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HOLLY POND — Traffic on U.S. 278 in Holly Pond has gotten increasingly worse around the town’s traffic light, and Mayor Carla Hart said the Alabama Department of Transportation should be addressing the issue this week.

During Monday night’s meeting of the Holly Pond Town Council, Hart gave an update on the traffic problem that has been plaguing residents of the town and anyone else traveling on the highway.

“It is terrible,” she said. “You can’t even pull out on the highway from the town hall or the gas stations.”

Hart said traffic near the light has continued to back up ever since ALDOT paved the area, and she believes the timing for the light was affected or changed due to that work.

“It wasn’t this way before, so we know something has happened during this paving process,” she said.

She said the state is in charge of the timing of the light and the person she spoke to from ALDOT said the light should reset itself on Tuesday to resolve the issue, but she will reach back out to the department if the problem continues to persist later in the week. 

“I’m waiting to see if that happens, if something changes,” she said.

In other business, Hart reported that the town’s tornado siren has been repaired after it was out of service for a couple months, with a replacement of internal components and speakers coming in at a price of $20,227.47.

The siren should be ready to work for the monthly test of the county’s sirens on Wednesday, she said. 

The council also set a date for a special called meeting Friday at 4:30 p.m. to discuss plans for the town’s new senior center. Holly Pond received a $250,000 Community Development Block Grant from the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs to build the new center, which will be located across the road from the Guy Hunt Library. 

Hart said the paperwork for the grant has to be submitted by the end of February, so the plans for the building need to be finalized before then. The meeting on Friday will allow the council to get together with the engineers and grant writers to find the best and most cost-effective ways to get the building built, she said.