ROBERTSDALE, Ala. — The Robertsdale City Council appointed Greg Smith, currently the chairperson of the city’s Planning Commission as the city’s newest engineer.

“I’ve been in Robertsdale since 1988,” said Smith. He is a graduate of Robertsdale High and earned a degree in civil engineering from Auburn University. He says he has been an engineer since 2000.

Smith is currently a “professional engineer,” and will be leaving his post as an engineer with the Baldwin County Commission's highway department’s engineering department to take this job.

He is slated to begin work in early January at the job which is slated to pay $76,169.60 per year.

Smith, a Robertsdale resident, has been a member of the Planning Commission for eight years.

“We had nine applicants,” said council member Paul Hollingsworth, who served on the selection committee. He added that the committee eliminated some of the applicants, and a couple dropped out of the interview process.

Hollingsworth added that out of all the finalists, some of whom had more than one interview, were worthy.

“I’m really proud to say that we had some really good interviews,” Hollingsworth said. “… but the person who always graded up to the top was a local product.”

Smith’s familiarity with the city and its procedures was a plus, Hollingsworth added.

The board voted unanimously to appoint Smith. All members of the council were present.

The council also voted unanimously to reappoint Carl Bailey, Debbie Newport and Kay Arnette to the Zoning Board of Adjustments.

The council heard presentations from Tex Kline and Patti Bodenhamer. Kline, the publisher of the “Tidbits” newspaper was hoping to get an unspecified sum from the council to enable him to place his paper in Robertsdale High. The council rejected that proposal.

Bodenhamer, chair of the local HIPPY (Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters) project was asking the council for $10,000 to support the project’s work in the county. The program is to start next year in Baldwin County with slightly more than 80 youngsters, eight from the Robertsdale area.

Bodenhamer explained that the HIPPY program is one that works with parents of preschool children to bring the youngster’s “social, cognitive and learning skills up to par.”

“We go to homes and teach parents how to help their children,” said Bodenhamer.

Bodenhamer explained that the program got its start in Israel and has spread to other countries. HIPPY came to the United States in 1988. She added that the program has been in Montgomery for more than 12 years.

While the program received praise from several council members, the price tag, the lagging economy and the fact that the program would include youngsters from outside the city caused the council to vote “no” on the proposal. While he moved to reject the plan, Joseph Kitchens invited Bodenhamer to reapply at a later date.

“It’s real worthwhile, but sometimes you just have to say ‘no,’” said Kitchens.

Rules for yard sales came up at the council’s workshop session. Council member Sue Cooper has been championing a new ordinance regulating the sales, saying that some in the city have set up a sale in their front yards “on a permanent basis.”

The proposed ordinance would permit a yard sale on private property four times a year, a change from the previous two sales,. Property owners would have to register their sale and obtain a placard from City Hall, which would have to be displayed during the sale. There would be no charge to register the sale. However, if a police officer riding by a sale did not see a placard, he or she would be authorized to end the sale.

“There are people having yard sales on a permanent basis,” said Cooper. “It could be coming to a neighborhood near you.”

Those who keep a semipermanent sale often keeps goods on “display” in front yards for long periods of time, Cooper said.

While most of the council considered this a good idea, there were practical considerations, and Chief of Police Brent Kendrick and several council members wondered if the situation could be handled by tweaking the “nuisance ordinances” that are already on the books

“To cure the problem, are we punishing everyone,” asked Hollingsworth.

Cooper replied that getting a placard is free and should “only take five minutes.”

It was decided that City Attorney Ken Raines would take look over the proposed ordnance, existing ordinances and present several options to the council at their January workshop meeting.

“I just want to get something done,” said Cooper.