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Archived Story
Bearden Road sidewalk project gets go-ahead
Published 10:34am Wednesday, June 13, 2012By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor
Pelham Mayor Don Murphy recently signed a contract to begin work on new sidewalks along Bearden Road from its intersection with Industrial Park Drive to Pelham High School.
The project also will include sidewalks on Industrial Park Drive between U.S. 31 and Bearden Road.
During a June 4 City Council meeting, Murphy announced crews will be working on the project over the next few years before likely completing it in 2015.
“That’s a project I’m glad to see going on. It’s been too long getting here,” Murphy said.
During a February meeting, the Pelham City Council voted unanimously to pay a total of $211,000 over the next three years to match a more than $1 million Birmingham Metropolitan Planning Organization grant to fund the project.
Pelham officials previously said the city will pay grant matches of $40,000 this year, $20,000 in 2013 and about $151,000 in 2015. Murphy said crews would conduct engineering studies of the project in 2012, would prepare the work site in 2013 and 2014 and would construct most of the sidewalks in 2015.
Murphy and council members previously said the sidewalks will help PHS students and parents and Pelham residents walking along the road to stay safe. Fourteen-year-old PHS student Tyler Lee was struck by a vehicle and seriously injured when he was walking along Bearden Road in August 2011.
Tractortime,
The discussion was about the new sidewalks on Bearden. You and others continue to attempt to discredit the purchase of 35 acres adjacent to the city park as the worst purchase in history, but in reality, it is the best purchase made by Pelham government since the original park land was purchased. It is not just a trailer park in a flood zone. That is pure poppycock. It is the ONLY answer to needed land for some park expansion, an honor park, a library, an education center, and a other needs a community needs to live well and attract the higher income residents.
1. The land has 800 feet of frontage on Hwy 31. It cost about 4.5 million plus the center acre purchase a few months later. Room to expand.
2. The money was a small part of reserve and while the money sat in the bank, it was earning less than 1 percent interest less inflation. As accountants will tell you, that means your buying power is decreasing each year.
3. The Bella Vista Park is putting an amount equal to 8-10 percent interest on that money each year plus the city owns the land which is a positive asset that will naturally grow in value too.
I don’t see any issues, only negative sniops who want Pelham to regress.
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Really David? 5 million dollars is a minimal expense? How much money is it going to cost to make that new park land usable park land. It’s funny how you complain about civic complex losses when this little pet project has the ability to cost more than all the years of so called complex losses combined.
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I am unaware of any five million dollar expense? Could you be more specific?
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The trailer park, go forth homes and John Deere landscapes. Add them up All for around 5.4 million dollars
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Pantherlover
You need to thank Mr Bill Meadows, and Don Murphy they got the grant money for pelham Hoover got grant money for side walk Mr Meadows said if Hoover Got money then Pelham should also (( SO SAY THANKS THE NEXT TIME YOU SEE HIM ))He the old guy you talk about
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Pelham lover said: “You really are gearing up for a run for the Council, aren’t you? ”
So you are afraid of that? You are safe, for now!
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There are times when the slant becomes the lie. There is no hidden drama with this sidewalk project. Yes, there are sidewalks in the park. Yes, the city was granted the funds to build them with very specific terms. Yes, the city had little choice about where this particular sidewalk would be built because of the type of program that was offered. I know, I was there and involved in the project. The park sidewalks not only connected Hwy 31 and Bearden Road, but also allowed for repair of several drain culverts and the installation of some safety railings. A very successful project that cost Pelham taxpayers nothing.
Other areas for sidewalks were applied for, but the grant rules prohibited those locations. Some of the areas discussed while I was involved was a sidewalk from the park to Valley School, to PHS, and one was discussed to RMS. They just didn’t fit.
Later, the accident happened on Bearden and the focus became more intense. The city has now secured the funds from another source after being turned down several times before and after the accident. They didn’t give up and we should be grateful that they did keep going.
Moving forward, we will now have sidewalks that hook together for the first time. From Highway 31, our citizens can walk from the park or Industrial drive all the way to PHS. Additionally, all the residents who live in the subdivisions along the way will have a new access available to them to get a longer distance quicker.
