Dr. Kenneth Kitts, president of UNA, spoke at the work session of the Florence city council. He listed the accomplishments the university had made recently in enrollment numbers and the fact that now there were 10,600 students. Of those there were approximately 7,000 who attended classes on campus. The others were online and graduate students. He said Lauderdale was the single largest “feeder” county for students. He talked about facilities being constructed in the last decade and mentioned that one of them was the computer science and math building that been completed in 2021. I was waiting to see if he was going to ask for another payment of $500K from the city for this building. This is the amount the city pays towards the “gift” that was made of $3 million dollars total when the building was announced. The city is making payments toward this “pledge” and has for 4 years now. But he did not go in that direction.
He did talk about project “208”. This name came about because of the distance that UNA is from Montgomery. He also said the university was the lowest funded state school of higher learning by the state of Alabama. He said this had increased but said it still was not enough. This was the red flag warning I was waiting for. Kitts had shown up “hat in hand”. It reminded me of a preacher getting ready to pass the plate.
He said this loss in funding resulted in a shortage for the university. All together the university could use another $20 million dollars a year. He added this was not just the university’s problem but also a problem for the city of Florence. He slipped that in so smoothly I know Jimmy Swaggart would be proud. He mentioned how the “Town and Gown” project was a great asset to the university and the city. I could not help but think this name kind of sounded like the story of Cinderella at the ball. We know who the town is and the “gown” part was UNA, so does that make the taxpayers of Florence Cinderella? While the taxpayers cleaned the fireplace were the city council stepsisters getting ready for the ball? He ended with what a great partnership the university had with the city. Then he thanked the council for their time. When he started toward the door, I didn’t see a collection plate under his coat, but he had made his “pitch”. Look for more Florence taxpayer money in appropriations to UNA in the future.
The controversial agenda item was the proposal to have an engineering group, Civil LLC, reconfigure Pine St. to be more “pedestrian” friendly with 2 lanes of traffic, a turning lane in the middle and bicycle lanes on each side going from Irvine Ave. to Cypress Mill Rd. This was to cost $234,900.00.
There has been much discussion on social media, mostly against, this action by the city. It has been argued that taking one of the main thoroughfares to downtown for those living in North Florence and reducing it to a two-lane road inconvenienced motorists who use the route regularly. And every position against limiting the accessibility of this route is valid in this writer's opinion. There is just one problem. Pine St. is too far gone. With a stadium squeezed into a practice field area, a new building being constructed just north of Rivers Hall and who knows what else they decide, UNA has wrecked Pine St. And “city hall” went along.
For all the talk from some on the council of safety for students and pedestrians the main problem is speeding on Pine St. Bill Griffin had a reasonable solution which would have cost the taxpayers of Florence $50K instead of $235K. His idea was to order cameras and place them along the street to clock and ticket speeders. This was so simple and it did not require a “study” or a “proposal” or even a “public input session.” But, OF COURSE, it was not even considered by the council although Mr. Griffin had presented his idea to everyone involved. Thanks anyway for trying Bill!
The agenda item was voted on and true to form: since she was employed by UNA, Kaytrina Simmons abstained from the vote, Michelle Eubanks voted in the affirmative although she worked for the university like Ms. Simmons. She was guarded by an opinion from the state ethics committee she received when elected so she always voted when it came to UNA. And usually “YES”.
And the trio of Oliver, Edwards and Hendrix with their “hive mind” voted yes. The bottom line after this meeting was this: Those who live north of Pine St. need to find another “way to town.”
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