If Atmore’s mayor and city council members went home hungry after Monday’s meeting (January 23), there’s a good reason. The city’s governing body spent less than five minutes, including the invocation and Pledge of Allegiance, on a two-item agenda, with both items involving food.
First, the council voted unanimously (4-0) to authorize Mayor Jim Staff to “execute and deliver” a warranty deed to SDI Investments LLC, as assignee of Alabama Sound Investments Inc., as a prelude to a contract for the purchase by the company of land in Rivercane on which a Sonic restaurant will be built.
The city has already received a set of plans for the new fast-food franchise, he said.
Staff reported that SDI Investments had paid $5,000 in “earnest money” while financial arrangements were being finalized. The mayor noted that published reports of a $500,000 down payment on the one-acre site, just north of Hardee’s, were inaccurate.
He also reported that officials of the new restaurant anticipate that it will be open for business by the end of February.
Also approved by unanimous vote was a request by Escambia County High School Principal Dennis Fuqua that the school be allowed to use Tom Byrne Park for its annual BBQ Cook-off fundraiser.
Fuqua informed council members that the event, usually held on a Saturday, would be a two-day affair this year. He said the cook-off would be conducted on Friday evening, April 21, and on Saturday, April 22.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned after slightly more than four minutes.
District 4 representative Susan Smith was one of 53 persons from eight states attending the Delta Regional Authority Executive Academy and was unable to attend the council meeting.