Huntsville updates

[HSVTiger]

changes in the works??
ALDOT will now play dumb

Madison County legislators are considering a bill that would require the Department or Transportation to send at least 80 percent of the state gas tax revenues collected back to each county of origin.

Area lawmakers and Madison County Commissioners met today to discuss the measure. Two state highway officials sat in.

State Rep. Mac McCutcheon, R-Monrovia, said he's researching the concept and may introduce the bill in the next legislative session.

The idea comes on the heels of a recent study showing Madison County got back only 53 cents in state road money for every $1 it sent Montgomery in state gasoline taxes. The study, using figures from ALDOT and the Alabama Development Office, looked at ratios in all 67 counties over a 15-year period.

The study found Madison County generated $469.07 million in state gas revenues and got $249.37 million in road construction money.

"It's just not equitable across the whole state," McCutcheon said..."It's time we get the attention of ALDOT."

Highway officials, including division engineer Johnny Harris and administrative officials Ronald Baldwin of ALDOT headquarters in Montgomery, noted many projects are directed by Congressional edicts outside the control of ALDOT.(AND MOST ARE NOT, THE DIRECTOR DECIDES
WHAT GETS PRIORITY AS THEY HAVE SAID IN THE PAST, my comment not part of the article)

County Commissioners Faye Dyer, Mo Brooks and Dale Strong, pledged to support the bill.

Officials with the Legislative Fiscal Office and the Legislative Reference Service in Montgomery couldn't recall a similar bill requiring a percentage of highway dollars spent in counties.
HSV Times

[neilson]

Originally Posted by HSVTiger

changes in the works??
ALDOT will now play dumb

Madison County legislators are considering a bill that would require the Department or Transportation to send at least 80 percent of the state gas tax revenues collected back to each county of origin.

Area lawmakers and Madison County Commissioners met today to discuss the measure. Two state highway officials sat in.

State Rep. Mac McCutcheon, R-Monrovia, said he's researching the concept and may introduce the bill in the next legislative session.

The idea comes on the heels of a recent study showing Madison County got back only 53 cents in state road money for every $1 it sent Montgomery in state gasoline taxes. The study, using figures from ALDOT and the Alabama Development Office, looked at ratios in all 67 counties over a 15-year period.

The study found Madison County generated $469.07 million in state gas revenues and got $249.37 million in road construction money.

"It's just not equitable across the whole state," McCutcheon said..."It's time we get the attention of ALDOT."

Highway officials, including division engineer Johnny Harris and administrative officials Ronald Baldwin of ALDOT headquarters in Montgomery, noted many projects are directed by Congressional edicts outside the control of ALDOT.(AND MOST ARE NOT, THE DIRECTOR DECIDES
WHAT GETS PRIORITY AS THEY HAVE SAID IN THE PAST, my comment not part of the article)

County Commissioners Faye Dyer, Mo Brooks and Dale Strong, pledged to support the bill.

Officials with the Legislative Fiscal Office and the Legislative Reference Service in Montgomery couldn't recall a similar bill requiring a percentage of highway dollars spent in counties.
HSV Times

This bill ought to pass, with bi-partisan support. Thanks to a strong legislature I think we'll be just fine and we'll at the very least bring the balance in line for Highway funding.

I hope that all the politicians in favor of this bill are successful, and if not then we'll just have to crack out the last option. Get Bud, Richard, or Jeff to sneak some wording through in Washington that would give us in North Alabama the road funding we need and supersede the decisionmaking process in Montgomery.

[Bama_Bull78]

WE need to get some of the Ppl. like Bud or JEff or Loretta spencer to run for the Gov. Spot then we could get some south money up here. And some of our Smart ppl that run our governments here into the state office not saying all the things we do up here are smart for the governement but atleast were doing something right. Does Anyone know how long it has been since we have had a governor from north Alabama?

[neilson]

Guy Hunt?

Albert Brewer?

Big and Little Jim Folsom?

[thoraudio]

Originally Posted by HSVTiger

The idea comes on the heels of a recent study showing Madison County got back only 53 cents in state road money for every $1 it sent Montgomery in state gasoline taxes. The study, using figures from ALDOT and the Alabama Development Office, looked at ratios in all 67 counties over a 15-year period.

Does anybody have a link to this study?

[neilson]

Originally Posted by thoraudio

Does anybody have a link to this study?

http://www.al.com/opinion/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/opinion/118526859872680.xml&coll=1

http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/news/1187255820161830.xml&coll=1

Oh yeah, and don't forget to vote William Boyd.

