Chelsea council hears presentation from Alabama Power

The Chelsea City Council learned about another option for marketing the city’s commercial space at Tuesday’s meeting.

Scott Walls, commercial account manager for Alabama Power, attended the Jan. 12 pre-council meeting to discuss Alabama Power’s capabilities when it comes to bringing developers into the community.

“I want Chelsea to do as good as it can do,” Walls said.

Alabama Power can develop demographics for a city in addition to building cluster maps and utilizing relationships with developers, investment bankers, contractors and civil engineers, Walls said. They can use those steps to talk to, and hopefully bring, the right developers and businesses into Chelsea, he said.

The information provided by Alabama Power is similar to companies such as Retail Coach or Xceligent, he said, but Alabama Power's service is free.

While service is free to the city, Walls added it is something that helps Alabama Power because if there is not growth in an area, the cost of maintaining Alabama Power’s power lines and other resources is divided among fewer people. They want to help bring growth, he said, because it ends up also benefitting them.

One thing Chelsea has that other cities do not, he said, is room to develop. The land that is available in Chelsea is one thing that could make the city attractive to developers.

“These bigger cities kind of get absorbed,” Walls said. “You’ve got the land. You have the things that other cities don’t have.”

Chelsea has a good number of shoppers coming through the city and spending money, Walls said, but there are some gaps in terms of retailers or other commercial properties in the city. He said Alabama Power works to connect those developers with cities that fit their ideal location, considering size of city, current retailers, competition and other factors.

“We want to find out where they want to be, where they would like to be, and we also want to show them where they could be that maybe they haven’t thought about,” Walls said. “And that happens more than you ever, ever realize.”

Walls said they would work with Chelsea to figure out goals for the city and then work to find retailers or developers who fit those.

“It’s still got to be something y’all want,” Walls said.

Mayor Earl Niven said that a lot of the items on Wall’s gap analysis, which listed some of the retailers or shops that were not available in Chelsea, they were indicative of needs in the city.

“We’re 19 years old, 20 in March. … We’re very proud of where we are in those 19 years, but the future is ahead of us,” Niven said.

Niven said he would like to invite Walls back to speak to a smaller group, when there was not a quorum, so that they could ask him more questions and have him address any of his concerns. Walls agreed to continue the discussion with the city.

Also during pre-council, Niven mentioned that Spencer Engineering was sold to Insite Engineering. Frank Spencer, city engineer for Chelsea, is retiring, Niven said. He added that he will tell James Cassidy with Insite that he wants Keith Hager with Spencer Engineering to stay with the city’s projects.

“I want to emphasize to James Cassidy that we want Keith to stay on board because he’s well familiar with our work,” Niven said.

Also at tonight’s meeting:

• Niven went over sales tax revenue for the city, noting that the city is 5.19 percent ahead of where it was last year. Niven added that Walmart’s share is getting smaller, which is a positive because it shows the city is not dependent on that store’s sales.
• The council approved a resolution to authorize a change order for additional payment for the Chelsea Community Center. The change order was in the amount of  $39,687.59, bringing the total cost of the community center to $3,948,938.34, Niven said. “I think that’s a great investment for the years we have to use that,” he said. Niven noted there are between 120 and 130 visitors at the community center per day.
• The council approved to pay the city’s bills.
• Council member Juanita Champion noted that at an electronics recycling drive on Saturday, Jan. 9, the city collected 8,490 pounds worth of electronics.
• Chelsea Fire Chief Wayne Shirley provided 2015 statistics about the fire department. He said there were 1,781 calls, which is up 8.8 percent from 2014 and 24 percent from 2013. He said that fire losses amounted to $18,239 in 2015, but the total loss could have been more than $2 million. Fire fighters at Chelsea Fire & Rescue also participated in more than 10,000 hours of training, he said.

The next Chelsea City Council meeting will be Tuesday, Jan. 19. Pre-council will start at 5:30 p.m., and the council meeting will start at 6 p.m.