The Livingston City Council approved the appointment of two directors to the Main Street Advisory Board with terms beginning Jan. 1, 2025 and ending Dec. 31, 2026 during its Dec. 10 meeting.
“This group is very important to our city. There are nine members that are appointed by this council. They can serve three consecutive terms but then they have to get off,” City Manager Bill S. Wiggins said, adding that they may still serve on the various Main Street committees even if they are no longer on the advisory board.
Molly Anderson and Kim Brown Jernigan were the two members going off the board. Council approved the appointment of Gary Davis and Michele Thomas to the board, with Alderman Andy Evans abstaining due to family relation.
Council canvassed the official returns of the city’s Nov. 5 General Election and approved a resolution regarding the canvassing and declaring the official results. The unofficial returns were canvassed at the Nov. 12 meeting. However, the ballot board met one more time and found an early voting mail-in ballot that added one vote for Mayor Judy Cochran.
During his monthly update on projects and events, Wiggins was happy to report that the downtown drainage improvement project, specifically, the sinkhole next to Life Vine Church is about 50% complete and is expected to be completed by mid-January. It has been dubbed “the Life Vine/Highline project” due to the fact that the sinkhole occurred on private property owned by those two entities.
5-t Utilities out of Huntsville is the contractor for the project in which five-foot by four-foot box culverts are being installed. What was previously there was corrugated tin that had rotted, resulting in soil intrusion.
Wiggins reported that Sam Rayburn Municipal Power Agency recently disbursed $7 million to each of its member cities – Livingston, Jasper and Liberty.
“This money is used for our projects that we’ve done through the years. It has purchased water towers and fire trucks, paid off debt and paid for a disaster,” Wiggins said.
As for ongoing development, Wiggins reported there are presently 19 commercial and 16 residential projects underway.
He also reported that Alderman Alan Cook was named Fireman of the Year at the Livingston Volunteer Fire Department’s annual Christmas party.
Other business included approval of the minutes of the Nov. 12 meeting and the accounts over $500.