[HSVTiger]

By JOHN PECK
Times Staff Writer [email protected]
McCutcheon plan would guarantee county bigger cut

Give us our fair share.

That was the rallying cry of Madison County legislators Tuesday as they discussed ways to force the Alabama Department of Transportation to spend more money here on roads.

Their beef: Madison County gets less state highway spending than its urban counterparts (53 cents on the dollar between 1990 and 2005 based on a recent study) compared with what it sends to Montgomery in state gasoline taxes.

State Rep. Mac McCutcheon, R-Monrovia, convened a legislative delegation meeting Tuesday to discuss the issue. Timing is crucial, he said, as the area braces for thousands of high-paying defense and support contract jobs through the latest BRAC shifts.

McCutcheon is considering legislation that would require the state DOT to allocate at least 80 percent of what it collects in each county to each of those counties. Details remain sketchy until the research is complete.

The current redistribution "is just not equitable across the whole state," McCutcheon said. "I don't want to see any county suffer on their highway monies. But if you have the growth we have that is generating money for Alabama, when you've got that kind of income coming in, somewhere along the line, we should be considered to help us with our infrastructure."

A percentage-based formula would mark a major shift in how such monies are distributed. Currently, it's largely at the discretion of the state DOT and the governor with recommendations from a joint legislative highway committee.

State Finance Director Jim Main, a top Cabinet official for Gov. Bob Riley, seemed cool to a fixed distribution formula.

"As finance director, I would say the least amount of earmarking is best," Main said. "One of the things that handcuffs us and limits our flexibility is earmarking.

http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/news/1187774192311980.xml&coll=1

[HSVTiger]

Report on WAAY TV, shows that Huntsville is the only city in the state paying for road improvements on state and federal highways because the state won't.
Suckers I guess for doing this , but if they didn't nothing would happen.

http://www.waaytv.com/

the reason Tuscaloosa county gets more money for roads, uat football.

Another report shows the businesses going under because of the 3 year delay
in South Parkway overpasses, 6 lanes reduced to 4 and now just sitting with no construction in site. ALDOT unable to function in a timely manner.
Jordan LN, Highway 53 has been a promised road widening project under 4 Governors! insane.

[HSVTiger]

and Huntsville isn't the only North Alabama city getting screwed, Florence
and the Shoals are a regular neglected city


From the Florence Times Daily, this is ALDOT in a nutshell, click on the link for the entire story.

http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20070819.../708190360/1011

"It's been nearly a quarter of a century since the first piece of dirt was turned.

Now, the expansion of Alabama 157 from two to four lanes has officially ended without fanfare and with disbelief from people who have joked that they would never live to drive on it.

"I still don't believe it; it's a miracle," Lauderdale County resident Jason Tyler said, trying to keep from laughing. "Seriously. I always thought this day would never come."

In the early 1980s, widening Alabama 157 seemed to have merit. The road was to give motorists - and 18-wheelers that move products across the country - easier and safer access from the Shoals to Interstate 65 in Cullman.

Turning Alabama 157 into a four-lane highway also was to stimulate economic development in northwest Alabama, which had long been told it could not compete for big industrial projects because it lacked an interstate or easy access to one.

Getting the 56-mile project done has been far from simple, though.

Despite promises from candidate after candidate who stumped the Shoals looking for votes, progress has been slow and frustrating for area residents.

Now, nearly 25 years and $161 million later, Alabama 157 is four lanes from Muscle Shoals to the interstate exchange in Cullman."

[HSVTiger]

Bids to finish out this restaurant at Bridge Street go out Sept 15th.

Dolce from Los Angeles; pretty fancy

http://www.dolcegroup.com/dolce/

Ketchup, Ten Pin Alley will also be locating at Bridge Street.

[HSVTiger]

Want/ need a job? Might be something here

[HSVTiger]

Governor misses the point,
yeah they may have done more than previous governors but that ain't saying much. Explain how projects that are fully funded still aren't being built, maybe because that money is used elsewhere??
Why is Huntsville the only city in the state paying for road projects on state
and federal roads that ALDOT should be taking care of?

By STEVE CAMPBELL
Times Staff Writer [email protected]
Says fixed plan would result in less money for county

Gov. Bob Riley on Thursday defended the way state road money is allocated to North Alabama, saying his administration has provided nearly as much money for local road work in the past four and a half years as the Huntsville area got in the previous 12 years.(Big woop, and we still are being shortchanged. So you admit we are being screwed, thanks!

