Opelika’s City Council is set Tuesday to take a final vote on new zoning rules for package liquor stores and to add $2.3 million to the city’s health insurance budget, part of a 28-item consent agenda heavy on annual funding contracts for local nonprofits and agencies.
The regular meeting begins at 6 p.m. Oct. 6 in the Municipal Court building at 300 Martin Luther King Blvd. The work session starts at 5:30 p.m. in the same building, with a presentation from the Opelika Chamber of Commerce by Ali Rauch and a review of the night’s agenda.
Package store rules up for second reading
The zoning text amendment on package stores, which ODN covered last month, returns for its second reading, the step at which the council votes to adopt it. As written, it bars a new package liquor store within 1,500 feet of another, measured door to door; requires at least 2,000 square feet of sales floor; and limits the stores to shopping centers with three or more commercial tenants and at least 14,000 square feet. Walk-up and drive-through sales would be banned. State ABC stores and beer-and-wine-only stores are exempt.
A Planning Department report in the packet says Opelika has six private package stores, all 500 to 1,200 square feet and attached to or beside a gas station, plus two ABC stores. Stores already approved and open would not be affected. Draft minutes of the Sept. 15 meeting show no one spoke at that night’s public hearing on the amendment.
$2.3 million more for health insurance
A consent-agenda resolution would raise the health insurance fund by $1 million for the fiscal year that just ended and by $1.3 million for fiscal 2026-27, both drawn from unassigned fund balance. The resolution blames higher health insurance claims and the cost of related coverage, including stop-loss insurance and the city’s contract with Premise Health Employer Solutions, which runs the employee clinic the council debated last month.
Lawsuit settlement
The agenda lists an executive session on a settlement with Allison W. Kovak, Aaron Kovak and Jonathan Wilmarth, who sued the city in Lee County Circuit Court seeking a declaratory judgment. According to the proposed resolution, the dispute concerns the city zoning ordinance and the owners’ proposed use of 414 N. 10th St. as a bed and breakfast. The packet does not include the agreement’s terms.
Other items
- Sewer contract: A $974,902.42 contract to Utility & Water Services, low bidder of five, for I-85 sanitary sewer improvements.
- Schools and nonprofits: A $310,000 special appropriation from fund balance to Opelika City Schools, listed on the agenda for its Pre-K program, and 14 FY2027 funding contracts, among them $250,000 for Habitat for Humanity to build homes for low- and moderate-income buyers and $200,000 for the Opelika Industrial Development Authority. A separate $100,000 contract with the Chamber of Commerce is on the regular agenda.
- Technology: A $263,235.72 three-year Nutanix server software renewal for the police department’s secure server facility and $198,528.69 in Samsara GPS fleet-tracking services.
- Police: Contracts for two school resource officers at $52,000 a year each, and an application for a $42,640 Byrne JAG grant that police plan to spend on about 60 rifle-rated ballistic vest plates.
- Other business: 624 new 96-gallon garbage carts for $43,624.40; a restaurant liquor license for Sushi Kingdom Auburn; second reading of a sexual abuse and molestation prevention policy for city employees; and Mayor Eddie Smith’s appointment of Karl Allen to the Opelika Housing Authority.
- Weed liens: Public hearings on mowing charges for 120 Chester Ave. ($181.96), 606 Dogwood Ave. ($441.35) and 1801 S. Long St. ($344.67).
How to watch: Meetings are open to the public; the city posts video on YouTube at @opelikacitygov1219.
Source: City of Opelika agenda via CivicClerk.
