Photo by Frank Couch
Park Avenue sidewalk
A woman walks along a sidewalk on Park Avenue in the Bluff Park community in Hoover, Ala.
The Hoover City Council tonight pushed two sidewalk projects in the Bluff Park area further along toward development.
The council approved agreements with the state to start the process of acquiring rights of way for 1.4 miles of sidewalks on streets near Bluff Park Elementary School, including Valley Street, Clearview Road, Savoy Street, Cloudland Drive and Tyler Road, and a 1-mile sidewalk extension along Chapel Road from Park Avenue to Stone Brook Parkway.
The council also approved a construction agreement with the state for the Chapel Road sidewalk. Tim Westhoven, the assistant executive director for the city, said he believes a construction agreement already has been approved for the sidewalks around Bluff Park Elementary.
It likely will take about nine months to acquire the rights of way necessary for the sidewalks, so construction likely won’t begin until late 2016, he said.
Once construction starts, the Chapel Road project likely will take six to nine months, and the sidewalks near Bluff Park Elementary should take nine to 12 months to install once construction gets under way, Westhoven said.
“We’ve already identified what rights of way we’ve got to go get,” he said.
The estimated cost for acquiring rights of way for the Chapel Road project is $13,655, while rights of way needed for the sidewalks near Bluff Park Elementary are estimated to cost $27,310, city records show.
The state will use federal funds to cover 80 percent of the cost, and the city will pick up the other 20 percent.
The construction agreement approved tonight for the Chapel Road sidewalk estimates the 1-mile sidewalk will cost $682,760 to build, including engineering and inspection work.
The city of Hoover has a third sidewalk project in the works in Bluff Park. It includes another 3,200 feet of sidewalks on Lester Lane and Cloudland Drive near Bluff Park Elementary School.
In other business tonight, the Hoover City Council:
- Approved a $148 million budget for fiscal 2016, on a 6-1 vote.
- Authorized an agreement for the city to accept $28,500 from the Shelby County Commission to help pay part of the cost for school resource officers in the four Hoover schools in Shelby County.
- Granted a fiber optic cable franchise to Southern Light LLC for five years, with the possibility for two five-year extensions. Southern Light supplies fiber optic cable service to businesses. The city will receive a 5 percent franchise fee for allowing the company to run its lines through the city, and the city will get the benefit of four fibers for use by the Hoover Municipal Center, Hoover Public Safety Center, Hoover Metropolitan Stadium, Hoover Fire Station No. 6 near Deer Valley and Hoover Fire Station No. 7 in Inverness. This could save the city about $300,000 over five years, said Ben Powell, purchasing director for the city.
- Approved the sale of beer and table wine at Pazzo Big Slice Pizza at 1678 U.S. 31, Suite 101A
- Approved the use of a retail site in the Galleria Trace Plaza at 2801 John Hawkins Parkway for the Palmetto School of Career Development.
- Rezoned a house recently annexed into the city at 2905 Glenstone Circle in Inverness from a Shelby County special district to a Hoover planned single-family district.
- Recognized Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops that helped with flag-lowering ceremonies at the Hoover Public Library during Veterans Week and winners from a Thank-A-Vet poster contest among Hoover school students.
Also tonight, Jefferson County Commissioner Jimmie Stephens presented a $2,500 check to the Hoover High School Band and a $2,000 check to help with repairs at the Hoover Senior Center. Both checks were from the Jefferson County Commission.
This article was updated at 9:50 a.m. on Nov. 18 to correct the anticipated start of construction for the Bluff Park and Chapel Lane sidewalks, which is late 2016.
