Birmingham City Council continues debate over closing Ensley gas station

Councilor Steven Hoyt. Photo by Sam Prickett.

One member of the Birmingham City Council is insisting that a public hearing be held regarding the potential closure of a gas station where three homicides have taken place.

BirminghamWatch reports that District 8 Councilor Steven Hoyt slowed Tuesday’s meeting to a crawl over the issue, which he said had been handled improperly by the council’s public safety committee.

The committee had opted during its July 17 meeting to place the Shell station in question — which operates at the 800 block of Eighth Avenue West in Ensley — under probation for a year. Hoyt has argued that the matter must come before the entire council for a public hearing.

To that end, Hoyt prevented the council from considering its consent agenda — which includes menial items such as weed abatements and abandoned vehicle removals — as a whole, instead making them consider each item individually. It’s a strategy he said he would be willing to use weekly as “protest.”

Councilor Hunter Williams, the head of the council’s public safety committee, said that the matter would likely come back before the full council in the next 21 days.

Read the full report at BirminghamWatch.