By EMILY SPARACINO / Staff Writer

COLUMBIANA – The Columbiana City Council on Jan. 7 voted to rezone properties on West College Street from business (B-1 and B-2) to manufacturing (M-1).

One of the properties is located at 405 West College Street and was the former site of a skating rink facility. The other parcel of property, 400 and 426 West College Street, was split zoned, meaning it had two different zoning classifications.

“If you were to have the property financed through a mortgage company, they prefer to have one classification of zoning,” Columbiana Planning and Zoning Director Dale Lucas said. “It does help the owner to have his property all one zoning now.”

Lucas said the reasoning behind rezoning the properties to M-1 is so they could be used for light industry in the future.

No one spoke for or against the rezoning ordinances for each property during a public hearing Jan. 7.

In other business, the council approved a resolution to award a bid for $4,500 per month to Bones Lawn Care for maintenance of the city’s ball fields.

Councilman Ricky Ruston said the bid was the lowest of three bids submitted and will cover maintenance and upkeep of the baseball and football fields at the Columbiana Sports Complex, plus the softball fields across from Elvin Hill Elementary School.

The council also approved a resolution to contract with RDS for business license discovery and recovery and sales tax collection, and an ordinance regarding the enforcement of a two-hour parking limit on North and South Main Street in the downtown area.