The Red Bay City Council held its regular meeting Oct. 20.

In announcements, the council noted the Franklin County EMA, in conjunction with Helen Keller will be offering the first dose of the COVID-19 Pfizer vaccine in the fellowship hall of the First United Methodist Church Nov. 9 from 9 a.m. to noon, with the second dose to be administered Nov. 30 in the same location.

In infrastructure updates, Mayor Charlene Fancher said there are a lot of infrastructure projects going on in Red Bay, especially in the sewer department. Several grants have been received through the ARC regional commission, and the most recent grant is to help fund the final phase of the city’s main sewer trunk line.

Fancher said the sewer board is applying for additional money through ARC, and the cap of that grant is $200,000 – with state revolving loan funding to complete the balance – with the project cost being about $600,000 for the final phase. Fancher said in all, including an emergency situation on 10^th Avenue, the project is going to be about $1.5 million dollars.

Fancher said Sunshine Homes in Red Bay is in the process of a $1.5 million expansion of 32,125 square feet to their mobile home production facility. She said she met with the project manager and HR director and will be joining them in Montgomery to go to the ADECA office to procure float loan funds to fund construction costs. The expansion is expected to generate 75-100 additional employee positions, building low-cost single-wide mobile homes on a government contract.

Current board openings include one six-year term on the Tree Commission, a one-year term on the Little League Board, one three-year position with Parks and Rec and a six-year position on the Water Works and Gas Board.

The council appointed Deborah Parker to the expired position of Billy Boyd on the Senior Citizen Board. This position is a six-year term with an expiration of Oct. 1, 2027.

The council also:

• Upon the recommendation of the Industrial Development Board, approved the purchase of 20 acres of property owned by Charles and Leland Brown. located adjacent to the West Franklin Industrial Park at $15,000 per acre, to be paid from the Industrial Development Fund.
• Upon the recommendation of the Industrial Development Board, approved the low bid of 2.38 percent from Valley State Bank to finance said purchase. The total purchase price is $300,000, and the Industrial Development Board is paying $60,000 down; the remaining $240,000 of the purchase price will be financed.
• Hired Eric Zills as a permanent full-time officer for the police department. His 90-day probationary period ended Oct. 7.

The City of Red Bay has designated Nov. 1-5 as Free Fall-Clean Up Week. The Free Pick-Up week includes yard debris such as trees, brush or leaves.