The City Council unanimously approved a contract with the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham at its meeting Monday. The purpose of the contract is to redraw the city’s district lines in response to population changes in the most recent U.S. Census.
According to the numbers, Springville’s population grew to more than 4,000 residents in the past decade. Mayor William Isley said two of the city’s seven districts are unbalanced as a result.
“It seems like all the new residents moved to the outskirts of our city limits,” Isley said. “When you’ve got new people moving to your city and they’re on the outskirts or edges of your city limits, you can get some imbalance in that. We almost doubled our citizens in those districts, and because of that, two of them got a little out of balance.”
All of Springville’s council seats and the mayor’s office will be up for re-election in 2012.
“We’re a year ahead of time, but we know we need to get it ready for the Department of Justice to respond to us,” he said. “It has to be submitted to the (U.S.) Department of Justice by early next year, so we definitely need to get started now. We decided to go ahead and get those people working. We definitely need to do some work in two of our districts.”
The mayor said he does not yet know how the city will proceed with its redistricting.
In other business, the council:
• Approved an ordinance changing the speed limit on St. Clair 9 from 35 miles per hour to 45.
• Approved purchase of bulletproof vests for the Police Department, for a total cost of $7,450. The city will apply for a grant from the Department of Justice that would pay half the amount.
• Approved reappointments of Roddy Barrett, Frank Agnew and Chester Harris to the Planning and Zoning Commission.
• Approved an open-air permit for 180 Church for an upcoming event.
• Approved naming the new pavilion at the city splash pad in memory of Margaret Jones, as well as naming the existing pavilion in honor of Councilman Wayne Tucker and public works director Earl Peoples.
• Adjourned into executive session to discussing potential litigation.
• Approved the May 2011 financial report.
• Approved the minutes of the regular meeting June 6.
• Approved rescheduling the regular council meeting of Monday, July 4, to Tuesday, July 5, owing to the federal holiday.
Contact Will Heath at wheath@thestclairtimes.com.
