Northport Sets Aside $2.5M For Streetscaping, Paving Projects

NORTHPORT, AL. — The city of Northport will move forward with increased funding for streetscaping and road paving projects after its City Council voted to allocate roughly $2.5 million for the efforts from Northport First funds generated by the city's 1-cent sales tax.

An update on the previous fiscal year, along with Northport First obligations for 2021, were given by the city's finance director Darren McGee Monday night during the Council's regular meeting, with each council member ultimately voting in support of the two separate allocations.

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In looking back at collections from the 1-cent tax in 2020, McGee said the city garnered $5.46 million, coming in well over the anticipated $5 million. The funds are then divided over various "buckets" for different local efforts and McGee said expenditures through fiscal year 2020 saw the city spend just over $76,000 on a variety of small projects and $2.68 million for the year to date in FY21, which included a transfer of $1.46 million to boost the city's required reserves to $3.8 million. This put Northport above its requirement of 10% (or $3.4 million) for its reserves.

McGee said this, along with $1.1 million already spent for paving projects, still leaves the city with $2.75 million remaining from the collections for 2020 Northport First funds.

McGee then asked for an additional $1.5 million to be set aside during the current fiscal year for paving and $1 million for streetscaping, neither of which saw opposition from the Council.

"We certainly don’t want the paving program to slow down so that’s why we’re asking for the additional funds there," he said, after explaining that the city had already spent $1.16 million thus far with over a quarter of a million left to be paid.

He then went on to discuss the streetscaping end of the request, saying the project continues to moves forward and is something that has been supported since the concept became a talking point.

"We have allocated $1.7 million toward Phase 1 and we allocated $700,000 in fiscal year 2020 Northport First funds," he said on the beautification efforts currently in the works. "We’re asking you allocate that $1 million in fiscal year 2021 funds so when construction begins, we can move along as quickly as we can … those were funds that when we were originally allocating 2020 funds, were in the projections for '21 and '22, so these are numbers we've seen before.

Council President Jeff Hogg spoke highly of the paving efforts and lended vocal support for the allocation of additional funds.

"These are the items we told the citizens, if we vote to raise your taxes by a penny, we’re going to be transparent," he said."You’re going to know where everything is going, every penny spent ... we are going to make sure these are items you can see and things you want."

OTHER BUSINESS

• The Council unanimously approved an ABC liquor license for R&R Cigars as it opens its second Tuscaloosa metro area location in Northport.
• The Council unanimously approved the appointment of Tony O'Rourke to a six-year term on the city's Planning and Zoning Commission, set to end Dec. 31, 2026.
• District 2 Councilman Woodrow Washington and Mayor Bobby Herndon honored Shedric Davis, owner of Shedric's Barbershop, as the city of Northport's Business of the Month for December.

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