The addition of walking trails at Sherling Lake Park once again has come to a standstill after the Greenville City Council rejected all bids for the project at Monday night's regular meeting.

The project, which has been in the works since 1999, would extend the current walking trails from the southeastern end of the park to the southern and western sides of the lake and then connect back over the spillway to the northwest shore. The plans for the park were based on the amount of money that the city would receive from the Recreational Trail Program grant from the State of Alabama, which would call for a $10,000 match from the city.

"The bids just came in much higher than we thought they would," said Mayor Dexter McLendon. "But, we'll just keep working to see what we can do."

The council also approved a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a contract with Goodwyn, Mills & Cawood to perform a preliminary study and cost estimate for the possible construction of an interconnector road connecting Cahaba and Manningham roads.

The discussion of the interconnecting road came about in August, when McLendon held a workshop along with the Greenville City Council to discuss the future of Greenville. "We really need to open up some land out that way," said McLendon. "But, we can't do anything until we know approximately how much it will cost."

The council also approved a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a contract with Goodwyn, Mills & Cawood for engineering and administrative services to prepare plans and administer the bid process for the Cedar Street culvert replacement. This project was also one of the projects which the mayor discussed during the August workshop, and he stated that, "If we're going to do it, we need to do it right."

Also approved at the meeting was a resolution for the mayor to enter into a contract with Goodwyn, Mills & Cawood for architectural services necessary to prepare specs and to administer the bid process for the new Beeland Park recreational water facility. "We have high hopes for the new water facility at Beeland Park," said McLendon. "We hope that we will be able to provide the community with more than just a swimming pool."

The council also made reappointments to several boards including the reappointment of Richard Branum and James Peavy to the Greenville Planning Commission, the reappointment of Richard A. Harmon to the Greenville Housing Authority, the reappointment of Susan Murphy and T.A. Newton to the Board of Adjustment, and the reappointment of Paul Schrantz, Ed Jernigan, Brandon Burkett, Ricky Cargile, Gerald Johnson and Allison Lewis to the Greenville Tree Commission. Allen Stephenson also was appointed to the Greenville Planning Commission Board, fulfilling the unexpired term of Joby Norman, who was appointed to the Water Works and Sewer Board.

In old business, the council made the final approval on the new softball complex and voted to accept the softball complex phase II concessions and scorers buildings, and authorized final payment to the contractor.

The council also:

authorized the issuance of an ambulance franchise to GEMS Ambulance Service;

approved the issuance of a retail wine off-premise only business license for Max-Mart South;

authorized the installation of a street light at West Commerce and Whittaker streets and the addition of cost to Alabama Power Company for monthly street lighting bill;

approved a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into an agreement with Merchant Capital, LLC, for preparation of bond issue proposals for council consideration;

approved a resolution to raise capitalization amount for fixed assets from $200 to $1,000;

approved a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into a new contract with Star Recycling for removal and sale of scrap metal and white goods from inert landfill;

amended the fee schedule for rezoning requests.

The council also approved the following expenditures:

$5,213.25 to Visionair for the police department windows NT Vision Software maintenance for 10 computer stations;

$1,750 to Goodwyn, Mills & Cawood for the ISTEA Sidewalk Project contract award/bid process fees;

$1,025.88 to James Piggott to run electrical service to training facility at the police department fire range.

The next regular meeting of the Greenville City Council will be held Monday, December 10 at 5:30 p.m. The meeting that is scheduled for December 24 has been changed to December 17.