The Athens City Council unanimously passed a resolution on Monday, March 10, authorizing Mayor Ronnie Marks to apply for an Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) grant to support the development of a retail shopping center in East Athens. 

The economic development project is set for the southeast corner of U.S. 72 and Mooresville Road, with plans in place to bring in the third Publix to the city of Athens — and other future retailers. The project also includes substantial right of way improvements to nearby roadways, estimated to cost around $1.418 million. 

“This will help us cut down on that money we would have had to come up with on our own,” Athens City Council President James Lucas told The News Courier after the regularly scheduled meeting at city hall concluded. “Hopefully, this will allow us to be able to use that money we saved in other areas of our city going forward. Most of our roads are crowded nowadays, so this will hopefully help with that traffic flow and make that area a little bit safer to travel.”

During the meeting, Marks announced that he has already secured a verbal commitment from ADECA for nearly $800,000 — paving the way for the city to cover the remaining $618,192 through the approved resolution. 

“That section of the city of Athens is in desperate need of retail services for our citizens,” Marks said. “We’ve experienced a lot of sales tax and grocery store sales leakage in that area, so this gives us the opportunity to provide quality retail services that will bring an end to that leakage. The importance of shopping locally can not be understated, so the more services we can provide our citizens the better.”

In other business the council:

— Approved a resolution that reappointed Henry White to the Mental Health Center of North Central Alabama, Inc., for a six-year term

— Approved a resolution that appointed Marks as the voting delegate for the Annual Business Meeting of the Alabama League of Municipalities on May 15. The resolution also appointed Lucas as the first alternate voting delegate

— Approved a resolution that submitted a formal amendment request to ADECA regarding the Vine Street Neighborhood Project in order to reflect the total amount spent

— Approved a resolution that authorized the sale of certain properties on the Plato Jones Street parcels seized in connection with law enforcement activity. The resolution stated that the public auction will be coordinated by the State Lands Division of the State of Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.