After nearly a week of battling less-than-favorable road conditions brought on by last week’s cold snap, service workers received high-praise from the Cullman City Council Monday, Jan. 22.

Acting as Council President in Jenny Folsom’s absence, councilmember Johnny Cook took the first moments of Monday’s meeting to recognize workers from the city’s emergency first responders.

“I want to commend really all of our city services for this past week with the weather. The police and firefighters were working to try and keep the roads open and keep them safe, working wrecks; and the fire department making their calls as they had to,” Cook said.

Mayor Woody Jacobs echoed Cook’s statement when mentioning several incidents in which city workers and community members banded to assist semi-trucks which had gotten stuck on AL Hwy. 278. Jacobs also noted the behind-the-scenes planning efforts of Police Chief Dave Nassetta and Fire Chief Bryan Bradberry to ensure first responders would be able to assist residents even in hard to reach areas.

“It was kind of fun to see our community come together with our departments. Chief Bradberry, I think he was sweating bullets because there’s some of those areas that you just couldn’t get in and out of really well. He was doing what he should have been doing and coming up with a Plan A and a Plan B and hoping that nothing happen,” Jacobs said.

Cullman City Schools Superintendent Kyle Kallhoff also thanked Nassetta and Bradberry for the regular updates on road conditions, which he said were invaluable to his decision making process on whether or not classes should resume.

“I want to thank the mayor, Chief Bradberry and Chief Nassetta for the open line of communication. I was in a spot last week on the southeast side of town where I couldn’t out of my neighborhood. Having that open line of communication and collaboration helped us out tremendously with our decisions,” Kallhoff said. “Stuff like that, in my opinion, separates good community school systems from the great ones.”

Cook said that as the icy conditions persisted and trash began to accumulate, the city’s sanitation department began to weigh heavily on the community’s mind. However, he said when the ice thawed the efforts from sanitation workers was particularly impressive.

“By Friday all of our residential pickup and our commercial roll off and front end were caught up for the week. So, people were inconvenienced for a day, maybe a day and a half. I just want to commend our sanitation department for doing that,” Cook said.

The council also Monday approved a tax abatement for “Project Front” which according to Cook would be spending roughly $2.6 million.

Following the meeting Cullman Economic Development Agency Director Dale Greer was unable to provide any further details regarding the project, but said the use of “code names” was fairly common until negotiations were finalized due to the competitive nature of these types of projects.

In other business the board:

• Approved to abolish and re-create the Downtown Review Board.

• Approved an ordinance preserving downtown aesthetics with the Central Business District.

• Held a public hearing and the first reading to rezone property owned by Blue Hole, LLC on Hwy. 278 from AG-2 to AG-1.

• Held the first reading of an ordinance to regulate mobile food businesses within the city limits.