By Cady Inabinett, Editor in chief 

Montevallo gained a new city board at the city council’s Aug. 28 meeting, where the council approved the creation of an architectural review board. 

The new board will review building permits to judge them for architectural appropriateness prior to their construction, specifically focusing on the city’s historic architectural elements. 

The ordinance outlines that the board will be composed of at least five members, each serving three-year terms, who have been nominated by the mayor and approved by the city council. All members must have backgrounds or experience with architecture, history, urban planning, archeology or law. Members do not have to be Montevallo residents. 

Additionally, the ordinance provides a way for the city council to create more architectural review boards in the future if the need arises to. These additional boards would focus on a specific historic property or district, instead of the city as a whole, as a way to alleviate the workload of the main architectural review board. 

The ordinance passed with only Council Member Martha Eisenberg voting against it. 

In addition to approving this ordinance, the council voted on two other measures during this meeting. The first approved the City of Montevallo Annual Transportation Plan in accordance with the Rebuild Alabama Act. The second accepted a price increase from the city’s garbage collection service provider, Republic Services, for trash pick-up. The new price, which will go into effect for city residents in October, to $31.  

Mayor Rusty Nix also read a proclamation declaring September as Gynecological Cancer Awareness month, encouraging women in the city to be proactive about screening for gynecological cancer.