2025 to be a year of completion for Decatur

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Jan. 4—The year 2025 promises to be a year in which projects already started move toward completion and an election year for the city of Decatur, city officials said.

City officials have 10 months left in what was a five-year term. The five-year term was the result of state legislation seeking to avoid having municipal elections at the same time as federal and statewide elections by pushing the scheduled 2024 municipal elections back to 2025.

City qualifying for the next election takes place June 10-25. The election is Aug. 26, with the runoff, if necessary, 28 days later on Sept. 23. The next four-year term begins Nov. 3.

Mayor Tab Bowling, who announced he does not plan to seek a third term, on Thursday said the city “has more projects going on right now than at any time since the 1970s.”

Council President Jacob Ladner said 2025 will be a year “of completing a lot of things we’ve been working on for the last four years.”

The mayor said he is optimistic that 2025 will be a good year for the city from a financial standpoint.

“I’m really hopeful about our economy, consumer spending, interest rates and things of that nature,” Bowling said. “All of this would have a positive impact on our revenues and allow us to do more.”

Bowling said inflation has been an issue, but he was happy with the bids they got in December on the $52 million recreation center and natatorium at Wilson Morgan Park. Construction should begin this year and take about 18 months.

“Less the opportunities that come to us from outside investors, I think you’re going to see us focus on the projects we already have and getting them out of the ground,” Bowling said.

Bowling said the city is waiting on delivery of the new LED lights and equipment for the Hudson Memorial Bridge and the U.S. 31 causeway.

City Director of Development Dane Shaw said the lights and equipment should arrive in about three weeks and it should then take about six months to complete the project.

Shaw said the new lights are a good lead-in to the $10 million Sixth Avenue streetscape project. The city recently received the necessary permits from the Alabama Department of Transportation.

Bowling said Purchasing Agent Jeremy Sherrill is working on bid documents for the planned beautification project that stretches along the 1-mile entrance to the city between the river and Delano Park.

Shaw said he expects work would then begin this spring with the warmer weather. Decatur Utilities has already moved most of its utilities underground. The next things residents will see are the sidewalk removal and the placement of more power lines underground, he said, before the sidewalks are replaced.

Shaw said the project will take about 18 months with most of the work occurring at night. This project will include a landscaped barrier that limits or eliminates some left turns along the route.

He said the kind of landscaping isn’t set, but he expects it will be hearty plants able to withstand dry conditions because they do not plan to include a sprinkler system. ALDOT also would not allow them to include any trees because of wreck concerns, he added.

The new $3 million Morgan County-Decatur Farmers Market is almost complete, Brandon Price, of Building Construction Associates, said Friday.

Price said the building on First Avenue Southeast should be complete by the end of January, with the landscaping the only remaining part of the project.

This will allow the Farmers Market to open with the start of the spring growing season, he said.

At $2.5 million each, the indoor tennis and pickleball facilities should be complete in the next few weeks, Parks and Recreation Director Jason Lake said.

The city is building a ClearSpan facility with four tennis courts where T.C. Almon Recreation Center once stood and a facility with 12 pickleball courts where the old ice pavilion once stood.

The $3.5 million conversion of the Point Mallard ice rink into an event center continues. Lake said they will seek bids later this month on the build-out, which includes converting the locker rooms into men’s and women’s restrooms and completion of the arena.

Lake said he hopes the event center is finished by summer “because we have a lot of corporations who are scheduled to use it.”

Work continues on the $17 million ball fields at Jack Allen Sports Complex on Modaus Road Southwest. With the site work complete, Lake said he plans to hire a contract manager to lead the facility construction.

Lake said Fite Building Co. showed how successful a contract manager could be with its work to pre-qualify vendors and find contractors for the recreation center at Wilson Morgan Park.

The ball fields will feature a four-field area with a press box and a restroom building. There will also be two multi-use fields that they can be converted into softball or soccer fields. The ball fields will also have dugouts, a warm-up area and batting cages.

While not a construction project, Bowling and Shaw said a major accomplishment they hope to finally complete this year is the long-awaited new zoning and land use ordinance.

City officials have been working on the new ordinance for roughly six years, but it recently ran into another delay. The City Council chose to hold off on approving the zoning ordinance while a search firm finds candidates for a new planning director.

They delayed the ordinance until they can hire a planning director and he or she can review it.

Councilman Carlton McMasters said approving the new zoning ordinance is his major goal, but he’s only willing to wait until March for a planning director.

“I’m not OK with pushing it back any longer,” McMasters said of the ordinance.

Ladner and Shaw said the city will also continue to work with developers on residential development. Ladner said the city is making improvements to Upper River Road, Bunny Lane and Modaus Road, where several subdivisions are quickly going up.

“We’ve shown we’re working with developers, and we won’t change that mindset,” Ladner said.

[email protected] or 256-340-2432

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