Fourth Quarter 2021
Fourth Quarter 2021
Happy Fall! Please join me as we limp to the finish line of 2021. I am thankful to see the Covid numbers starting to continue to decline. I pray the pandemic comes to an end soon as we draw closer to the end of 2021. I also pray you and your family stay safe and healthy!
Road Construction Update
There’s a well known joke that you can’t swing a cat in Huntsville without hitting a Rocket Scientist. Well you can’t swing anything in Madison and not hit an orange construction barrel! We have two “long term” projects going on, the widening of both Sullivan Street and Hughes Road. These are both approximately 24 month projects that are on track to be completed next spring. Here is an update (October 7, 2021) of ALL Madison road construction projects:
Hughes• Project time is currently stopped, revised plans have been submitted for City & Contractor Review.• Hydro-excavation has been completed.• Magnolia Tree trimming work has been rescheduled tentative for 10/13/2021 pending drainage plan revision approval.• Carcel & G has contacted Midsouth Paving and tie in locations along Hughes are anticipated to be addressed starting 10/18/2021.
Sullivan• AT&T relocations at Royal have been completed.• RGI is working on sidewalk forming along the West side of Sullivan Street.• Storm structure just North of Royal has been installed.• Stream crossing headwall work has also started on the North side of the Stream (West side)• Electric conflict identified on the South headwall (west side) resolution pending.
Balch & Gillespie Roundabout• Concrete splitter islands and center apron are being placed this week.• Binder Level Asphalt is installed.• Slope cleanup and wearing surface installation will be upcoming items.
Short Street• RGI has started roadway base install south of Bradley Street.• Curb and Gutter installation is currently working on the south end of the project.• Grade tie in issue between proposed sidewalk and Avenue apartments is currently being vetted.• Retaining wall material is anticipated to be on site Monday 10/11/2021. (Antique Bldg.)• Sidewalk formwork is anticipated to start next week.
Shorter Drainage Phase 1• Rain has pushed back the finishing of the wing walls, once the creek dries out some wing walls will be finished.• Rip Rap installation and demo of existing pipe anticipated to start next week 10/11/2021.
Bradford Farm• Acceptance letter to ALDOT is being prepared.• Morell is working on project close out documentation. • HOA sprinkler issue still outstanding.
Garner Extension• School facility identified location available for use as a staging area for Wiregrass.• Redi- Rock is being shipped to site; Public works is off loading material as it arrives.• Action Items from Pre-construction meeting are being addressed.o ROW closing documents outstanding.o Cross section labeling is in review process.• CE&I discussion started with Morell Engineering.
2 Signal Modifications – [Madison Blvd & Sullivan] & [Will Halsey & Hughes Rd]• Projects are advertising, • Pre-Bid date is 10/12/2021. Bid Opening currently set for 10/26/2021.
Production & Madison Blvd- Signal • Bid Package to Legal Dept. 10/11/2021
Intergraph & Madison Blvd – Signal• Bid Package to Legal Dept. 10/11/2021
Countyline {Mill & Hardiman} Signal • Huntsville Electric ATC discussion required with cabinet shifting location of East side of Countyline.
Balch and Gillespie Roundabout
The roundabout has had several delays due to weather (particularly Tropical Storm Ida and recent heavy rains), as well shortages in construction materials and the labor force. The Roundabout is scheduled to open Monday, November 1st!. Here is a very cool video from Chad Overcast with Overcast Drone Services. Roundabout
Downtown Madison Walking Tour
History meets technology in Madison with the new smart phone app “Walk Historic Madison.” As of November 13th, you will be able to take a self-guided walking tour of historic Madison, Alabama using the Pocketsights app on your phone.
The public release of the app set for Saturday November 13th from 1pm-2:30pm will feature historic characters as they stroll through downtown Madison to learn more about local history. Community members will also be able to view the newly renovated historic train roundhouse, one of the few remaining in the southeast.
This walking tour highlights the City of Madison’s outstanding architecture and early formative history. Most of the buildings on this tour date to the late 19th and early 20th centuries when Madison was founded as a shipping station on the Memphis and Charleston railroads. From tobacco warehouses to a rare historic railway roundhouse and a cozy Main Street, historic gems can be discovered throughout the Walking Tour area.
