Improving the sewer lagoon highlighted Valley Grande’s City Council meeting on Tuesday at Valley Grande City Hall.

Present at the 26-minute meeting were Mayor Matt Dobbs and council Ronald Sawyer, Lamar Morgan, Tammy Troha, Jimmy Johnson and city clerk Janet Frasier. Tim White wasn’t present.

Dobbs and Public Safety Director Boyd Pugh recently met with Josh Pearce of Goodwin, Mills and Cawood Engineering firm to look at capital improvement ideas for the lagoon.

Pearce recommended bypassing the nitrate tower, remove the duckweed and add a detention tank.

“We’ll kill the duckweed in the pond,” Pugh said.

Dobbs said the office is moving forward with collections from the sewer fees.

Pugh also said no lines were cut or broken and the council can expect a bill from the firm within the next two weeks.

In other news, Valley Grande city hall will finally get its roof fixed. Dobbs and Frasier met with Chris Reed for an estimate. It would cost $3,500 for repairing the roof and $32,000 to get it replaced.

Reed recommended the repairing estimate and the council unanimously voted to get the roof fixed.

Troha brought up the 2018-2019 budget.  Dobbs said Frasier’s working on the budget and the council will have a planning session in the near future. The city remains on pace to meet the Sept. 30 deadline.

Dobbs announced that Valley Grande did not receive an Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) Tap Grant. He said ALDOT received applications worth $38.1 million, but they had only $12.9 million available.

The cameras at city hall are working, but await Spectrum cable to come in and install Wi-Fi to do a live feed.

The council agreed to purchase two gates for Valley Grande Ball Park.

The next Valley Grande city council meeting will be held on Sept. 17 at 6 p.m. at Valley Grande city hall.