By Marla Jones, Managing Editor • marla@southerntorch.com (File Photo)

RAINSVILLE, Ala. — The Rainsville City Council held its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, October 7. 

At the meeting, the Council approved a public hearing regarding home inspections at 6pm on Thursday, October 17 in the Council Chambers. All home builders, realtors, or potential home buyers are encouraged to attend and voice your opinions.

In a phone call to Southern Torch, Mayor Rodger Lingerfelt stated that, if approved, the inspections would only go forward on new construction and remodeling beginning at a certain square footage. Lingerfelt said he just wanted to protect the citizens of Rainsville. 

Councilmember Marshall Stiefel expressed hesitation about contracting a building inspector, but supported a hearing stating it would be good to “get some feedback and answer some questions.” 

Southern Torch reached out to Rainsville home builders and realtors for their opinions.

Robert Keef, the owner of Robert W. Keef Construction, was in favor of inspections, stating, “I feel the biggest thing is educating people...in my opinion, it’s a good asset. It doesn’t matter who you are, we aren’t perfect, we are all going to make mistakes.”

“Even now [after building homes for 40 years], I still bring an inspector,” Keef concluded. “It costs us $525 to get three inspections, but it also qualifies more people to borrow money on a house. Also, someone looks at it besides me...to me, I think it’s good.”

Kim Horton of Kim Horton Realty stated, “It’s always good to have somebody looking out for the consumer.” 

Trampas Shankles, owner of JT & KC Homes, said of the possibility of the City getting an inspector, “I’m already implementing a three-phase building inspector that comes in to inspect my houses, because that’s what most financial institutions require.” Shankles went to stress that he believed it would complicate the situation with the City involved. 

“I’m worried that government overreach could stifle home building in the City of Rainsville,” he finished.

In other business, the Council:

• Accepted street paving projects (CR-RES-19-01) in the amount of $293,780 to Wiregrass Construction
• Hired Scott Boswell as a full-time employee at the Fire Department at a rate of $12.19 per hour
• Hired Alex Jose as the first bilingual police officer in the City of Rainsville at a rate of $14.06 per hour
• Purchased a sanitation truck in the amount of $279,461.28
• Approved the purchase of 17 keys to the City at a price of $14.50 to be presented at an upcoming Veterans Day ceremony
• Approved Tara Wilkerson to attend the Human Resource Conference on October 11-12
• Approved the placement of a fire hydrant across the road from Cornerstone Christian Academy in the north side of the Northeast Alabama Agri-Business Center in the amount of $2,500
• Approved an annual air-pack testing for the Rainsville Fire Department in the amount of $1,830 
• Purchased two Tahoes for the police department in the amount of $80,290.26 and authorized the Mayor to obtain financing
• Announced the City of Rainsville Trunk-R-Treat will be held on Thursday, October 31 at the Farmers Market
• Announced the Holiday Open House will be held on November 8-9
• Announced the Veterans Memorial ceremony will be held at the Tom Bevill Enrichment Center on November 7 with the 17 remaining World War II veterans as special guests
• Set the date for the 60th Annual Rainsville Christmas Parade for December 7

The next meeting of the Rainsville City Council will be held on Monday, October 21 at 5pm with a workshop beginning at 4:15pm.