The long-running dispute over rates between the city of Gardendale and the Fultondale Gas Board has moved one step closer to a legal showdown.

The Gardendale City Council voted in their regular session Monday night to hire the accounting and consulting firm of Jackson Thornton to investigate the board’s pricing and policies, as well as to see what costs would be involved if Gardendale officials decided to go elsewhere for natural gas service.

“They’ll be studying the rate structure that’s used and how they compare to other systems,” Mayor Stan Hogeland said. “They’ll study the value of the gas lines that are used in our rights-or-way, and give an opinion on whether those lines could be condemned and purchased.”

The contract with Jackson Thornton will cost the city no more than $60,000. The council approval came after a request by the Gardendale Utilities Board, a body that was revived by the council last year after being dormant for many years.

It’s the latest move in a battle that began in the winter of 2014, when FGB customers saw a sharp spike in their bills, due to a hike in gas rates that the board imposed after their decades-old franchise agreement with Gardendale expired. That agreement included a cap on rates that was tied to that charged by Alagasco, the state’s largest publicly-owned natural gas utility.

Since then, the FGB — owned by the city of Fultondale, with Mayor Jim Lowery serving as superintendent — has refused to negotiate a new franchise agreement, Hogeland said. He said the board has lowered gas rates substantially since last winter, and has published the current rates on its website, but has also increased several different regular service charges. For instance, the monthly meter fee for residential customers has risen from $8 to $18, according to Hogeland.

Hogeland and his predecessor, Othell Phillips, have said previously that Gardendale would consider condemning the gas lines that the FGB operates within the city. They would then either bring in another utility company to provide service, or form one of their own.

“It’s a very complicated issue, and I don’t necessarily like it… but I think [the study] it’s the only way people are going to get answers,” Hogeland said. “I would hope the Fultondale residents would share our concerns.”

Hogeland said that the study would take about 90 days to complete.

The council also unanimously approved changes to the city’s weed abatement ordinances, which will result in a reduced time period from when a property owner is cited for overgrown land until city workers are allowed to clean up that property, with costs assessed to the landowner.

Under the previous ordinance, the process could take six weeks or more, because of the requirement to hold a public hearing four weeks after the council declares a property to be a public nuisance.

In other business, the council:

• reallocated $52,000 in the city budget to cover the cost of paving at the city’s Lighthouse property on Main Street, and awarded a contract to Global Construction and Engineering for that work
• reminded residents that potholes in city streets can be reported to the Gardendale Public Works Department by calling 631-3394, or by reporting the pothole through the department’s Facebook page
• hired Zachary Drummond as a police officer to fill a vacancy.