Malia Riggs
Elmore Autauga News
The Prattville City Council held their first regularly scheduled meeting for the month of June where they awarded Construction One with the $3.74 million Project Star.
Project Star is an outdoor venue in the former Hancock Whitney Bank area, behind the City Annex building. The outdoor venue will be equipped with a pavilion and stage area, multiple greenspaces which have a view of the stage, space for food trucks as well as an open floor plan referred to as a cabana.
Construction One is a national construction manager and general manager that specializes in commercial building projects in the U.S. the last 40 years, according to their website.
The funding for this project will be coming out of the capital projects fund, according to the resolution that was read at Tuesday evening’s meeting.
The budgeted expenses that were amended for this project are the general fund/departmental reserves by $250,000, decreasing general fund/ bank building reserves by $584,604, by decreasing facilities maintenance/ capital outlay by $314,000. The increases for this project will be an increase in the general fund/ transfer to capital project fund for $1,148,604, an increase in the capital projects fund/transfer from general fund at $1,148,604, an increase in the capital projects fund/ dept proceeds for $1,040,781 and lastly an increase in the capital projects fund/ bank building renovations at $2,189,385.
Before the council voted in favor of the budget amendments, councilor Marcus Jackson of District 2 read questions from his constituents regarding the alleged rush of this project and alleged drainage issues in the city of Prattville. The questions centered around why the city is allocating money for an outdoor venue and not allocating money for upkeep of infrastructure.
Prattville Mayor Bill Gillespie addressed the questions during the meeting, stating that they have been working on a lot of the alleged issues regarding Jackson’s constituent’s questions. Gillespie also stated that the drainage issues are not a stormwater problem but a groundwater problem, which Gillespie also stated is allegedly on private property.
“The way our budgeting works, you have some infrastructure money, you have public facilities money, you have general fund monies. I think our infrastructure program is moving along. There will always be infrastructure wants and needs, but I sure would be glad to talk more on this and we would be glad to look at any and all of them,” Gillespie said.
The Council voted in favor 4-0 of awarding the Project Star bid to Construction One, while Jackson abstained from the vote. At the end of the meeting Jackson did state that he is not against this project.
“I think it’s a great project. I think it’s going to be great for our city. My conscience won’t allow me to talk to my constituents about some of those concerns and needs and then still spend that type of money. But I think it’s going to be great for the city,” Jackson said.
The Council also unanimously approved the release of funds for the North Highland Park Wall Project for the Parks and Recreation Department in the amount of $85,000.
The Council also voted in favor of setting a public hearing to rezone a property at 819 Smith Avenue from B-1, neighborhood commercial, to B-2, General Business. This was brought before the planning commission at their last meeting on May 16th, 2024. The planning commission did not recommend rezoning this property.
