases are rising and mask use is voluntary.
JaTaune Bosby, the first Black woman to lead the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama, took the job during a tumultuous time in the country with the pandemic and last year’s summer of racial reckoning.
The amount of illegal dumping of trash in Jefferson County is "concerning," says county commissioners. They say more needs to be done to address the problem, which could include more stringent penalties.
The 2021 Atlantic hurricane season is likely to be as active as last year’s, when thousands in the Gulf South were without power for weeks after hurricanes Laura, Zeta, Cristobal and Delta. With that increased activity comes a bigger threat to the region’s power grid. How prepared are Gulf States’ energy companies for the threat to come?
Alabama State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris said the increase is linked to the more contagious Delta variant, coupled with Alabama’s low vaccination rate.
