SMYRNA, Georgia — Officials here voted 7-0 to approve a contract with White-based SCA Construction to build 44 parking spaces at 2688 Atlanta Road.
The $454,516.76 project is funded by the 2022 special-purpose local-option sales tax (SPLOST). The company was the third lowest bidder.
Mayor Derek Norton said there had been issues with the site, citing a spring in the area that slowed the project. The city previously contracted with one of the companies to submit a bid.
Norton said the lot would be a “great addition.” Officials previously planned to build a parking deck on the site.
The council also voted 5-2 in favor of a measure to allow the city’s financial officer and the mayor to establish bank accounts and be named as authorized signatories.
Officials said the city wants to establish a banking relationship with an unnamed bank. The city does not currently have a relationship with the bank, which requested the city pass a resolution authorizing the city’s financial officer and the mayor to establish bank accounts and be authorized signatories.
The city’s main banking relationship is with Charlotte, North Carolina-based Truist.
The seemingly mundane measure was somewhat unexpectedly controversial, with Councilmember Corkey Welch saying he wouldn’t support it.
“Typically, when we select a bank at the city, we go through a selection process, and in this case, [that] wasn’t what happened,” Welch said. “And I don’t feel comfortable with supporting this without that selection process. I just feel like that we should go through the process.
“If we want to change banks, then that’s fine; I’m not opposed to the changing of the banks,” Welch added. “I just think that there’s a process that’s established, and in order to … change and move money to another bank, I think we should go through that process. I just don’t, don’t think this, this meets my smell test.”