At a meeting with Times reporters and editors, Riley said the Huntsville area has gotten $134 million for road work since January 2003. A recent study showed that Madison County got only $249 million in road work from 1990 to 2005, amounting to only 53 cents on the dollar when compared to the $469 million it sent to the state in gasoline taxes over the same period.

"We do everything humanly possible to take care of this area, and I think, to be honest, we have done it better than any administration since the 1990s," Riley said.(True, but it isn't enough, now that the back slapping is done, go kick ALDOTS ass and tell them to get busy and quit holding cities hostage!)

Riley was reacting to legislation proposed by Rep. Mac McCutcheon, R-Monrovia, that would require the state Department of Transportation to allocate at least 80 percent of what it collects from each county in gasoline taxes back to those counties. Currently, distribution of tax dollars for road projects is determined largely by the governor, state DOT and a joint legislative highway committee.
That has good ole boy written all over it.
McCutcheon's proposal was prompted by a recent report done by the University of Alabama and University of Alabama in Huntsville for the city and the Huntsville-Madison County Chamber of Commerce.

Riley, visibly upset(good, maybe he will do something) by the suggestion that the state hasn't done enough to help Huntsville prepare for BRAC, said the state has answered every local call for help, including providing transportation money to build homes on Redstone Arsenal for the incoming Army generals.(The city actually did more)
"We're getting demonized for something that is nonexistent," Riley said.
(it does exist, just because you may fund one project doesn't mean you can not do something on the others that have been on the books for decades!)

After consulting with Mayor Loretta Spencer about her road priorities, Riley said, he moved two projects up a year in the five-year road plan. Those projects are improvements to Memorial Parkway from Weatherly Road to Whitesburg Drive and Max Luther Drive to Sparkman Drive.(These projects are already 5 years behind, it sure seems strange that ALDOT has no clue as to what the status or importance projects they are supposedly working on have.

The plan also includes the widening of Alabama 53 from Rideout Road to Jeff Road in May 2008 and from Jeff Road to Harvest Road in March 2009.
(15 years and still waiting)

Riley said he realizes that Huntsville's need for new and improved roads is "critical" to its economic development. He said he instructed Highway Director Joe McInnes to commission a study to determine whether the proposed Patriot Parkway, which would provide a southern bypass through Redstone Arsenal, could be built faster if it was made a toll road.

Riley said McCutcheon's proposed fixed-distribution system for road money would also hurt poor counties, such as in the Black Belt, that generate far less money from gasoline taxes.

"If you did that, you would literally devastate the ability for those people to even have a road program," the governor said.

A fixed-distribution system would also complicate special road needs that promise economic opportunity, he said.

The governor cited the Mercedes plant in Vance as an example. Extra road money was needed for the plant to locate there, he said.

"It's not optional," Riley. "When you have a Mercedes plant that wants to locate in Vance, Alabama, you have to build an interchange and access roads.

[HSVTiger]

Construction targeted for October 2007
New Airport/I-565 hotel in Madison

Site work and new construction of a commercial development in Madison. Design plans call for the construction of a four-story, 72-room national chain hotel.

Best Western Hotel
Location: 106 Ivory Place (This is close to the Regions Bank on Madison Blvd.

[Bama_Bull78]

What Hotel is going next to Cracker Barrel? And the La Quienta in madison is post to start building.

[neilson]

Originally Posted by Bama_Bull78

What Hotel is going next to Cracker Barrel? And the La Quienta in madison is post to start building.

I didn't even know they were putting in a hotel by Cracker Barrel. My gut always said that would be a good spot for a Sleep Inn.

[HSVTiger]

Photo by Eric Schultz / The Huntsville Times


"An Apollo capsule and its launch escape rocket have been moved into the Davidson Saturn V Center being built at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center museum.

Birmingham architect Jim Griffo watched the steel cables move the rocket into position Friday and was relieved to have the centerpiece fully in the building that's being finished around the rocket. The rocket had been decaying outside the museum, and efforts to raise money for a building to protect it began several years ago.

"It wasn't constructed to withstand the rigors of the Alabama climate," Space & Rocket Center spokesman Al Whitaker said. "It was literally rotting away in the backyard."

The project to restore the rocket, build an exhibit center around it, and create a tramway for the museum and to the neighboring botanical gardens is estimated to cost more than $22 million.


Griffo is a principal in the architectural firm Gresham Smith and Partners, which designed the building. A team of about a half-dozen architects, interior designers and landscape architects from Gresham Smith are involved in the project, Griffo said.

