The City of Moody announced plans for the 2010 Citywide Cleanup during Monday night’s city council meeting. The city will launch its efforts toward the “Don’t Drop it on Alabama” campaign beginning April 17 through April 24.

The citywide cleanup is in its sixth year. Whether residents have some items they need to discard at home or they just want to help beautify their city, Moody is again making it easy for residents to clean up their surroundings.

Residents can obtain vouchers at Moody City Hall during normal business hours allowing them one load of trash to be discarded at Veolia’s landfill.

Dumpsters will also be placed behind CVS near Moody City Park and are available for citizens’ use. Those who wish to dump are asked not to include toxic materials, batteries, tires, pesticides, chemicals, paint or other hazardous items.

Citizens can also visit Moody City Hall for free trash bags.

A shredder will also be located at Moody City Hall one day during cleanup week. The exact date was not available as of press time. However, it will be published in the upcoming weeks. Businesses and individuals who wish to destroy private, confidential or otherwise sensitive documents can bring their items to the location. The Moody Police Department will be on-hand and will provide assistance. 

Veiola Waste Management and PALS of Alabama sponsor the event. Information on the Alabama PALS programs including Adopt-A-Mile, Adopt-An-Area, Adopt-A-Stream and general information about Alabama Litter Laws are also available at Moody City Hall.

“We appreciate all that participate in this cleanup effort and hope that the citizens benefit from the free services provided by Veolia,” said Moody Mayor Joe Lee.

For additional information concerning Moody’s Sixth Annual Citywide Cleanup contact the Public Works Department at 640-0309.

The Moody City Council also discussed a work session concerning signs in response to the possible B-5 rezoning of Park Avenue in Moody. Mayor Lee stressed that signs are not helping with to promote the city to visitors and potential commercial business. He asked what it would take for the signs to go away.  Residents answered that are looking to the city to deny the vote to rezone and then rezone the properties on an as needed basis.

City Attorney Bill Weathington brought up the fact that there is nothing on the agenda to be voted on at this time, adding that the planning commission did not vote in favor of the rezoning request therefore the city decided not to hear the request. “That is where it stands right now,” he said. “All of that will go back to the planning commission before it comes back here.”

“There are not any requests before the planning commission at this time,” he said. Weathington added that there has been discussion about it going back before the commission and included that they had amended the ordinance to address some of the property owners concerns.

“I guess the best way to explain it is that we have a draft of an amended ordinance that I think addresses a number of concerns that were given by the citizens at the first planning commission meeting,” he said. “One was –can we rebuild if something happens to our house. Another one was the fact that B5 does not allow for parks or churches and some other things already located there.  We proposed to make those changes to it.”

He added that there was an area on the proposed map that should have been left off and that changes would have to be made. It would then have to be presented to the planning commission. He said that assuming it went forward all the property owners would have to be contacted and that the steps in the process would put the earliest that the city council could possibly vote on it sometime in late May.

Mayor Lee made the request to schedule a work session with the planning commission, city council and residents to discuss the issue and try to come to a conclusion with property owners. 

“I think we have to do something,” Lee said. “We can’t wait forever. As long as we wait the signs are going to stay up. We have to have a positive outlook on the city of Moody when people come here. That is what I’m looking for. “

The work session will take place on Monday, March 29 at Moody City Hall starting at 6 p.m. Everyone is invited to attend.

Other items included:

• approving to spend $274.84 to replace a radiator cooling fan on police vehicle 307;

• approving to spend $300 to rent a truck to pick up surplus items;

• approving to spend up to $800 for DARE graduation food;

• approving to declare a 1952 Ford Antique Police Car surplus property. The city will be taking bids on the property.  If anyone is interested they are asked to call 640-0337 for more information;

• approving $500 allotted for the Moody Methodist Church Storm Shelter;

• approving the repairs to the fire pumps at $775 for parts and labor;

• approving to replace the monitor nozzle on the ladder truck estimated at $5,200;

• approving $1,400 for asphalt from the four cent gas account. Citizens can call the Public Works Department at 640-0310 if they know of streets in dire need of repair;

• approving to pay up to $960 to rent a shredder to be used during the citywide cleanup with $300 being covered by the District Attorney’s Office. The city will ask local businesses to make donations.