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By James Phillips

After a lengthy discussion, the Demopolis City Council approved guidelines and procedures for a new business recruitment incentive package during its Dec. 19 regular meeting. 

The recruitment incentives focused primarily on the Main Street designated areas of the city, which was the reason for much of the discussion. 

Mayor Woody Collins stated the proposed incentives came from the Main Street area, which is made up of mostly locally owned businesses. 

“The businesses downtown are owned primarily by local citizens who vote and have a say in our community,” Collins said. “It’s the opposite of that on the highway where 90 percent are corporations. We work with all businesses, but many times it’s handled differently because their needs are different.”

Councilman Jim Stanford shared his concerns that policies and procedures for incentives need to be in place for all possible businesses in the city. He agreed to head up a committee to put together a Phase 2 of the plan that would include the midtown and highway area of the city. Stanford said the goal would be to have that information by the second council meeting in January. 

The incentives brought up Thursday were approved unanimously. 

The council also approved a change to the city sign ordinance to allow a larger sign at Walmart than was previously allowed by the old ordinance. 

“When they renovated Walmart, they built a bigger sign for it to be more visible. That’s all this was for,” Collins said. 

Collins also announced he had made appointments to the preservation commission to recreate that group. The appointees were Reed Darcy, Chip Hughes, Karen Braxton, Madison Webb, Tim Sarlan, Lila Smelly, Connie Brown and Councilman Charles Jones. 

“Each of them are excited and ready to get to work to put that commission back together,” Collins said.