DAPHNE, Ala.—The Daphne City Council, Mayor Fred Small and city attorney Jay Ross met with moderator Bill Hart Sunday at the council’s annual retreat—held in the conference room at City Hall—where they planned long-term improvement projects.

Road maintenance and traffic considerations throughout the city highlighted the afternoon’s agenda. After discussing each item, Hart led a summary of plans laid out by the council, reviewing what he perceived as the important parts.

 Lake Forest road conditions were the main topic of interest as city leaders echoed sentiments raised in past work sessions and from concerned residents.

“Lake Forest is obviously an important part of Daphne,” Councilman Ron Scott said. “I think it’s critical that (the roads) get upgraded. I think our responsibility is the roads.”

Residents had complained during public participation at council meetings about potholes and deteriorating curbs.

The are at least a dozen holes on Ridgewood Drive and Bay View Drive.

Scott suggested that Lake Forest residents contribute some funding to help the city improve the area’s roads.

“There needs to be some kind of spending on the side of Lake Forest,” Scott said.

Council President John Lake reminded council members that Lake Forest’s property values are major assets to the city and attract many national retailers.

“The value of Lake Forest is why Publix is coming to the area,” he said, referring to the grocer’s talks to take over the Omni Health and Fitness building’s site in Magnolia Place shopping center. “If Lake Forest property values go down, the property values of all of Daphne go down.”

Lake expressed a need for the city and Lake Forest to act as partners and creatively work together.

Concerns about sidewalk and median improvements sparked mixed reactions from the council. Some wanted to solely focus on addressing poor road conditions.

“As a city’s responsibility, I think we just need to focus on the basics,” Councilman Greg Burnam said. “The roads in Lake Forest are terrible. They need repairs; they have potholes, erosion.”

Councilman Bailey Yelding suggested the city’s main priority should be addressing safety needs.

“The first thing we should focus on is the safety,” he said. “We ought to focus on fixing those bad streets because they are dangerous.”

Councilman August Palumbo agreed with his fellow council members when discussing possible sidewalk and landscaping improvements added to the proposed road repairs.

“We talked before at retreats about the needs and the wants,” he said. “The wants are going to have to wait a while. Until we get some money windfall, Lake Forest may have to get some money from within.”

Small suggested strategically building improved medians in Lake Forest, reconstructing the area in phases.

“We could do medians, a little each year,” he said. “It would add a little bit of expense to it. Those roads in there were last resurfaced in 1990. I know we’ve all seen the bad areas.”

Small also suggested the project include installing curbs and gutters.

Councilman Derek Boulware said the city had the financial resources to repair Lake Forest’s roads in the past but decided to spend that money on other capital improvements.

“Let’s go ahead and put it in a plan now,” he said. “It may take 40 years with the money we’ve got.”

The capital reserve has $1.2 million; the general fund has $200,000 available for road paving projects, according to city finance director, Kim Briley.

“The council would have to decide where they wanted it to come from,” she said.

Boulware also spoke about creating exits in the Lake Forest subdivision to help ease traffic strains.

“It’s something we need to look at long-term,” he said. “We could possibly take some pressure off the growth of that city.”

The council also discussed covering visible utility boxes in the Lake Forest area by creating an ordinance that would impose beautification regulations.

“We need some engineering expertise on it,” Palumbo said.

Small suggested the council meet with Daphne Utilities to coordinate a plan of action.

Other improvements proposed for the long-term Lake Forest project include: installing reflected painted road markings and improved sidewalks and medians.