City of Cullman discusses partnership for infrastructure planning services

Published 9:52 am Tuesday, March 10, 2026

The city of Cullman took steps toward streamlining its infrastructure improvement planning process on Monday, Feb. 9, with the first reading of an ordinance to enter into an agreement with First Step Pavement Management.

Councilmember Jason Willoughby introduced the ordinance by recalling his time campaigning last year, and said the top priority among the majority of residents had been roads and infrastructure. He said partnering with First Step would allow the city to identify the highest priority projects during the city’s annual infrastructure planning process.

City of Cullman Engineer Erica York said she met with two different road assessment services and recommended First Step for its use of human intuition over the other company’s A.I. based model.

York said that after the agreement is finalized, a driver will travel the entire length of the 207 miles of roadway maintained by the city with a 360-degree video camera mounted on their vehicle. That video will then be reviewed by a human assessor before providing the city with a “heat map,” which indicates which roadways are most in need of improvements.

York said the assessment could also be combined with the city’s existing sewer assessment and include information on the city’s street signs, roadway striping, sidewalks, curbs and gutters.

Willoughby said such a detailed report would remove any guesswork from the infrastructure planning process.

“This takes a lot of the opinion out of which roads need the help and we’ll have a great database of all of our roads,” Willoughby said.

In other business the city:

— Held the first reading of an ordinance to regulate the retail sale of hemp products within the city.

— Held the first reading of an ordinance to establish procedures for adopting the annual street and transportation infrastructure capital improvement plan.

— Entered into the Solid Waste Management Plan for Cullman County.

— Amended the position control and job descriptions for the City of Cullman to:

— Approve eight job descriptions for the Sanitation Department.

— Approve one job description for the Cullman Economic Development Manager.

— Awarded the bid for landscaping and irrigation for the Lazy River at Wildwater Waterpark to Bright Landscapes, LLC in the amount of $237,625.

— Reappointed Drew Green to the Cullman County Library Board.

— Appointed Cassie Sparks to the Wellstone Board of Directors.

— Appointed Ann Swayka to the Zoning Board of Adjustments.