CULLMAN, Ala. – The Cullman City Council on Monday offered praise for the response of multiple City departments to last week’s ice storm, noting speed of action and rapid returns to normal operations.
Cullman Parks, Recreation & Sports Tourism shut down for part of the week, but had its WildWater aqua park open in time for the annual Polar Bear Plunge last Saturday. The Power Board called for power conservation and suspended electrical cutoffs, while crews worked to restore power. Garbage pickup was postponed, but according to Councilman Johnny Cook, by 2 p.m. last Friday all residential and commercial routes were caught up. Cook, presiding in the absence of Council President Jenny Folsom, also commended the Street Department for applying brine to city streets, and the Water Department for quickly repairing broken pipes.
Mayor Woody Jacobs commended Police Chief David Nassetta for taking direct charge of traffic operations downtown for a while, adding praise for City workers and even residents who joined in the effort to free stuck vehicles.
“It’s kind of fun to see a community come together,” said Jacobs, “and our departments did. (Cullman Fire Rescue) Chief (Brian) Bradberry, he was sweating bullets because there were some areas that you just couldn’t really get in and out of well, and if somebody was to have a pretty good medical event or we was to have a fire in those areas, he was doing what he should have been doing; he was trying to come up with, you know, plan A, plan B, and hoping that nothing happened. And we were pretty fortunate; I don’t think we had anything happen in some of those areas. And then as quick as we could, we got some of those places passable. But it really, as they said, all departments, those guys were life saving.”
Jacobs later continued, “I know Chief Bradberry and they were running about twice the normal call volume that y’all would normally run, and it was tough to get out there and do some of that stuff. So really couldn’t be more proud. Been out and about, and a lot of people, citizens, are very thankful for all that the different departments did.”
Schools were closed all week when the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday was followed by the winter storm. Cullman City Schools Superintendent Kyle Kallhoff, attending the meeting to give a quarterly report on the system, thanked City services for keeping him informed about conditions so he could make decisions for student safety while being confined to home due to road conditions around his neighborhood.
Jacobs concluded that he was “very proud of our citizens and all of our City employees, people that came in to work. Some of them couldn’t, but the ones that did, I didn’t hear anybody bitching and complaining. So, all in all, as far as the weather crisis, I think we weathered it well.”
Other council business
The council held a public hearing for an ordinance to rezone the Blue Hole, LLC property located on U.S. Highway 278 West from AG-2 to AG-1, and no one spoke for or against the ordinance. The ordinance received a first reading without action, and the council will vote at its next meeting.
The council approved a resolution to approve a tax abatement for the Cullman Economic Development Agency’s “Project Front,” which was not described except for a statement that the project involved a $2.6 million investment from the developer.
The council approved ordinances to abolish and re-create the Downtown Review Board, and to preserve downtown aesthetics of the city of Cullman within the Central Business District. The council also gave a first reading of an ordinance to regulate mobile food businesses in the city limits.
Jacobs appointed Jay Page to replace Mike Voss on the City Planning Commission.
The Cullman City Council meets at 7 p.m. on the second and fourth Monday of every month at Cullman City Hall. The public is invited to attend.
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