Council approves board appointments

By Staff
Kim West
The members of the Russellville City Council approved appointments to seven of the city's 15 municipal boards in a brief meeting Monday night.
Councilman William Nale, also the mayor pro-tem, ran the meeting in the absence of Mayor Troy Oliver, who was out of town on business. Councilman Gary Cummings was also absent after being taken to the emergency room of Russellville Hospital earlier in the day because of high blood pressure.
Since taking office last November, the council had only filled one board vacancy – Kathy Archer to the library board – because the new administration wanted to solicit resumes from the public and interview a broad range of candidates for the nearly two dozen remaining board positions open to the public.
By a vote of 4-0, the board:
The board will still need to fill vacancies on the planning and zoning, parks and recreation, industrial development, zoning adjustment and medical clinic boards, and there will also be another opening for the Riverbend Board of Directors beginning April 1.
During the meeting the council, upon the recommendation of the city's planning commission, approved a re-zoning request by CK Irby Construction for a 5-acre tract of land located between U.S. 43 and AL 24 on East Lawrence St. The Florence-based company asked the city to convert the property from AG-1, or an agriculture zone, to a multi-family residential zone in order to build a 48-unit apartment complex.
The council also agreed to contract with Printers &Stationers to purchase new city hall furniture for state contract prices and with Advanced Communication Technologies to install voice and data wiring and a telephone system for the new city hall.
In personnel moves, the council accepted the resignation of police dispatcher Terry Saint and declared a vacancy for the coordinator of the Foster Grandparents Programs. The city will accept resumes for both positions for the next two weeks.
The next meeting will be Monday, March 16.