Votes at a glance: March 3 Decatur City Commission actions

At its March 3 meeting the Decatur City Commission approved several routine and substantive items. Key formal actions and outcomes:

- Minutes: The commission approved the Feb. 24 meeting minutes by voice vote.

- Comcast easement (South Housing Village Phase 2): Motion to grant an easement to Comcast for broadband services to the Phase 2 housing site passed by voice vote.

- Kerr Cottage demolition: The commission established a $50,000 project budget and awarded a $43,720 contract to the low bidder for abatement, demolition and site stabilization at 500 South Columbia Drive; motion passed by voice vote.

- Noise ordinance: (See full article) The commission adopted amendments to the noise ordinance with an amended evening cutoff of 9 p.m. for lawn/landscape equipment (roll-call adoption).

- Sanitation fee schedule: The commission adopted the 2025 sanitation fee schedule to address rising operational costs (voice vote); staff projected ~ $412,000 in additional annual revenue from combined changes.

- Tax billing ordinance: Commissioners adopted the 2025 tax billing ordinance (two-installment schedule, nine-business-day grace period, interest and penalty provisions) by roll call.

- Alcoholic beverage: The commission amended the alcoholic beverages code to extend open-container district hours to all seven days (11 a.m.–midnight) and adopted the change (roll-call).

- DeKalb County easements (watershed project): The commission approved eight temporary and four permanent easements to DeKalb County to enable replacement of a sanitary sewer line crossing city parcels.

Where available, vote recordings in the transcript show unanimous aye votes for roll-call items (noise ordinance, tax billing, alcoholic beverage amendments); most other items passed by voice vote.