On June 13, Huntsville City Council approved the declaration of a property surplus to be sold for industrial supply business and to implement additional part-time city employee retention measures before discussing the alligator presence with concerned citizens at its regular meeting.

In order to improve part-time city employee retention, the council unanimously voted to offer them higher pay and greater opportunity for raises.

Part-time city employees will be raised from the minimum pay-step to the second, as is already the case for full-time employees.

They will also become eligible for 5% raises with grade promotion. Qualifying part-time city employees will also be included in future longevity banquets.

The Council also voted unanimously to declare an 16.8-acre plot of land a surplus to be sold to Roots Multiclean Ltd.

Roots Multiclean Ltd. Intends to use the land to build a facility for producing industrial equipment, such as street sweepers. The construction of an industrial facility suits the land’s original purpose as the city acquired it with the intention of creating new jobs.

Councilman Bill Kling took the opportunity to discuss the possibility of introducing street sweeping in Huntsville, saying that Schwarze Industries and Chase Industrial Park have been producing street sweepers for over 20 years.

“We should have the cleanest streets,” Kling said. The council discussed the possibility of testing an area of Huntsville for street sweeping after the facility is built in 14-16 months.

During the community participation portion of the meeting, some Huntsville residents expressed concern about nuisance alligators. The council clarified that representatives from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) observe the alligators on a regular basis but are unable to act unless alligators are behaving unnaturally or otherwise threateningly.

“I’m pretty sure if there were gators in district one, it might be a story about gator or maybe some gator gumbo, so I pray for those in other districts dealing with those issues,” said Councilman Devyn Keith earlier in the meeting.

Joseph Cheney addressed the current system that requires nuisance alligators to be reported to an official who determines whether they must be removed.

“When a call goes in, they have one gentleman who I think has an area of responsibility of 3 to 5 counties. If we’re observing a gator that is a nuisance, trying to place a call to somebody who’s working hard in multiple counties could take a while for someone to get there,” Cheney remarked.

The Huntsville City Council meets on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month. Meetings may be attended in person or watched remotely via stream or HSTV. For more information, please visit www.huntsvilleal.gov/government/city-council.