One thing the Huntsville City Council can all agree on when the time comes to finalize a budget for fiscal year 2026 – solving city traffic flow problems will be a priority in what looks to be a tight budget.

The council held a special session where each member in attendance could voice their opinion on what priorities should be for next year. Traffic and road infrastructure was at the forefront. There’s already $500 million earmarked for road building improvements and traffic in general within the long range capital plan.

“That seemed to be the consensus,’’ said District 4 Councilman Bill Kling, who added he shares a desire to ease travel within the city.

“We met to see what council members want to put an emphasis on,’’ Kling said. “For me it’s very simple – roads and traffic flow, accelerating the ring road around the city, the I-565 at Memorial Parkway Interchange renovation, road resurfacing and neighborhood street sweeping. It’s very simple. Take care of the meat and potatoes and forget about the glitzy projects.’’

The meat and potatoes include the Northern Bypass from the Parkway to Hampton Cove and the Southern Bypass from Hampton Cove to Redstone Arsenal.

“Those are indispensable,’’ Kling said. “The traffic congestion—everybody sees it every day. And it’s not like we’re saying, ‘Hey, we’ve got a plan and everything is going to be wonderful.’ There is a $500 million multi-year capital plan, long-range plan that deals with roads, largely new roads and outlying areas. Anything that’s traffic flow related, I don’t care whose district it is, I’m in favor of it. Period.’’

Plans for roadways in the city and surrounding areas are configured by the Huntsville Area Metropolitan Planning Organization. The MPO, which is also known as Huntsville Area Transportation Study (HATS), plans transportation improvements and has representatives from Huntsville, Madison, Madison County, Triana and Owens Cross Roads.

All federally funded transportation projects in the urban area must be programmed for construction by the HATS/MPO, and be listed in the Transportation Improvement Program and the Long Range Transportation Plan adopted by the HATS/MPO.

According to Kling, the special work session was an opportunity to “kind of frontload what council members’ priorities are into the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. It’s a whole lot easier to add it up front than to go back and try to amend an existing budget draft.’’

Recreation areas, parks and green spaces also were a focal point. A few other items on council members wish lists:

Basketball court at John Hunt Park or Brahan Spring for pickup games
Four-court basketball venue to recruit tournaments
Doubling the budget for roads in disrepair
Adding sidewalks and greenways
Updating athletic facilities in various districts

“This is going to be a very tight budget,’’ District 3 Councilwoman Dr. Jennie Robinson said. “So I would suggest that we go back to looking at basics, particularly public safety, that we continue to fund public safety. I know that we’re limited by recruitment and bringing the numbers in, and I think we’re fully funded for all positions. We just need to fill the positions and then continue to fund public safety for fleet, equipment and other needs, both fire and police.’’

She added, “Roads definitely need to continue to look at funding. I would like to see if there is money available to do work on parks.’’

David Little of District 2 and Michelle Watkins of District 1 missed the session but sent their opinions via message to the council.

Council President John Meredith of District 5 said his number one desire was to expand bus routes in his district.

“Primarily to get bus route number 100, which at this time isn’t operational but is planned on being rolled out soon,’’ he said. “We would really love for that bus route to actually not just go by the airport for service to employees who would get picked up by a shuttle then taken to the airport.

“We’d really like that bus route to actually go to the terminal. That way, citizens can use the bus in order to get to the airport. And I think it would be a valuable asset to the entire city to have public transportation that’ll get you to the airport.’’

Brainstorming for the budget prepares city and area representatives when they meet with politicians and the Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C., in the spring.

“We all speak sort of as one voice,‘’ Kling said. “We will have a delegation of people from Huntsville and North Alabama, approximately 200 people, and that makes an impression when we go up there and we’re talking to our congressional delegation or we’re talking to senators and congressmen from other states, they see a delegation this size speaking as one it makes an impression.’’