Northport Council: Funds OK’d for recreation plan, MLK bridge, creek study
Northport City Council on Monday approved several next steps toward repairing areas in need around town, as well as creating a master plan for a 151-acre property the city purchased last year. Here’s a roundup of some of the council’s actions Monday. You can find the rest via a PDF download right here.
Recreational Master Plan
Northport will soon be studying what they can do with the 151-acre property the city purchased last year. The company working on the study, TTL Inc., will present their findings to the city as a Recreational Master Plan.
TTL will evaluate the area to see what recreational opportunities are more appropriate. One major option up for assessment is a water park, which District 5 Northport City Council Member Jeff Hogg has been advocating for over the past several years.
Other potentials include day-use park activities, overnight accommodations, event facilities, nature experiences or other infrastructure.
“We have an extensive list of requests from the constituents of Northport as well as the council,” said Northport City Engineer Tera Tubbs. “So we’re going to do everything we can to see what opportunities would be best on this property.”
There’s no word on when the study will begin, but the cost is capped at $150,000.
Tw0-Mile Creek Study
Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc. have entered into an agreement with the city to provide a drainage study for Two-Mile Creek, located near Hunter Creek Trailer Park in Northport.
The creek flooded in June 2021, causing widespread damage to mobile homes at Hunter Creek. The study will look at structures within that drainage basin and determine what sort of projects would best improve drainage in the area.
Once those projects are identified, the city will look for funding locally or apply for grants. The cost of the study will not exceed $116,200.
No word on when the study will begin.
Bridge on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard
Northport City Council on Monday approved a $100,000 increase to the cost of the Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard improvements project.
The work is being done by Burk-Keinpeter, Inc., and the total cost of the project will be just under $875,000.
A bridge being replaced as part of the project is located over Two-Mile Creek.
“We would like to go ahead and move forward with that bridge ahead of the project,” said Tubbs. “We want to go ahead and get it under construction. (The Alabama Department of Transportation) has approved us removing that structure from the plans, so we will have a separate set of bridge plans and we’ll go ahead and move forward and get a contract to start that while they’re waiting to get the right of way acquisitions for the rest of the project.”
