Council makes decision on road

Published 1:08 pm Wednesday, March 19, 2008

By Adam Smith

The North Jefferson News



The Gardendale City Council Friday made a formal decision regarding the fate of a road project.

The road, which would connect Odum and Mt. Olive roads, cuts through what would have been the Caufield Square retail center.

On Tuesday, Mayor Kenny Clemons said the council had made a decision to go out for bids to complete the road. He said incoming developers have expressed the need to have the road completed. “We committed to Publix that it would be done,” he said.

No work has been done on the road in months. At a Gardendale Planning and Zoning Commission meeting on Thursday, Gardendale Building Inspector Robert Ryant said erosion control work will have to be done before the road is paved.

Clemons said the city would ask that Caufield Square developers Palladium Properties complete the erosion work.

Bob Jones of Palladium Properties said maintenance work would be done on the road as part of Palladium’s contract with Saiia engineering.

“We are the holder of the ADEM (Alabama Department of Environmental Management) and we have some obligations under that,” he said.

Jones also said that engineers are looking at creating a “hand-off point” in which environmental responsibility of the road would be turned over to the city or group responsible for “the obligations associated with it.”

The Jefferson County Board of Education and Jefferson County are still slated to pay for a combined two-thirds of the paving project.

The Jefferson County school board approved a revised agreement on Thursday which stated they would sign off to fund their portion of paving costs when the city and county had signed contracts to complete the road.

Calls made to Wayne Sullivan of the Jefferson County Road Department were not returned.

Clemons said the portion the county entities would be responsible for paving is the top third of the road, which will tie into Gardendale Elementary School property. The road will also have a stack lane for school traffic.

The city will pave the remainder of the road, going down the hill toward Odum Road.

Jones said Caufield Square is still on the market. “There are several people looking, but we haven’t received any solid offers yet,” he said.