Tuscumbia Council discusses Spring Park food stand, garbage rates

Spring Park in Tuscumbia may soon be getting a new tenant for the barbecue stand, but residents will have to wait a little bit longer for things to become official.

Mayor T.W. Billings said a new tenant has been lined up for the location, which was previously Dude’s BBQ from June 2024 through June 2025 and Dick Howell’s BBQ before that.

“They are going to go in and clean everything up, the people that are renting it,” Billings said during the Feb. 16 meeting of the Tuscumbia City Council. “We are going to rent it to them at a very low rate for the month or so it will take to get cleaned up.”

Billings said the new tenant was “reluctant” to make a deposit to get utilities turned on before an official vote was made by the Council to rent the property to them.

“I assured them they would, but I’m not sure they believed me,” Billings said.

As this was the first reading on the ordinance to approve the lease agreement, Council members were given the option to vote to suspend the rules and vote on the item during that meeting.

Council member Sidney Nall voted not to suspend the rules, and rule suspension requires a unanimous vote.

So, the ordinance will see a second reading during the next meeting scheduled for March 2, where the Council will have a chance to discuss the item and make a vote on the lease agreement.

In other business, the Council discussed raising garbage rates for city customers.

Council members asked Public Works Director Joel Kendrick a number of questions about the rates in clarification of a proposed increase.

Kendrick said commercial rates have not been increased since 2007, and residential rates have been in place since 2017.

Garbage service for Tuscumbia residents is currently $17.50 a month. Commercial service depends on different criteria and has over 200 pay schedules.

Kendrick said he has proposed a residential increase to $20 a month.

Nall asked how current rates compared to neighboring cities, with Kendrick saying Tuscumbia is on par with Muscle Shoals but “quite a bit lower” than Sheffield, Florence and the county.

Council member Krista Stanley asked Kendrick to clarify, which he did, that all of the money collected through garbage rates go directly back into the service.

“Garbage rates pay for everything to do with garbage, down to the fuel and landfill costs,” Kendrick said. “We need a new commercial garbage truck right now, and they are (as much as) $500,000.”

Council member Len Gregory confirmed with Kendrick a new truck is a necessity for the department to continue trash pickup for residents, while Council member Roderick Metcalf confirmed the closing of the old landfill has raised costs for the city.

As this was the first reading of the related ordinance, the related vote to increase garbage rates will be revisited during the next meeting.Tuscumbia Council