VINEMONT — Tuesday evening the atmosphere within South Vinemont Town Hall stood in stark contrast to when the council last gathered at a specially called meeting on April 19 to discuss the business license of two mobile home parks in the town. With almost all council members reporting having seen significant improvements.

Mayor Radginal Dodson said that “it was a tough row to hoe,” but was pleased with the progress that has been made at the parks. Similarly Councilman Chris Thompson reported that he had noticed the pile of loose rock behind the parks office had been disposed of and was beginning to see a regular lawn care routine being developed.

“I hate to admit it, but I think we rattled their cage and it’s getting better,” Dodson said.

The council agreed to revisit the matter next month to determine if improvements will be maintained.

The council then turned it’s focus to it’s own improvements to the town by approving the purchase of new playground equipment to replace the existing equipment located at the entrance of the town’s walking trail.

The Double Adventure Tower will feature two towers complete with rock walls, swings, monkey bars and slides. The two ninja obstacle courses (a more intense type of ropes course) will allow for complete customization of the 65 foot slack lines to be reconfigured in a variety of ways by utilizing the included accessories, and will allow children to test their ninja skills against friends.

In total the new equipment will cost $6,374 and will be ordered from Amazon.com using the town’s tax exemption status. There were also discussions about planned improvements to the town’s basketball court, but due to rising concrete costs, those plans are on hold.

Thompson stated that Councilwoman Sonya Copeland and he were inspired by the City of Cullman’s Art Park and would in the future like to incorporate an artistic element to the park.

The future of the Jack’s Restaurant to be constructed at the corner of High School Road and Alabama Highway 31 is one step closer to being finalized with the council approving a bid for the turn lane requested by Jack’s to be passed back to Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs grant committee for approval.

City planner Mike Graves told the council that this approval would be last hurdle before construction would begin and that the town would be responsible for matching 20 percent of the $228,000 bid.

In other business, the council:

Approved a $450 one time donation be made to the American Legion.

Received what CPA Larry Cooke described as “as clean [of an audit] as we’ve ever had anywhere.”

Heard Dodson’s update for the town’s movie night where it will be showing Encanto at the Community Center May 14 at 7:45. Saying that Town Clerk Kayecea Sasser “had put in her order for the weather” and that conditions should be great.