Tuscaloosa City Council

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — City leaders in the home of the University of Alabama are considering $400,000 in aid to help bars that were forced to shut down because of the pandemic. 

Bar owners in Tuscaloosa say they're being hurt by a city order that forced them to close for two weeks after students returned to town and hundreds of new coronavirus infections were confirmed. So officials are considering a package that would provide as much as $400,000 in small business relief.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — Plans are being developed to paint a Black Lives Matter mural in an Alabama city’s downtown. 

The Tuscaloosa News reported on Monday that the City Council voted in favor of adding the temporary artwork to a downtown street adjacent to the city’s government plaza.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama city’s officials are considering new curfew laws during school hours to try to discourage students from skipping class.

The Tuscaloosa City Council’s public safety committee approved a proposal that would make it illegal for minors to be unaccompanied in public from 9 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. any Monday through Friday that city schools are in session.

The Tuscaloosa City Council tonight approved the so-called “Elevate Tuscaloosa” tax plan Tuesday night.

The panel voted 5 to 2 to approve the 1% increase to the city sales tax. Mayor Walt Maddox proposed the increase earlier this year to generate an additional five hundred million dollars in city income over three decades. That would fund 21 projects spanning education, infrastructure, economic development and entertainment.

It’ll be free to hop on the bus this week in Tuscaloosa.

The Tuscaloosa News reports the city's transit authority is offering free rides across the city as it unveils an entirely new bus route.

Executive Director Russell Lawrence says the authority changed some stops on other routes, leading to the decision to waive the $1 for bus fare or 20 cents to transfer citywide.

It's the system's first new route since 2011.

City leaders in Tuscaloosa are focusing on encouraging more development on the city’s west side and in other parts of the community.

The Tuscaloosa News reports plans involve luring new investors and development to west Tuscaloosa as well as eastern and southern areas of the city that have been neglected or fallen from favor.

  Some Tuscaloosa residents are upset after finding out last month they're being charged an extra fee for paying water, sewer and trash collection bills online.

The Tuscaloosa News reports new fees charge customers $2.95 for paying online with a credit card and $1 for using debit cards. The fees kicked in Oct. 1 at the same time water and sewer rates increased 3 percent.

The Tuscaloosa City Council approved the fees to offset revenue lost to convenience charges by credit card processors. Officials say cities such as Birmingham and Montgomery charge similar fees.

The city council in Tuscaloosa is expected to vote Tuesday on a contract that would secure a $10 million line of credit to help fund storm recovery efforts.

The Tuscaloosa News reports (http://bit.ly/URA3B4) that if approved, it would mark the first money the city would borrow to pay for the millions of dollars in costs associated with rebuilding and cleaning up Tuscaloosa following the tornado of April 27, 2011.

The city of Tuscaloosa is considering a temporary ban on some kind of businesses as it rebuilds from last year's tornado.

The City Council on Tuesday will continue a discussion of a proposed moratorium that could affect businesses including pawn shops, check-cashing stores, tattoo shops and tobacco stores.

Councilman Kip Tyner is supporting the ban. He says he wants to rebuild tornado-ravaged parts of the city with better businesses than existed before the twister in 2011.