The Springville City Council recently voted to support legislation that would allow pocket annexation in municipalities.

During their regular meeting last week, the council unanimously passed a resolution in support of House Bill 11, which would allow the city to incorporate small pockets within its city limits.

Mayor William “Butch” Isley said he met with Pell City Mayor Bill Hereford and he has requested that all cities in St. Clair County pass the resolution.

“Each of you should contact your representatives and senators for support of this resolution,” Isley said.

According to Alabama state law, there are two ways that would allow a municipality the size of Springville to annex any pocket municipalities. One is through contiguous annexation through the city council; the other is through non-contiguous annexation through an active legal search process.

If the bill is signed into law by Gov. Robert Bentley, any municipality has city limit boundaries completely surrounding a piece of land, and have had the land surrounded for three years or greater, the city council could, by act of local ordinance, annex the property, with or without the consent of the land owner.

Another potential advantage of the bill, if passed into law, would be that municipalities would then begin taxing these properties, resulting in added local revenue.

In other business:

• The city is moving forward with a legal process to receive money invested in CDs that secured the Middle Ridge Subdivison, which could help pave the neighborhood’s streets. The city had previously entered into a contract with a developer responsible for Middle Ridge Subdivision, who defaulted on his note to Alliant Bank. Both the city and developer had invested money into CD’s for the development of the subdivision. The city of Springville requires certain securities before a developer is allowed to begin sub-dividing properties, which are intended for improvements like roadwork. However, due to the high price of pavement and the process of paving, the money that the city and developer invested is not adequate to pave the roads as needed.

When the developer became delinquent on his obligation to the bank, he assigned his share of accrued interest to the bank. The bank then exercised its new interest on the CDs and threatened to take all the money. The bank has now agreed to give the city the money for use toward the subdivision’s paving projects, if the city agrees to release it from having to pave the streets any further. There is a chance that the money could stay in the bank to help pay off the developer’s deficiency; however St. Clair County Attorney James Hill does not believe that will be the end result.

• An expenditure of $2,500 to be used to cut down two trees on Spring Street was approved. The trees are currently located in the city’s right-of-way.