Since 1964, not one application for sidewalks on Bearden was filed until now. It is hard to understand how a very good idea brought to fruition is anything but good for this city. There is no other side of the story or any but, but, buts. A lot of people worked on these projects and the leadership of Director Crandall, Mayor Murphy, Councilperson Meadows (park liason) and others has been good for Pelham.
If you measure success by results, there has been some great work done in the last 3.5 years that I know about. Just look at the parks. In this terms, there have been two new picnic areas built, 18 tennis courst resurfaced, sidewalks built, trails completed, new park land purchased, improvements to the tennis complex, and a host of other work that got done because the leadership of the director, mayor, and council liason got together and did the work. They also got more park grant money in this term than Pelham got in its history, so expenses were minimal. There are other areas that have improved too. There is always more to do and there is always someone who refuses to be happy about the success, but we are on the right track in many sectors.
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You really are gearing up for a run for the Council, aren’t you? Sadly, your blind allegiance to the Nichols Meadows and Murphy crew will likely keep your dreams out of reach and that’s a good thing for we taxpayers. Your only response to people who put forth facts to your spinned up posts is to call them “liars” Pot, meet kettle Mr Ladewig.
The park land that was purchased is a trailer park in a flood zone that not much of anything can be done with. Other parcels of that purchase were owned by longtime friends of the Mayor. You drew the picture of the “Enlightenment Center” that many people thought was some sort of religious temple.
The picnic tables and grills weren’t done until a grant was received. Why couldn’t the city get this done on it’s own? The cost couldn’t have been that much, as neither were really fancy pieces of equipment. Playground equipment has not been improved, and you blame this again on a lack of grants. If the city has money to buy land from all the mayor’s friends (and himself) then why couldn’t you influence your pals on the Council to buy some playground equip and a few picnic tables?
To read your drivel, it would seem that there were no parks or rec facilities in Pelham until 2008. Talk about some major spin! Pelham has LONG been known for it’s excellent park and rec facilities. Statewide actually, LONG before Murphy or certainly you had anything to do with it. So far as courts and such being resurfaced, that’s just maintenance and should be expected.
I’d like to point out again that Murphy isn’t running against Bobby Hayes. It’s obvious you don’t like him for whatever reason, but you need to remember that he isn’t running for office and so far as I know, science hasn’t cloned a younger version of him to run either.
The sidewalk thing is just lame, weak excuses. Bottom line is, the Bearden rd project wasn’t approved until that boy’s mother got on everyone about it. That’s it. There’s no spinning it otherwise. Sure the Council and Mayor worked after that. They had to! It was all over the place! So all the guidelines they had for the city park sidewalks suddenly didn’t matter once the community pushed for Bearden rd? Hogwash,Ladewig.
Continue to pat yourself on the back for getting a grant for a couple of picnic tables that the parks dept could have built themselves, and poured the concrete themselves as well, likely at a much lower cost than the grant money (which is still tax money FYI) the rest of us know that the city hasn’t stagnated as a whole since 08 and lacks leadership. We have a group of self serving individuals that lacks outside the box thinking to get anything done that doesn’t benefit themselves, friends or supporters. You simply want to join in on this, but this mess is about to end.
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What have you done to better this city in the last 4 years?
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Now for the “rest of the story” as Paul Harvey would put it.
These sidewalks were only built after a large community effort took place after the boy was hit by a car. Mayor Murphy and others had the sidewalks in the city park (you’ve probably seen them. They are next to a walking track) installed first for whatever reason that isn’t important now. You’ll hear people like Mr. Ladewig claim it was the feds, but really.. what was more needed? Sidewalks next to a walking track INSIDE a park, or sidewalks along a busy road leading to a very large school.
It’s about leadership.
disclaimer: I am not affiliated with anyone’s campaign. I am a voting citizen. That’s it.
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This is the best thing to happen to that road since it was built. Kudos to the mayor for the extreme perserverance it took to get all the grant money. Now let’s build a walkway. Progress in Pelham is possible and affordable with smart thinking.
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