Hanceville pool to remain open while officials decide fate

Mar. 16—HANCEVILLE — While city leaders weigh its ultimate fate during the coming year, the municipal swimming pool at Hanceville will be ready to welcome guests once again this summer.

At its regular meeting this week, the Hanceville City Council agreed not to close the pool ahead of this summer's busy park and recreation season, a decision that allows the local amenity to remain open for one more season. In the meantime, councilmembers pledged to consider options for addressing costly structural and maintenance issues at the facility; issues that forced a possible closure onto the council's agenda in the first place.

The pool is set to open at its customary Memorial Day weekend date, beginning this year on Saturday, May 25. At its previous February meeting, councilmembers discussed options for keeping the pool open even as annual maintenance costs, in recent years, have cost the city more than $70,000.

In other business at its regular March 14 meeting, the council:

* Announced the annual Hanceville Irish Festival for Saturday, March 16 along Commercial Street and intersecting thoroughfares throughout the city's downtown. The festival will feature food, traditional Irish entertainment, live music and free parking.

* Tabled until its next meeting a decision on whether to approve a property annexation accommodating a proposal from The Broadway Group/KME Development to construct a new residential subdivision along Section Line Road. If approved, the development would occupy approximately 26 acres of land just east of U.S. Highway 31 near the Dollar General Grocery store. At a related public hearing on the matter Thursday, no one spoke either in opposition to, or in favor of, the proposal.

* Approved a revised agreement with the Alabama Department of Transportation that formalizes the city's plan to install intersection upgrades at Highway 31 and Alabama Highway 91, including a new left turn lane for traffic approaching on Highway 91 from the west. Funds supplied by the Alabama Transportation Rehabilitation and Improvement Program II (ATRIP II) will cover the project's estimated $1,083,500 construction cost, though the city must separately fund engineering design work before construction can begin.

Approved

* the Hanceville Yard Sale Weekend dates for 2024, which will waive local yard sale fees for residents on April 19 and April 20. The council also approved dates for the city's free landfill pickup, which will run from April 22 until April 25, with residents inside the city limits asked to set out any large refuse at the curbside no later than 6 a.m. on each morning before April 25.

* Approved the city's participation in a new Emergency Notification System alert system, in conjunction with the Cullman County Emergency Management Agency, to provide push notifications of local emergencies and street closures, via opt-out text messaging, to residents' cell phones.

Approved

* the extension of air evacuation emergency services to all Hanceville volunteer fire fighters through the Missouri-based AirMedCare Network, extending nationwide coverage for the service at no cost to fire fighters.

* Approved the minutes of the council's Feb. 22 regular meeting.

The

* council's next regular meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 28 in the council meeting room at Hanceville City Hall. A 5 p.m. public work session will precede the meeting at the same location.

Benjamin Bullard can be reached by phone at 256-734-2131 ext. 234.