The Walking Tour of Historic Madison Smartphone App is a joint project with the Rotary Club of Madison-Sunset Group, the Madison Visionary Partners, the Madison Station Historical Preservation Society, and the Girl Scouts of North Alabama. It was developed to showcase the historic and business district of downtown Madison for visitors and citizens alike.
Finley Koswoski, a local Girl Scout, helped complete this app for her Girl Scout Gold Award Project by creating historical summaries, recording people addressing each historic location, and helping unveil the app to the town. The recordings were uploaded to the app, so the town can have a narration while on the tour. John Rankin and Billie Goodson of the Madison Station Historical Preservation Society provided local historical information, which the app will reference. To download the map go to your preferred app store and select Pocketsights.
Capital Improvements Program
The Capital Improvements Program (CIP) is a plan for capital expenditures to be incurred each year over a fixed period of several years. The City’s CIP includes improvements that are relatively expensive, non-recurring, multi-year useful life, and result in fixed assets.
These projects may relate to:
- Construction and acquisition of new buildings
- Additions to or renovations of existing buildings
- Construction of streets
- Drainage improvements
- Land purchases
- Recreational facilities
The CIP is a very progressive process. Projects are added and deleted from the funded and unfunded lists of projects as the governing body assesses the needs of the City.
The City of Madison has an interactive map available to our residents to stay up to date on current CIP projects. Capital-Improvements-Program
Weekly Mayor Updates
Week of October 17-24
City of Madison Team,
Fall has finally arrived, hope you have enjoyed this beautiful weather this weekend. We had a very busy last week….here are just a few of the high lights;
· Steve Smith and Kory Alfred met with Croy Engineering concerning the design of phase II of Palmer Park.
· The Haunted Kingdom took place Friday and Saturday from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. this weekend and will be open next weekend too at Kids Kingdom in Dublin Park. Proceeds raised will go towards the Kids Kingdom renovation project. On another note the equipment for the Kids Kingdom project has been finalized. The purchase of the equipment will be on the Council agenda for Monday evening.
· Captain Allen and Detective Taylor-Duncan attended the virtual Partnership for a Drug Free Community Board Meeting. At that meeting the Partnership for a Drug Free Community presented K-9 Officer Adam Lawson and K-9 Bruno with their Law Enforcement Appreciation Award….congratulations!
· MPD had 1016 Call for Service last week.
· Madison Fire responded to 90 Calls for service last week, 71 of which were EMS related.
· Our SAFE HOUSE Fire Prevention classes started back this week, first stop was at Mill Creek for about 450 students and then 350 students at Rainbow Elementary. This is a great program that makes a positive impact in our community.
· Kudos to our Building Services team for their support of our new carpet installation at City Hall. It looks great!
· Building reports that the permitting division created 93 permits and issued 80 of them, the inspection division performed 246 inspections, and Code enforcement performed 12 inspections/re-inspections and created 10 cases this week.
· Court reports that they Opened 77 cases, Closed 50, and issued 26 warrants.
· Public Works traded out drainage equipment at Zierdt Road in Town Madison. This is another step taken to mitigate flash flooding that occurs in Mountain Brook due to previous design flaws.
· In my weekly report from Public Works I counted 16 separate “ditch clean outs” throughout the city during the week among many other activities.
· IT passed along that they expect the city to “go-live” with the new phone system on Tuesday, Nov. 16th. Over ½ of you have already set up your account and will be ready.
· Our City Clerk’s office stayed busy selling 2 cars on Gov Deals, supporting 10 notary requirements, opening 5 and closing 6 Freedom of Information Act requests in addition to getting our agenda our for Monday’s Council meeting.
· Revenue reports that we reached a new milestone as we have now issued 6,012 business licenses so far for 2021, the first time that more than 6,000 licenses were issued in a year.
· Revenue also reports that with the majority of sales tax revenue in for the month of October, 2021, we are currently up 8.2% over the same period in 2021.
