City gives extra $100,000 for promotion efforts
Mayor says money will help committee showcase Redstone
Friday, May 13, 2005
The Huntsville committee working to protect and boost Redstone Arsenal in this round of military base closings and consolidations is now $100,000 richer.
The City Council Thursday night approved Mayor Loretta Spencer's request for another $100,000 for the Tennessee Valley Base Realignment And Closure Commission Committee. That's on top of $250,000 the city gave the local BRAC panel earlier.
"We just want to be on the cutting edge of whatever opportunities we have," Spencer said Thursday night. The money is for promotional materials about Redstone and the Huntsville community and travel expenses, if necessary, she said.
The supplement was awarded even though officials didn't yet know what the BRAC recommendations today would bring to the city. But city officials, business leaders and Alabama congressmen have been optimistic Redstone Arsenal would gain jobs from other military bases.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld planned to release the list of the Pentagon's proposed base shutdowns and realignments this morning.
As the BRAC process continues through the summer and fall, the extra money is expected to help the local BRAC panel promote Redstone's importance to the military and the Huntsville area as a highly desirable place to live.
City Councilman Bill Kling asked whether the $100,000 supplement would be more or less a blank check, particularly since no one knows the outcome of BRAC. Spencer said she wanted only authorization for the money, and that a contract would accompany the money to the local BRAC committee stipulating how it should be used.
In other action, the council:
- Authorized $85,000 for street improvements around the planned Bicentennial Park and $50,000 to be spread evenly among all five City Council districts for bicentennial events. City Attorney Peter Joffrion said the $85,000 is for sidewalks, landscaping and other streetscape improvements. The fountain features in the park are being paid by money raised by the Huntsville Bicentennial Commission.
- Honored Huntsville native Jason M. Freeman, a National Guardsman with the 279th Signal Battalion, for service in Iraq that won him a Purple Heart. Freeman was working in Mosul when he was hit by a mortar round. He returned to duty even while still recovering from his injuries.
- Presented a resolution to Oakwood College Professor Bobby Harrison for research identifying the ivory-billed woodpecker, a species that had been thought extinct. "It's a sight to see. It's a beautiful bird," said City Council President Richard Showers. The recent discovery while Harrison was on a canoe expedition in Arkansas ended a 60-year gap in sightings of the bird.
- Authorized Huntsville Utilities to buy land for a substation near Martin Road and Old Jim Williams Road. Utilities spokesman Bill Yell said the substation will help serve the rapidly growing residential development in the Zierdt Road area.
- Approved an agreement with the Alabama Department of Transportation for a greenway along Little Cove Road. The 2.5-mile greenway will cost $883,000, with the city covering 20 percent and federal money covering 80 percent. Construction is expected to begin by fall.
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