Bay Minette increased by more than 3,000 acres Monday night when the City Council held public hearings and voted to annex three properties between the city of Bay Minette and Interstate 65.

The public hearings, held prior to the regular meeting of the council, offered residents of Bay Minette to share their opinions on the annexation.

At the hearings, nothing was said in favor of annexation or against annexation of the properties.

The City Council unanimously approved annexation and set public hearings for the rezoning of the properties for Jan. 5.

The “Longleaf” property is looking to rezone from R-1 to R-A and M-1 because of a facility already located on that property. The “Bay Minette Land Company” property  would like to change from R-A to M-1, and the “Copper Station” property is looking to move from R-1 to M-1.

The council also unanimously approved a resolution freezing any non-budget or emergency spending until March 2009.

The motion was originally introduced by District 2 Councilman Mike Phillips during the Nov. 17 council meeting.

Phillips said the city is in good shape financially, but the motion is a preventative measure designed to make sure the city stays that way.

“We’re just being proactive until we get a handle on how the ad volorem and other taxes are going to be,” Phillips said Monday afternoon.

City financial officer Joe Landenwich said the dwindling economy has not affected Bay Minette yet, but said being prepared makes sense.

“We need to go ahead and get into the mind frame that we may need to make cuts down the road,” Landenwich said. “I’m not saying that’s going to happen, but we certainly need to be prepared.

“We’re certainly not to the point of laying anybody off or cutting benefits and we don’t think it will come to that.”

Phillips said he and Landenwich have watched spending as closely as possible to avoid such problems.

Phillips said he hopes the economy crunch will not deter residents from spending this holiday season.

“We need people to spend, and we need them to spend at home,” he said. “We’re actually hoping people will do as much shopping in Bay Minette as possible.”

Phillips said a main reason for the freeze was to prevent department heads from coming to the council and asking for non-essential items until he and Landenwich can see what revenues are going to look like.

“We should have a pretty good idea March 1 what was the revenues will be,” he said. “I hope it will at least be equal to last year. I would love it to be more.”

Phillips said he wanted to make sure that residents did not worry.

“This is certainly not a scare tactic,” he said. Joe agreed. “Spend it in town, but spend it wisely.”

Phillips said he was thankful that the council backed his resolution.

“The mayor and council unanimously passed it,” Phillips said. “We all feel the same way. We can be cautious but still can’t take care of the employees.”

Though it appeared to be contradictory to the spending freeze, the council approved the promotion of four Bay Minette police officers to the rank of  corporal.

Bay Minette Police Chief Michael Rowland told council members he had not been present during the Nov. 17 meeting during which the motion was made to suspend non-budgeted spending and promotions until March.

Rowland said he and former Mayor Sonny Dobbins had always strived to maintain a fully staffed police department, but he said he had purposely put off the promotions until after October.

“We had two vital administrators within the department retiring in October,” Rowland told the council. “Knowing this, I outlined a plan to defer filling some available positions until their retirement, thereby saving the department approximately $285,507 in salaries and benefits.

“I would like approval for several promotions at various ranks within the department,” he said, adding the positions are budgeted positions.

Rowland told the council the positions filled will not only avoid an increase in spending because they are vacant positions, but the promotions will save the city money.

“By filling these vacancies the department will essentially be fully staffed and will save $41,204 in salaries and benefits.”

The council discussed the positions and agreed to fill one, but decided to discuss the remaining three at a later date.

Bay Minette Fire Chief Phil Bryars was also present to address personnel issues, asking the council to approve two firefighter positions.

Though the positions are not budgeted positions, Bryars said the department has already been turned down for grants based on not having enough personnel.

“We’ve been turned down for grants because we don’t meet the minimum staffing requirements,” he said. He said some shifts run with just two fire fighters because that is all they have.

“We need two more men,” he told the council. “That will bring us up to the minimum staffing requirement and we can reapply for those grants at a later date.”

Bryars said the new positions will cost the city approximately $65,000 to $70,000 per year collectively, including benefits.

The council members asked about liability issues because of the department being understaffed and Bryars agreed that a lawsuit could be possible if someone was hurt or killed during a fire that was undermanned.

“With  meeting minimum staffing we could still be sued, but we would be better able to defend ourselves,” he said. He told the council the additional men would be needed more if the properties being considered for annexation were approved, because of the added coverage area.

The BMFD answered 1,600 calls last year compared to 1,800 this year, according to Bryars.

“We will try to find some of the folks in the volunteer fire department because they are already trained,” he said.

Tillery said the BMFD was the “oldest and smallest department in the county.”

The council agreed to think about the issue, but made no commitment Monday night.