Thanks to each and every one of you for your continued efforts for our community. Hope you have a great week.
Respectfully,
Mayor Finley
Week of October 25 to November 7
Team,
Fall has without question taking over with perfect fall festival and football weather….hope you have enjoyed your extra hour and beautiful weekend.
Madison has had a busy couple of weeks…here are a few of the high lights;
· Building services had a few issues with some units switching over to heat but quickly got those units addressed. They are still working on a couple of HVAC issues in PD. We sometimes take our indoor temperature for granted, thanks Building Services for keeping us comfortable.
· Building shared that the permitting division created 134 permits and issued 139 of them. The inspection division performed 510 inspections during the two weeks…incredible.
· Code enforcement performed 27 inspections/re-inspections while creating 15 new cases and picked up 19 signs in the right of way.
· Revenue (well, Cameron) shared total sales tax collections for the month of October, 2021 are up 15.51 % over collections for the month of October, 2020 and year to date collections are up 15.51% over the same period last fiscal year as well since we are into the new fiscal year. A great start to our Fiscal year!
· Total collections for the month of October, 2021 by the Revenue Department are $4,223,526.77, an increase of $584,312.11 over the total amount collected in October, 2021.
· Madison Fire continues to be strong leaders in our Community Risk Reduction programs. During these two weeks alone they conducted CPR Training at Bob Jones, “Stop the Bleed” Training at James Clemens, and brought the Safehouse to Midtown and Horizon for over 650 students.
· Madison Fire had 211 incident responses, 145 of which were EMS related.
· One other key area MFR supports our city is conducting building safety inspections (48 YTD, reviewing architectural plans (15 YTD), and approving civil plans (20 YTD).
· Jason and his IT team shared that all live training is now complete for our new Phone System Project. The hardware has arrived and is configured, labeled, and ready for distribution. We are continuing to work on paging, intercom, and e-fax configuration, but we are hitting all milestones right on time. We will be ready to make the cutover on Tuesday, Nov. 16th and will be sending out information to our users as we finalize the “go-live” strategy.
· Our City Clerk’s office continues to take shape with a well-deserved make-over. Even during the transition they have continued notary and freedom of information support while also receipting over $1,100,000 during the two weeks.
· Captain Cook, Detective Bryce Taets, and Detective Jesse Scroggin worked the “Drug Take Back” Event in which 660 pounds of drugs were collected from 109 vehicles.
· Chief Gandy and many supporting MPD Officers and Command Staff attended this week’s City Council meeting and provided plaques to the remaining members of the Madison Police Department Reserve, which has disbanded, as a show of appreciation for their years of service to the community.
· Our Citizen Advisory Committee meeting was very successful with Chief Gandy, Detective Bryce Taets and Officer Shannon DeFazio gave a presentation on Crisis Intervention and the Community Mental Health Officer Program among other business.
· MPD supported 2381 Calls for Service during the two weeks and made 73 arrests.
· Chief Gandy and I spoke at the Unity Day Celebrations hosted by the India Community at James Clemens High School last weekend.
· Lt. Lamar Anderson was promoted to Captain in Investigations Division effective November 15, 2021….congratulations!
· Our Court Team shares that they opened 119 cases, closed 179, and issued 39 warrants during the two weeks. They also have started a “text Check In” program that will hopefully continue to improve efficiency.
· Legal finalized and Council approved contracts with Nola Van Peursem and Turner Construction as we continue to move “The Building Formally Known as Three Springs” closer to becoming our Madison Community Center. Steve Smith and the Recreation team will continue to push this forward.
· Activities our Public Works team accomplished included repairing trench failures, removing stumps and debris, repairing sidewalks (including at Dublin), and multiple other city needs.
· BallCorps payment for the 4th base rent payment of the year ($62,500) as well as the performance license fee payment ($24,858) was received.
· The Air Supported Structure in Dublin Park fell due to a loss of power. Staff has identified the power and backup generator failure issues. We anticipate the dome to be back in use this upcoming weekend.
· The “Haunted Kingdom” event in Dublin Park raised over $9200 for the Kids Kingdom renovation project. This was in spite of being canceled one night due to weather.
