By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

Alabaster leaders are ready to move forward with renovating the former City Hall building to house the Alabaster Police Department, and are planning to explore options on a pair of road projects off Alabama 119.

During a Nov. 12 work session, Alabaster City Council members discussed several capital improvement projects they would like to fund during the current fiscal year.

-After gathering council consensus on the matter, Council President Scott Brakefield said the city “definitely” wants to fund renovations to the second floor of the former City Hall building on U.S. 31.

Alabaster’s administrative offices recently moved to the new City Hall building next to the Alabaster Senior Center, freeing up the upper floor of the former building for the police department. The police department currently occupies the lower floor.

The city is planning to fund the installation of several sheetrock walls and the movement of the police department’s dispatch center to the upper floor, which will double the department’s current space.

The Shelby County district attorney’s office and the county’s 911 department are planning to contribute to the project.

-The city is planning to explore the costs associated with placing a “basic” entrance road to allow access to about 111 acres of city-owned property sandwiched between Alabama 119 and Old U.S. 31.

If constructed, the entrance road likely would be slightly north of the Alabama 119 railroad crossing near the Thompson Sixth Grade Center. The road would allow residents to more easily access the property, which includes a large lake, said Ward 7 Councilman Tommy Ryals.

“The people’s money was spent on that (property). We need to do something with it,” Ryals said. “We don’t have to run a road to the edge of the lake, but just make it convenient to walk to.”

-City leaders also are planning to explore the costs associated with repaving, restriping and possibly recurbing 11^th Avenue Southwest between Alabama 119 and the new City Hall.

The road serves as an entrance to the Alabaster Senior Center and the new City Hall building, council members said.