VINEMONT — The restructuring of the South Vinemont Town Council was completed Monday, July 8, as Grady Malone was sworn in to fill the vacant Place 5 position.
Malone had received early support to fill a vacancy created by the former councilmember Charolette Cosper in April, a position which was given to Ross Campbell last month. After Mayor Radginal Dodson announced the resignation of councilmember Sonya Copeland shortly after Campbell was sworn in on June 11, Malone became the most likely nominee.
Malone secured the nomination over two other residents, Jerry Smith and Michael Ashbaugh, who had previously expressed interest in joining the council as well as a last minute entry from former Place 5 councilmember Shirley Arnett during a special called meeting June 18.
Councilmember Chris Thompson has been a vocal advocate of Malone during the course of the nomination process and has said he believed Malone’s experience and connections as a building inspector with the city of Madison, Alabama could be a crucial benefit for the town.
During a work session held before the meeting, Malone discussed the benefits of keeping a building inspector on retainer as a way of increasing revenue in the town through permits and licensing. Malone said a building inspector would also ensure renovations done on older, existing buildings within the town by new businesses would meet modern safety codes.
“The biggest thing you don’t want is someone to move into something like an older restaurant from the 70s and assume they have a grease trap when they don’t. That could cause a grease fire which could cause the whole place to burn down. That’s the kind of thing we want to prevent is the loss of life,” Malone said.
After Malone was sworn into his position by Cullman County District Judge Chad Floyd, the council moved into its regular order of business and revisited its discussions on entertainment services for the annual barbecue festival, scheduled for early October.
Those discussions were tabled during the previous meeting to allow Baker Productions to revise its estimate to include a stage.
The council approved the all-inclusive estimate of $1,700 from Baker to provide a stage for the event as well as all other audio related services.
In other business the council announced the upcoming Senior Citizens Day will be held from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. Monday, July 15, at the Vinemont Community Center.