Let’s have another great couple of weeks, helping our community prepare for the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays.
Thanks to each and every one of you for your efforts…..
Respectfully,
Mayor Finley
Week of November 22 to December 5
Good Morning Team,
We have enjoyed a couple of exciting and productive weeks at City Hall as we roll into the Christmas season. Seems like everyone is trying to cram 3 months of activity into about 3 weeks….whew!
Here are some of the activities and stats from our last couple of weeks.
· The Balch-Gillespie round-about is now open and it already has made a major positive impact in our traffic flow.
· Detective Teresa Taylor-Duncan, Sergeant Tanner Ward and Officer Cheryl Wooden taught RAD (Rape Aggression Defense) class to 12 ladies.
· Public Works repaired and patched several areas to the Dublin Park trail. The recreation staff has received multiple positive comments from users of the Park.
· The IT Department successfully rolled out our new phone system. While we are all still learning how to utilize the added functionality there is no question this system will improve our overall productivity.
· Chief Gandy, Captain McRae, Sgt. Dawe, Officer Kyker and Officer Walls attended Columbia Elementary School for “Too Good for Drugs” graduation for 135 students
· Revenue reports that total sales tax collections for the month of November, 2021 are up 10.07% over collections for the month of November, 2020 and year to date collections are up 12.92% over the same period last fiscal year.
· During the two weeks Court opened 107 cases, closed 90, and issued 38 warrants.
· Also during the two weeks Building created 93 permits, issued 86 permits, and did an incredible 373 inspections.
· Building services finished up the rails for the ADA ramp in the courtroom.
· Our Public Works CIP team continues to work two projects off Browns Ferry, the Oakland Springs greenway project and the Oakland Springs Pump Station.
· The lighting project at the Hughes Road Tennis Courts is nearly complete. The contractor is waiting on Huntsville Utilities to complete work to get power to the site and then the project will be completed.
· Our downtown Tree Lighting and Wassail Festival was a huge success! The Recreation maintenance Staff assembled the walk-in ornament downtown east of Main Street Café. They also constructed a platform for the ornament. Public Works installed path from the sidewalk to ornament, and we had a huge line for pictures throughout the night.
· Madison Fire and Rescue quickly put out two building fires last week. It is estimated their quick response saved well over $600,000 in property value.
· MFR supported 224 incident responses during the two weeks, 162 of which were EMS related.
· Madison Police responded to 1895 call for service during the two weeks, issuing 89 citations and 100 warnings.
· MPD also announced that Officer Luke Alexander, Officer Logan Arnold, Officer Benjamin Bradford, Officer Duran Cornelius, and Officer Shaun Singh graduated from the Police Academy in Selma last week
· Our Citizens Advisory Committee conducted another meeting and Chief Gandy gave a presentation on CALEA.
· City Clerk Lisa Thomas is working to secure a larger, easier to navigate Limestone County Voting location as we have simply outgrown the Lamb of God location. This has been on our list for quite some time and is a much needed and long overdue project.
· The Governance Transition Committee gave a quick update on their activities at the last work session. They are making great progress and plan on presenting their findings to Mayor/Council at our first meeting in January.
· Steve Smith has conducted multiple meetings with our architect and construction manager as we look to move the Building formally known as Three Springs
We are thankful for everyone’s efforts to continue to keep Madison safe and moving forward throughout this Christmas season. Let’s finish 2021 strong!
Respectfully,
Mayor Finley
Disruptive Demographics
This is definitely an unusual subject line but it was actually very interesting! My thanks to Leadership Greater Huntsville leadershiphsv.org for their latest Community Conversation and inviting Dr. James Johnson. His topic was specific to Madison County but you can view a very similar presentation here: Disruptive Demographics. I think you will find it very interesting as we witness our nation changing.
In Closing
As always, I will be updating this blog every couple of weeks. Please check back during the the first quarter of 2021 for new information. You can also provide your email address in the box below for a subscription and be notified when the blog is updated I can be reached at Email Maura or 256.337.2408. Thank you again for your continued support!