Centre Mayor Tony Wilkie shared these figures in the absence of City Building Inspector Mark Welsh during the Tuesday, June 22 meeting of the Centre City council.
These figures, Wilkie said, included two commercial permits for $80,000 and six residential permits for a total of $272,636.
Wilkie expressed cautious optimism that the local economy is improving.
Centre Police Chief Val Courtney reported 175 incident offense reports from March through June 22 of this year, compared to 119 last year; 57 arrests, compared to 34 last year; 36 accidents, compared to 33 last year; 224 uniform traffic citations, compared to 128 last year and 201 warning citations, compared to 143 last year.
Street and Sanitation Supervisor Bobby Paul said his department has done a lot of mowing recently because of heavy rainfall.
“We have been mowing,” said Paul. “I know it doesn’t look like we have been. Mowing has been outrageous, but we are keeping everything going.”
On the subject of street and sanitation, the council agreed to meet with the state highway department to see about mowing the medians on Highway 411 within the city limits more often.
Currently, the city is not legally allowed to do this work since it is a state highway, but there have been some complaints, Mayor Wilkie and council members said, because of the long grass, especially this past Memorial Day and Flag Day when the Avenue of Flags was placed on the medians.
In other business, Paul, on behalf of the street and sanitation department, expressed his appreciation to the city for its recent purchase of a bucket truck for his department to replace one that broke.
“It was something very much needed,” said Paul.
Centre Fire Chief Kevin Ware was on vacation and will give his quarterly report at a later date.
Prior to the regular meeting, Mayor Wilkie and some of the council members met with local volunteer organizers of Centre’s new monthly car show to iron out some of the details for the upcoming Saturday, July 3 show. (The show is held the first Saturday of each month).
While they were pleased overall with the first event in June, the council and volunteers noted some things to improve on such as having more restroom facilities, more fliers and publicity, and also encouraging businesses to extend their hours.
The plan is to block off a section in front of the courthouse and the museum down toward city hall. The show is to begin at 5 p.m. Those interested in displaying vehicles (including tractors and motorcycles as well) may call Centre City Hall at (256)927-5222.
The city plans to close this event earlier (around 8 p.m. if not before) to give everyone a chance to get to get to the Liberty Day Fireworks celebration in Cedar Bluff, which begin at 9 p.m.
On the subject of the car show, the council met with Shelia Barrett who is chairperson of the American Red Cross Heroes Campaign and agreed to allow her to hold a Heroes recognition ceremony the day of the August Car Show (Saturday, Aug. 7) beginning at 5 p.m., at the American Red Cross Wall of Honor on the side of the Model Tee’s building in Centre.
In other business, the city agreed to draw up a resolution honoring the memory of Lillian White, the first female mayor of Centre and in the state of Alabama, who passed away Saturday, June 12.
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