— The city of Athens may be closer to establishing a weed ordinance that would result in quicker action to address problem properties.

The City Council Monday declared two properties — 1107 Winston Drive and 1505 Levert Avenue — public nuisances, but Councilman Harold Wales asked why the city couldn’t go ahead and clean up the properties and assess a tax lien. He said the city of Decatur’s ordinance allows nuisance properties to be cleaned within 14 days and asked why the same couldn’t be done in Athens.

City attorney Shane Black said Athens, which is a Class 6 city under Alabama code, has to follow prescribed steps when addressing nuisance properties. Cutting the property without following those steps, he said, could open the city up to “more liabilities.”

Black, however, said he has worked with city officials to develop a strategy “to expedite the procedure,” but will require action from the state Legislature to put it into law.

“We’re asking the state Legislature to do for us what it has done for a couple of other classes of municipalities; to develop our own grass and weed program,” he told the council during a work session. “Right now, you see (overgrown lots) three different times (in the process). But you don’t want to go out and cut it without giving the proper notice and a chance to respond.”

Elsewhere during the regular meeting, the council held a public hearing on granting the Spirit of Athens a special event license to sell alcohol during the Athens Grease Festival to be held next month. No one spoke for or against the measure, though Athens resident and mayoral candidate Jerry Hill asked why citizens were not made aware of the plans to sell alcohol at the festival.

“This is the first I’ve known about this,” he said. “Will this be a wild, drinking party?”

If granted a license by the council, SOA would confine alcohol sales and consumption to the Center for Lifelong Learning on Marion Street. Councilman Harold Wales said during the work session that he saw no difference between the SOA request and “having a beer or glass of wine” at Village Pizza or other restaurants on the Square.

He said while he’s in favor of granting the license, those who have urged him to vote against it “are the same ones that wanted me to vote down alcohol four years ago.”

In other business, the council:

• Held a public hearing and passed an ordinance to rezone property at the southwest corner of the intersection of Hine Street and Sanderfer Road from R-1-1, or low-density residential, to institutional. Lewis A. Miller, New Life Church and Lindsay Lane Baptist Church made the request;

• Held a public hearing and passed a resolution to approve a master plan revision for the Village at Piney Creek. The revision gives developers permission to use a lot near the back of the subdivision as a common lot for a swimming pool; and

• Passed a resolution to purchase steel poles for the south Limestone substation that will be used by Carpenter Technology Corporation. The low bid on the poles was $43,933.