The first 300,000-pound stage, with its five engines, and the 95,000-pound second stage are cradled on steel pedestals rising from the ground. The 34,000- pound third stage, 4,500-pound instrument ring, 7,500-pound service module and 10,400- pound command module including escape rocket are hung from the ceiling. The stages are separated so visitors can get clearer views of them.

The center is scheduled to be opened during the 50th anniversary of the first U.S. satellite launch, Jan. 31. Motorists driving along Interstate 565 already can see the Saturn V through the windows because it's lit up at night.

"There's nothing on the planet that's going to compare to it," Whitaker said.
The display hall and other areas of the 77,000-square-foot center will include exhibits representing the past, present and future. The center will include the first Alabama-built airplane, the 1908 Quick Monoplane; the Saturn V; and models of Ares I and Ares V rockets now being designed by NASA in Huntsville to return to the moon and eventually go to Mars.

The center will double the exhibit space available to the museum, allowing some exhibits that have been in storage for years to be viewed, including Apollo-era space suits, Whitaker said.

Other firms involved in the project include structural engineering firm LBYD and mechanical, plumbing and electrical engineering firm CRS, both of Birmingham. The design firm responsible for creating exhibits is Fricker and Radetsky, and the construction manager is Turner Universal"

HSV Times

[HSVTiger]

Fastest growing companies

By MARIAN ACCARDI
Times Business Writer [email protected]
5,000 private companies cited; 18 in Huntsville

Eighteen Huntsville-based companies and one company each in Athens, Madison, Decatur, Scottsboro, Tanner and Rainsville made the first-ever Inc. 5,000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the country.

The Inc. 5,000 list, which is an extension of Inc. magazine's annual Inc. 500 list, includes many businesses that are too big to grow at the pace required to make the Inc. 500 as well as many smaller firms.

[HSVTiger]

new cheaper nonstops from Huntsville International to Orlando
via Allegiant

Low-fare airline Allegiant Air will launch nonstop flights from Huntsville International Airport to Orlando, starting Nov. 8.

The new nonstop Orlando flights will be three days a week - on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Flights will leave the Huntsville airport at 3:10 p.m. and arrive at Orlando Sanford International Airport at 5:55 p.m. (all local times).

Flights will leave Orlando at 1:55 p.m. and arrive in Huntsville at 2:35 p.m.

Introductory fares start at $49 each way, when booked at the airline's Web site, www.allegiantair.com. Those tickets must be bought by Sept. 22. After that, regular one-way fares start at $69 one way.

Allegiant flights will be aboard 150-seat, MD-80 series jets.

The Las Vegas-based carrier will start direct flights from Huntsville to Las Vegas on Sept. 21.

Now the push is on for non stop flights to Ft Lauderdale (Allegiant), go to this site and register to win free tickets and show support
for Ft. Lauderdale. You can also find cheaper fares out of Huntsville.

http://www.huntsvillehotticket.com/

[HSVTiger]

America's new moon rocket, awarded to Boeing Huntsville..


NASA this afternoon selected a team of contractors led by The Boeing Co. in Huntsville to design and build the upper stage of the Ares I rocket.

The $514 million contract could bring up to 400 jobs between contractor and federal positions to Huntsville over the next decade.

The stage, which will use liquid rocket fuel, will boost the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle to the International Space Station. The Ares I is slated to be used in conjunction with the Ares V cargo rocket for trips to the moon.

Teams headed by ATK Launch Systems and Boeing bid for the project.

Boeing's team of suppliers includes Hamilton Sundstrand, a subsidiary of United Technologies, Moog, Northrop Grumman, Orion Propulsion Inc., SUMMA Technology Inc., United Space Alliance and the United Launch Alliance.

[Huntsville_secede]

ALDOT Director defends road spending in letter printed in Huntsville Times

http://www.al.com/opinion/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1188724609324250.xml&coll=1

State roads and bridges would crumble with 'fair-share' funding
Sunday, September 02, 2007
By JOE McINNES
For The Times

Much has been written recently in The Huntsville Times following the release of a study prepared for the City of Huntsville comparing estimated motor fuel taxes and investments by the Alabama Department of Transportation in Madison County for roads and bridges on the state and federal highway system.

One article printed several weeks ago used "short changed" to describe Madison County's funding relative to other metropolitan areas in the state. A more recent article titled "Send more road money - or else" alluded to possible legal action to push for a bigger share of gas taxes.

I believe the term "short changed" is a misnomer because the exact amount of motor fuel taxes paid by any particular county in Alabama is not determinable.