Holly Pond increases road budgets

May 8—HOLLY POND — Costly infrastructure projects in the town of Holly Pond required local officials to amend several budgeting ordinances Monday, May 6.

Last month Mayor Carla Hart reported a sinkhole caused by a damaged culvert running underneath an access road used by school buses to enter/exit Holly Pond High School. At the time, Hart was hopeful only minor repairs would be needed. On Monday, Hart announced the $28,300 project — along with several other repairs made earlier in the year — had nearly depleted the town's annual road budget.

"We've had that sinkhole and we had another one on Lover's Lane that we had to repair which took quite a bit out of our funds. This year has just about taken up the whole budget and we've still got several months left," Hart said.

Hart said the costs for the most recent repair were significantly lower than the original projected cost of $50,000.

With several additional potholes in need of attention and planning for the possibility of additional surprise repairs, the town approved an additional $50,000 be allotted for street repairs for the duration of the fiscal year.

The town also increased its park lighting budget by $15,000 in order to cover upgrades at Governor's Park located behind the town hall. Hart said she had received an estimate slightly more than $8,000 to upgrade the park's lights to LED and repair the current photocells to ensure the lights to do not remain on during the day.

Hart said the upgrades would also check several items off the town's wishlist for the park such as adding new electrical outlets to the light poles and putting the lights on a separate breaker to prevent overloads when Christmas lights are displayed throughout the park. She said one additional light pole would be added that would provide lighting for the park's parking area. A request which she said had been made by a number of residents who regularly use the park after nightfall.

In other business the town:

— Held a first public reading of an ordinance which would repeal and replace its current regulations for recycling and scrap metal facilities. Hart said the new ordinance strips away much of the superfluous language included in the current regulations and brings the policies more in line with those of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.

— Approved a resolution which codified the towns policy for fulfilling public records requests. The policy creates the following fee schedule:

— $1 per page if transmitted electronically.

— $1 per page for black and white copies.

— $2 per page for color copies.

— An additional fee of $.50 per page to mail physical copies of the records.

— $30 per hour (or $7.50 per quarter-hour) for records requiring research.