DAPHNE, Alabama (GCN)— The City Council conducted business as usual last Tuesday, even with the cloud of Bailey Yelding’s death hanging over the city, holding a second public hearing on the Tiawasee Trace project, and nominating four finalists for the municipal judge position.

The council voted Tuesday to narrow the list of city judge applicants for city judge, with each council member choosing up to four applicants for the position, with the four receiving the most votes being asked in for an interview tonight.

The final four applicants are Patrick Collins, Michael A. Dasinger, Michael J. Hoyt and James H. Sweet. They will be interviewed in a special-called council meeting tonight at 6:30 p.m.

The council also hopes to have a ruling from the Alabama Attorney General by tonight’s meeting regarding who will fill the mayoral seat previously held by Yelding, who succumbed to cancer last Tuesday.

Parties from both sides of the Tiawasee Trace issue spoke at Tuesday’s public hearing regarding The Retreat at Tiawasee developer’s proposed zoning change from RSF (residential single family)-2 to R-2. The developer had previously asked for a zoning change from RSF-2 to R-3.

The Tiawasee Trace Property Owner’s Association is upset that The Retreat developer intends to create a 31-acre, 57-lot subdivision behind the current Tiawasee Trace subdivision without installing a new access road.

The proposed plans for The Retreat have a single access point to the new subdivision through the existing Tiawasee Trace road. The Tiawasee Trace POA says this will create more traffic and a heavier burden on their subdivision’s roads and that if the plans for The Retreat are approved, the council should insist the developer find another access point for the new community.

At a previous public hearing, Ann Strickland, a member of an appointed Tiawasee Trace research committee, told the council that “sacrificing the community spirit and natural beauty of the Tiawasee Trace neighborhood is not worth the addition of 57 lots that may or may not lead to future residents of the city of Daphne.”