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By NOAH WORTHAM | Managing Editor

 ALABASTER – The Alabaster City Council set a public hearing to amend the salaries of the mayor and council members during a regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, Jan. 13.

During the meeting, the council set a public hearing for Monday, Jan. 27 at 6:30 p.m. to amend an ordinance affecting the mayor and council salaries for the next term beginning on the first Monday in November 2025.

According to Councilperson Zach Zahariadis, the salaries for the mayor and council have not been increased for 17 years.

If approved, the amended version of the ordinance would increase the mayor’s salary from $45,000 per year to $65,000. Compensation for council members would increase from $13,000 to $16,599.96 per year and the council president would see an increase in pay from $15,600 to $19,200 per year.

If the changes in salary for the mayor and council were to be approved, they would go into effect when the next Alabaster City Council takes office in November.

During the meeting, the council approved the setting of a public hearing for Monday, Jan. 27 at 6:30 p.m. for an ordinance prohibiting the unauthorized discharge of any waste or other unauthorized material from septic, tallow or other type pump trucks, tanker trucks or trailers directly into the city sewer system.

“We (are) trying to limit or harp on the folks who are trying to potentially  discharge any waste (or) restaurant material whether that be grease traps or any trucks that are trying to dump their septic directly into our sewer system,” Zahariadis said. “We had a little run in with an individual and now we’ve decided to take a deeper look into our city ordinance. So, we’re going to have a public hearing set… to prohibit and crack down on those individuals trying to do that.”

In other business, the Alabaster City Council approved the following:

• Ordinances to pre-zone 138 Canter Way to PRD-1 at the request of John Stephen and Melissa Wiley to match the rest of Saddle Lake and to annex the property
• Ordinances to pre-zone 2474 Smokey Road at the request of Katelyn and Tyler Wins Fredrick to Agricultural and to annex the property
• An ordinance at the request of Billy and Mary Grubbs for Western REI to rezone property located at County Road 17 from Municipal Reserve to Single-Family Residential District
• A resolution to declare items as surplus from various departments
• A resolution authorizing an agreement related to mutual aid for ambulance service between the city of Pelham and the city of Alabaster
• A resolution authorizing an agreement with Shelby County for the paving of Wooten Road in the amount not to exceed $18,693

The next scheduled worked session is set for Thursday, Jan. 23 at 6 p.m. at Alabaster City Hall and the next regularly scheduled Alabaster City Council meeting will take place on Monday, Jan. 27 at 6:30 p.m.