Pelham City Clerk Tom Seale announces retirement
Published 10:39 am Wednesday, January 8, 2025
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By DAVE DOMESCIK | Staff Writer
PELHAM – The Pelham City Council announced the retirement of Tom Seale, Pelham’s city clerk and treasurer, during a regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, Jan. 6.
Seale will be replaced by his son, Jonathan. The move will officially take place on Monday, Feb. 3.
A resolution was passed confirming Jonathan Seale as the next city clerk and treasurer for Pelham. Jonathan was accompanied by his wife and mother at the ceremony, while his father Tom was on hand as the current city clerk and treasurer of Pelham.
The entire family was visibly emotional as the resolution passed.
“Truly, in many ways it’s a dream come true,” Jonathan said. “It’s more than a job, it’s a career opportunity of a lifetime for me.”
The comments from the city council members consisted of congratulations to the entire Seale family, while also commending the citizens of Pelham for making their voice heard at the evening’s proceedings.
“I want to thank the residents that came out tonight to voice your opinion,” Council Member Rick Wash said. “That is absolutely what city government is all about… it is super important that you get involved, and hear that you have a voice and it does matter.”
Along with the announcement of the new city clerk, the Council also received a presentation from Randy Goggans, who works with the real estate company Pelham 157. Goggans proposed the construction of garden homes for property along Oak Mountain State Park Road and Shelby County Highway 33.
As customary, a work session was held at 5:00 p.m. before the city council meeting at 7:00 p.m. The work session consisted of four separate discussions pertaining to developments in the city of Pelham.
The first discussion regarded a proposition for the city of Pelham to absorb the Eagle Cove Sewer Lift Station as a city-owned property. The property itself is in need of maintenance, and the proposition for the city to absorb the station and upgrade it to industry standards would cost approximately $180,000.
André Bittas, the director of development services and public works with the city of Pelham, presented the city’s street resurfacing plan for the 2025 calendar year.
“We did go out and actually drive through the streets and look at the conditions to confirm that these streets require resurfacing,” Bittas said.
In closing, Bittas gave an update on renovations being made to Pelham City Park. The floor was then turned to Mark Dinan, a commercial real estate broker in Pelham, who proposed a property listing agreement with the city of Pelham for property located on Highway 35 and Oak Mountain Trail.
The property includes a Jack’s restaurant, with 3.66 acres of land on the property up for sale. Dinan announced that he was negotiating with the Hilton hotel brand to potentially add a location on the acreage, but Council Member David Coram argued that Dinan’s claims were unsubstantiated. Coram cited the fact that Hilton has other hotels in the area, making the addition of another hotel on Dinan’s property unnecessary.
“They (Hilton) have active development agreements that are in place… that’s why they won’t grant anyone,” Coram said. “They would cannibalize each other.”
After Dinan’s proposal, the work session was adjourned and the focus shifted to the official City Council meeting at 7 p.m.
The consent agenda for the meeting consisted of four new resolutions. The first resolution declared certain personal property of the Parks & Recreation Department that was no longer in use as surplus. The second resolution announced that the rear electric gate at the Wastewater Treatment Plant was being replaced. A bid was then awarded to Mark Johnson Construction, LLC to replace a pump at a sewer station in Pelham. Finally, the city of Pelham entered a professional services agreement with Goodwyn Mills Cawood, LLC for construction surveying and project staking for the Greenway Trail Project.
All of the items in the consent agenda passed unanimously. The meeting then moved to a public hearing concerning Randy Goggans’s request to rezone two parcels of land for the purpose of constructing 225 homes west of Pelham Oaks Elementary School in the Oakmont subdivision.
“We feel like what we’re doing is right within the (city of Pelham’s) plan,” Goggans said. “We have a low density development, actually, with 225 homes and 240 acres.”
Goggans’s proposal was met with extreme pushback from local Pelham residents. Several different citizens addressed the council to communicate their frustrations and skepticism around Goggans’s plan. The main concerns for the plan from residents included increased traffic and environmental disruption, which citizen Marty Gilbert addressed.
“This (property) is something special,” Gilbert said. “We should appreciate it. People from all over recognize that road. They remember the canopy… We don’t need to decimate that hill with a bunch of houses.”
Lynn Wright, a Pelham resident who lives near the proposed construction area, expressed her concerns as well.
“I am very concerned about traffic,” Wright said. “I’m very concerned about garden homes. I’m very concerned about erosion. I honestly do not believe that we need garden homes. We built two new apartment complexes not that long ago.”
After the hearing, the council called the City Council meeting back to order. The council added that an official decision on whether or not the city will accept Goggans’s proposal will be made at the next City Council meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 22.
Following the hearing was a proclamation from the mayor declaring January 2025 as Human Trafficking Awareness and Prevention Month in Pelham, Alabama. City Manager Gretchen DiFante then gave her report, mentioning that 67 of the 69 properties have been acquired for the city’s proposed Highway 261 expansion.
DiFante also added that the Pelham Civic Complex and Ice Arena saw record turnout for the “Get Out and Skate Day” event held on Saturday, Jan. 4.
“We had 270 participants, 600 people for public skate and a sold out Bulls game,” DiFante said. “We’re very excited and very thankful to the council and their support of the (Civic Complex) management group and everything that they’re doing there.”
The meeting closed with public announcements. City offices will be closed on Monday, Jan. 20 for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. The work session and city council meeting for that week was rescheduled to Wednesday, Jan. 22. The city of Pelham is accepting applications and resumes for appointments to the city’s several municipal boards.
For more information on the city of Pelham and its regularly scheduled city council meetings, visit Pelhamalabama.gov.