ROBERTSDALE, Alabama — Officials in Robertsdale are making plans to complete the city’s Centennial project voting to solicit bids on the amphitheater for Centennial Park at the City Council meeting Monday, March 1, but there will be a delay in the project because of funding.
“We had about $800,000 in available in carryover funds and budgeted about $1.5 million for the project,” said Mayor Charles Murphy.
But clean-up from Hurricane Sally took all of those funds, and while they are expected to be reimbursed by FEMA and the state of Alabama, the city will have to wait for that reimbursement for the funds to become available.
“Basically what we are doing tonight is that we are going ahead and granting approval for the city engineer to bid the project,” Murphy said at the meeting March 1, “but we will not actually be able to solicit bids on the project until after we are reimbursed by FEMA.”
David Adams and Jason Shipp with Adams Stewart presented plans for the amphitheater at the March 1 meeting, which included artist renderings and site plans for the structure, which will include approximately 5,000-square-foot metal roof structure with an additional 6,200 square feet of ground space and 2,700 square feet of restroom space.
Plans call for ground-level sloped seating with a raised stage, restrooms at the rear of the structure and behind the stage, along with changing areas behind the stage.
The facility will also include parking on the street, with additional unpaved parking areas next to the structure which would provide about 150 parking spaces, including several handicap parking spaces which would be located near the rear entrance to the structure.
“I just want to make sure there is a way to block those areas off behind the stage so that nobody can be messing around back there while people are performing on stage,” said Council member Paul Hollingsworth.
There will be access to the bathrooms behind the stage, Adams said, which can be blocked off when the facility is not in use.
The project is Phase 3 of an improvement project surrounding Honeybee Park. Phase 1 improvements to the park were dedicated in July of 2019.
While the project was scheduled for completion as part of the city’s Centennial Celebration in 2021, slight delays in the project will likely push the completion back to the end of the year, Murphy said.
The city is nearly completion of Phase 2 of the project, a nearly $5 million public works complex which is being constructed on property the city owns on Chicago Street north of the police station.
The amphitheater and parking areas will be constructed at the site of the current public works facility which will be moved once the new facility is completed, officials said.
“As we get nearer to completing the public works facility, this is just the next step in the process of completing the entire project,” Murphy said.
In other business March 1, council and city officials agreed to move forward with discussions on possibly moving to a combined paid and volunteer fire department in the near future.
Council member Russell Johnson presented a proposed ordinance at the March 1 meeting which would provide for the hiring of a full-time chief and assistant chief for the city.
“I have nothing against our current department or anyone in it,” Johnson said. “I just see this as something that we are going to have to address at some point in the future.”
Council members, including Hollingsworth and Sue Cooper, expressed opposition to making an immediate change in the department.
“If this is something we have to address in the future then I’m all for it,” Hollingsworth said. “I just don’t think this is something that needs to be done right away. In my mind, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’”
Assistant chief Paul Patterson addressed the council asking to be included in discussions to move the department to a combined department.
“I would just invite you to talk to these firefighters,” he said. “I have talked to them and a lot of them just feel like they are being left out of the process.”
Murphy said he and Police Chief Brad Kendrick also had plans to speak to the mayor of Spanish Fort, who is in the process of transitioning its fire department to a paid department.
Murphy and Kendrick also discussed plans to utilize city employees who can respond to calls during critical daytime hours when volunteers might not be available.
“There was a time when that’s the way it was done and we have gotten away from that,” Kendrick said. “The hope is for us to be able to provide six city employees who would be able to respond to calls during their normal workday and train with the fire department at night.”
Russell said he welcomed future discussions with council members to come to an agreement on the transition and had plans to meet with firefighters later in the week.
“I think this is a good starting point,” he said, “and I welcome further discussions so that we can come together on this.”
Also on March 1, the council:
