The Robertsdale City Council moved one step closer to an expansion of the Utility Department when they voted to purchase a six-acre parcel of property and to accept a donation of an additional 19 acres from Robertsdale Holdings, LLC. , owners of the land.

Mayor Charles Murphy told the council he and Joe Hollingsworth and Paul Kitchens have been working on acquiring the 25 acres, which is located on the east side of the intersection of Pope Street and East Chicago. The property adjoins property the city owns in the Medical Park, next to the existing Police Department building.

Murphy commended Hollingsworth and Kitchens for their efforts on behalf of the city. “The property committee worked really hard on this and I want to commend them,” he said.

The purchase price of $625,000 for the six acres will be paid for from $100,000 in funds from the 2006 bond sales the city is holding for a Utility Department expansion, Murphy said.

A public hearing was held on a request by Mary White to rezone her 12 acres she owns on Mildorf Road (Cardinal Hills Phase IV) from RMH (mobile homes) to R-1 (residential).

A public hearing was held on a request by Daniel Starling to rezone .67 of 1.5 acres owned by his family own on Highway 90 and College Avenue from R-1 to B-1.

Starling told the council he would like to use the property for an office or “coffee shop,” and would design it with ingress and egress from College.

“This is very sentimental property. It was my grandmother’s property and we want to be able to preserve the property,” he said, noting that he had originally planned to use the property for a residence, but it was “too noisy.”

The city’s planning commission had recommended the council approve the two zoning changes and when it was apparent that there were no objections from the public, the public hearing was closed. The council then voted to suspend the rules and then voted to approve both rezoning requests.

The payment of a maximum of $19,240 to Hatch Mott McDonald of Daphne, to perform design work and render drawings for the new Central Baldwin Chamber of Commerce building was approved by the council.

The council approved a request by Robertsdale Police Chief Brad Kendrick, to solicit bids for an electronic fingerprint system and 14 laptop computers for the department.

Kendrick said the electronic fingerprinting system, which includes a scanner/computer that is compatible with the departments software, and the laptop computers, will save time for his officers because each fingerprint must be taken with ink and then sent to the FBI.

“Every person we fingerprint, we have to send those prints to the FBI. This way, our officers will spend less time doing paperwork and more time in the field,” he said.

The laptop computers and electronic fingerprint system will not cost the city any money because they will be paid for from a COPS Grant the department received two years ago, “We’ve only spent $68,000 of it at this time,” he said.

In other business, the council:

— Approved an ABC Retail Liquor License Transfer for El Rodeo Mexican Restaurant, which transfers the license from the former owner, Cesar Campos Reyes, to the new owner, Jorge Chavez.

— Approved invoices for the CDBG Grant for the drainage project on West Hammond and Palmer.

— Paid bills in the amount of $407,054.67.