While Huntsville city department heads are being asked to trim 1% of their budgets for the rest of the 2025 fiscal year, members of the city council are already looking ahead to next year.

Council members expect Fiscal 2026 to be a tight one again if sales tax revenue continues to fall short of projections. But that did not stop them from listing their top priorities during a work session last week.

Every member of the council lists roads as a priority. Council President John Meredith said District 1 City Councilwoman Michelle Watkins – who represents north Huntsville – would like to see the city double its road paving budget because a number of the roads are in disrepair and unsafe. Watkins wasn’t present at the meeting.

District 4 City Councilman Bill Kling – who represents much of central Huntsville – would like to see the city concentrate on the loop around the city that is in the plans: seeing the Northern Bypass under construction completed and accelerating plans for the Eastern Bypass and the Southern Bypass.

“I think traffic is probably the most important thing we can talk about,” he said during the work session, also mentioning the extension of Rideout Road and the Resolute Way interchange (exit 13) on Interstate 565 project.

District 3 City Councilwoman Jennie Robinson – who represents south Huntsville – also mentioned the interstate interchange among priorities.

“I know we are looking at a design on that and we need to look at federal dollars and state money, if possible,” she said. “But I know it’s going to take federal dollars … It needs to be fixed. It impacts South Parkway, so I have a particular interest in it because when there is a problem on the 565 interchange, it backs up.”

That project will come with a hefty price tag. Local officials estimate the cost of construction could be as high as $60 million.

Robinson said the city’s road paving budget has more than doubled since she’s been on the council and would like to see that continue to increase. She praised the Public Works department’s management of the city’s road surfacing, saying it is doing a good job making sure as many roads as possible get paved during each fiscal year.

This year’s street paving projects, being done in three phases, total more than $10 million.

Kling singled out one street in particular that he would like paved: Pansy Street, which is north of Bob Wallace Avenue in the Mayfair neighborhood.

“Any time it rains, it gets into flooding problems with perhaps even potential problems for the city doing damage to individuals’ houses,” Kling said. “I think Public Works is aware of it. It’s unusual to single out one street, but it probably needs to be rebuilt.”

Meredith – who represents Huntsville’s growing west side – said he agrees with his colleagues that the city needs to invest as much as possible to road resurfacing and road maintenance.

“I’ve gotten a lot of complaints about the resurfacing effort on Sparkman between (U.S.) 72 and Adventist Way,” he said. “It is a little rough. If there is something that can be done to smooth that out, the people who drive that road would be very thankful.”

District 2 City Councilman David Little – who represents the east side of town – requested funding levels asked by department heads for public safety and road maintenance be granted. He made the request through Meredith. Like Watkins, he was not present at the work session.

“We need to continue to fund public safety,” Robinson added. “I know we are limited by recruitment and bringing the numbers in. I think we’re fully funded for all of the positions. We just need to fill the positions and continue to fund public safety for fleet, equipment and other needs, both fire and police.”

All the members of the council supported more funding for sidewalks, greenways and parks. Robinson said city surveys indicated residents wanted more invested in playgrounds at city parks – either upgrading existing ones or building new ones.

“When the library playground opened at the (Sandra) Moon Complex, we had a couple of hundred kids show up,” she said.

Other requests

Because of the tightness of the budget, Robinson feels the city should put a priority on funding Huntsville Botanical Garden, the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library system and Huntsville Hospital ahead of outside organizations.

Watkins would like a basketball facility with four basketball courts, locker rooms, scoreboards, with the facility to be used to attract tournaments teams in and out of state, which would generate revenue showcasing the local talent and attracting ranked teams, Meredith said.

She would also like to see more investment in recreational sports, including tackle football, and a focus on economic development along Memorial Parkway between Oakwood Avenue and Sparkman Drive, which would revitalize the area.

Kling also would like to see basketball courts built, but for pickup games. He said he favored a four-plex basketball court “that could go at John Hunt Park or Brahan Spring Park, just a place where there could be pickup games for people.”

“Just simple asphalt courts with nets, maybe some bleachers on each side, maybe not,” Kling said. “The emphasis would not be on major competitions, just for neighborhood pickup games.”

Kling would also like to see street sweeping increased from two times a year to three or four times a year in his district, if not citywide.

Meredith said his constituents would like to see public transit expanded on the west side of town. That includes getting bus route 100 operational to Huntsville International Airport.

“We would really love that route not just go by the airport for service to employees who would get picked up by a shuttle and taken into the airport,” he said. “We would really like that bus route to actually go to the terminal. That way citizens can use the bus in order to get to the airport. I think it would be a valuable asset to the entire city.”

He would also like to see more library access in his district.

“There aren’t any libraries in D-5,” Meredith said. “We would love to have the library locker system incorporated in our district so that folks don’t have to make the long trip downtown or into Madison to check out a book.”

He said with a locker system residents could order a book online and pick it up in the locker facility or drop off books there.

“We would love to have one of those particularly west of Jeff Road,” Meredith said.