By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Alabaster city employees will have 10-and-a-half vacation days during the city’s 2014-2015 fiscal year, despite one City Council member’s objection to adding additional holidays surrounding Christmas.

The council voted during a Sept. 25 meeting to approve the slate of city holidays, which will be in effect during the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 and ending on Sept. 30, 2015.

In addition to one floating vacation day to be used during the year, city employees will have the following days off during the 2015 fiscal year:

-Veterans Day on Nov. 11

-Thanksgiving from Nov. 27-28

-Half a day off on Christmas Eve on Dec. 24

-Christmas holidays from Dec. 25-26

-New Year’s Day on Jan. 1, 2015

-Martin Luther King Junior Day on Jan. 19, 2015

-Good Friday on April 3, 2015

-Memorial Day on May 25, 2015

-Independence Day on July 3, 2015

-Labor Day on Sept. 7, 2015

During the Sept. 25 meeting, Ward 4 Councilman Rick Walters said he disagreed with adding Dec. 26 to the holiday calendar, and said it will close Alabaster’s departments for several consecutive days.

“We should be open for business on the 26^th. It’s establishing a precedent whether you acknowledge it or not,” Walters said. “We are going to be closed for five days.”

Ward 5 Councilman Russell Bedsole, Council President Scott Brafield and Ward 3 Councilwoman Stacy Rakestraw said they didn’t believe adding Dec. 26 to the holiday calendar will set a precedent for the future.

“I don’t view it as setting a precedent. I look at it as more of a way for us to take care of our employees,” Bedsole said. “I’m hoping giving our employees another day off isn’t going to break the bank.”