What's Next
Priorities For The Next Term
When I was honored to be elected by the citizens of Pelham in 2020, I made a commitment to be a representative for all citizens in the city of Pelham as a member of the City Council. All Pelham citizens have individual goals that we feel need to be the main focus for the city. All of these goals are important, so what we have to do is come together to make sure we are using the taxpayer dollars in the most responsible and most effective way. We have done this by listening and focusing on the issues that the majority of the citizens tell us that want to see. I have done this over the last 4.5 years. When making decisions, I take the majority opinion of the citizens and then ask the question, "Which of these issues touches the most amount of citizens in our city"? Taxes, water and sewer, paving, and life safety are all items that touch every single citizen in our city. Then we have items that improve the quality of life in our community. I do believe these items are important, and we must do what we can to maintain or improve these. But we need to proceed with these quality of life projects with balance, and not at the cost of depleting valuable capital reserves we may need in the future. We have accomplished much, but there is still much more that needs to be completed. If I have the honor to be re-elected, here are my list of goals, based on the feedback I have received from the community, for the next term.
Sunset of the 1% Sales Tax
The cost of everything these days seems to be increasing. The same is true in our city. When taxes increase, families have to start budgeting differently to absorb these increases in cost. When my personal expenses go up, I cannot go to my supervisor and ask for a raise to cover these expenses. Yet, this is what we asked the taxpayers to do. I commit to working with the full council to bring a clearly defined end to the tax increase as soon as possible. The sooner we do this, the sooner we can put more money back into the pockets of the taxpayers.
Infrastructure Revitalization Completion
We have been working aggressively to revitalize the aging water and sewer systems across the city. I am committing to work with the full council to see the completion of these projects that will prevent annoying and sometimes life-threatening water outages in our community.
Increase The Paving Progress
Every year, our public works department works hard to address the roads that need repaving throughout our city. They can only do what the budget allows. The city council has allocated additional funds each year to help speed this process up. If I am re-elected, I commit to work with the full council to take a comprehensive look at all expenditures to see if we can perhaps re-allocate additional funding from the budget to further increase the speed at which we are repaving roads. Additionally, I will continue to make sure the county works to address the increasing traffic on Hwy 11 and the future developing areas of our city.
Greenways Trail Completion
A project that has been on the books for several years has been our city's Greenway Trail. The original master plan showed a trail that began in our city park and connected to the counties trailway system taking citizens all the way out to Oak Mountain State Park. Currently, only the trail at the city park and a small portion along Amphitheater Road currently exist. We recently approved funding for phases 3 and 4 of the trail that includes the portions connecting to city park following along the creek north, going under Pelham Parkway at the Civic Complex to connect to the existing trail. If I am re-elected, I commit to work with the full council to see the completion of this trail system for our community.
Resolve Flooding Issues
You may remember the devastating October floods a couple of years ago. I remember walking through the streets of our city with one of my fellow council members, as we heard your stories, loved on you and helped you pick up your lives. This is something I hope never happens again in our city. The city council spent money to study what ultimately caused the issues that fateful day. We have since worked with our federal and private partners to clean out our creeks and waterways, and installed meters throughout the city to help us better watch and address any potential flooding that may occur. However, we still have many neighborhoods throughout our city that still face flooding issues today. If I am re-elected, I commit to working with the full council to provide specific and lasting relief to these neighborhoods throughout our city
Bring More Funding To Our School System
We are very proud of the work we have done in conjunction with our school board to secure funding for our school system for the foreseeable future. However, we can do more and should do more. The revenue we receive from the education sales tax comes from goods and services you purchase every day. However, with the significant increase in online shopping over the years, we have seen a significant decrease in the tax revenue we actually receive. A lot of online retailers are not familiar with our local sales tax laws, and so they are only collecting the minimum sales tax required by state law. This means that we are missing out on thousands of dollars revenue that could be going to our school system. If I am re-elected, I commit to working with the full council to find a way to compel these online retailers to collect what they should be collecting so that we can pass this along to our school system.
David Coram - Goals * Ideas * Vision for Pelham
Education / Neighborhoods
Sports / Recreation / Environment
Education / Neighborhoods
- Work with our schools to find ways to improve educational programs, technology and services.
- Partner with our residents to stay informed on issues pertaining to streets, neighborhoods and parks. Work together to find opportunities and solutions.
- Support our brave men and women in our Pelham Police and Fire services to help them continue making our community even safer.
Business / Finances
Sports / Recreation / Environment
Education / Neighborhoods
- Help create an environment that encourages new businesses to establish in Pelham and allows them to grow and thrive.
- Collaborate with existing businesses and identify new and innovative ways to help them grow and become more successful.
- Help find ways to keep our city on budget and ensure our tax dollars are utilized in ways which maximize their impact on the city.
Sports / Recreation / Environment
Sports / Recreation / Environment
Sports / Recreation / Environment
- Work with Parks and Recreations Dept. to invite and attract new sporting events to our beautiful facilities, thereby generating more city revenue.
- Help ensure business growth is done in a sustainable, smart and efficient way as to maintain the unique natural beauty of Pelham.
- Explore new ideas to improve flooding, drainage and other environ
- Work with Parks and Recreations Dept. to invite and attract new sporting events to our beautiful facilities, thereby generating more city revenue.
- Help ensure business growth is done in a sustainable, smart and efficient way as to maintain the unique natural beauty of Pelham.
- Explore new ideas to improve flooding, drainage and other environmental issues that affect our neighborhoods, businesses and natural areas.