VALLEY — At its Monday meeting, the Valley City Council purchased an excavator crawler for the Public Works Department, sold some property and dealt with some abatement issues.

The new piece of equipment, a Volvo EC250E, costs more than $200,000 and will be used in land clearing operations on the 1,150 acres purchased in recent times near I-85. It’s being purchased at a discount price and in the long run will cost the city less than renting such equipment.

“This will give us two excavators,” said Mayor Leonard Riley. “We’re almost ready to burn on a 140-acre section of the Burney property.”

Once timber is harvested, the remaining limbs, stumps and other debris is heaped into large piles and set on fire.

The council declared two pieces of equipment surplus. A New Holland farm tractor and a New Holland backhoe will be put up for bids, according to existing municipal policy and state law.

A small piece of land near a water tank on 55th Street is being sold to the East Alabama Water, Sewer and Fire Department. The rules were suspended and an ordinance to sell the 0.139 acre site was approved upon a first reading. East Alabama will be putting a booster pump on the land. This will increase water pressure in the city’s industrial park.

In another land sale, a city-owned lot in the Langdale mill village has been sold to Jossie A. Valles-Vargas for $500. The lot was acquired by the city in a condemnation proceeding. Its sale compensates to the city for the cost of the cleanup.

The city declared some property in the city public nuisances and authorized action to clean them up. One property is located on Bailey Street and the other on Summerhill Road. Structures on the two sites, one of them a burned house, will be taken down and the lots cleaned up.

The city accepted the gift of four lots owned by Marshall Nolan Boone Jr. on School Street in the River View community. Located not far from the CV Railroad Trail, the properties will be cleaned up by the city.

“We’ve got six houses to be brought down,” Riley said.

City hall will be closed for the Independence Day holiday on Thursday, July 4 and Friday, July 5. The council will next meet at 6 p.m. EDT on Monday, July 8. A council work session will take place at city hall at 6 p.m. on Thursday, July 8.

Valley Parks and Recreation Director Laurie Blount said that July 4 will be a fun day at the Community Center. There will be a free swim at the indoor pool from noon until 3:30 and all kinds of contests with prizes. The annual fireworks show will start at approximately 9:40 p.m. on the Fourth of July. The industrial park site will once again be the launch site.

Blount said she was proud of the 9 and 10-year old team for winning the District tournament, which was hosted at the Sportsplex.

They will be playing in the state tournament in Tuscaloosa the third week in July.

The 11 and 12-year-old team will be playing in a tournament in Headland.