After eight years away from Cullman City Hall, Woody Jacobs will return as mayor Monday, ushering in a new administration focused on building a more-responsive municipal government. 

Jacobs will be sworn in along with returning City Council members Andy Page, Garlan Gudger, Johnny Cook, Clint Hollingsworth and Jenny Folsom 7 p.m. Monday ahead of an organizational meeting.

He said he plans to first focus on getting the lay of the land — reacquainting himself with city employees he worked with as council president and getting to know new ones.

“There’s not going to be any drastic changes. I just plan to get in there and start building relationships with the employees, department heads and supervisors,” Jacobs said Friday, after spending the day cleaning out his office at Cullman construction firm Eidson & Associates. “Max (Townson) and I have been in good communication, and I rode with him to the recent airport board meeting and I sat in on it with him.”

He aded coming in with prior experience as a council president — like former mayor Donald Green — makes for a smoother transition.

“You kinda know things going in, you know how things work a little bit better,” Jacobs said.

He takes over as Cullman is on the rise, with expanding industries and new retail growth. Jacobs plans to apply his four decades of work experience — 21 years in construction management and 20 more in accounting  — to a number of forthcoming public projects, namely a new fire station, water/wastewater facility and airport upgrades to name a few.

“With my background, I’ll be right in the middle of those,” he said.

He also wants to make good on a campaign promise. Jacobs said an initiative he wants to follow through on is, for lack of a better word, developing an “app” where residents can report problems or concerns and quickly receive feedback.

“Even before I was campaigning, I had people asking ‘Who can I call to get this fixed?’” Jacobs said. “People can take a picture of a pothole and send it to the city. We put it in the system, get a work order and let them know it will be fixed.”

“Let’s make it easy for people.”

He also wants to make it clear that being mayor will be a full-time job and his only one. During the campaign, there were some who speculated about Jacobs’ ties with his construction company.

“I’m leaving it, and being mayor, 100 percent, is all I’m focused on.” 

 

Tiffeny Owens can be reached at 256-734-2131, ext. 135.