Community Reporting
Local pharmacies raise awareness with walk-out and black-out
Local pharmacies joined forces with about 100 others across the state for a staged walkout on Tuesday, February 25, to raise awareness of patient access and Pharmacy Benefits Managers (PBMs) reform.
Pharmacists and their employees closed their doors and headed to Montgomery to meet and speak with representatives about the struggles they are facing, according to Hodges. Legislatures are working to combine two bills, Senate Bill 93 and Senate Bill 99, to push back against third-party negotiators between pharmacies and the manufacturer of the drugs. According to Senate Bill 93, the third-party negotiators, also known as PBMs, determine the amount pharmacies are reimbursed for dispensing the prescriptions.
Gadsden approves measures to update city-wide zoning
The City of Gadsden Planning Commission is currently working to update city ordinances to better accommodate growth in the future.
When the Gadsden City Council and City of Gadsden Planning Commission introduced “GROW Gadsden,” it laid out a map of the future for the City of Gadsden. A portion of that includes redefining the zones that determine what type of building can occupy a particular space.
Gadsden plans to convert some downtown traffic lights to four-way stops
The city of Gadsden is preparing to remove traffic lights on two downtown streets.
The traffic lights on Broad and Chestnut streets from First to Seventh streets will be converted into four-way stops, with the exception of the intersection at First and Broad streets by the Memorial Bridge.
In addition to the change, the city will slightly raise the crosswalks to make pedestrians more visible to drivers and slow traffic, according to Heath Williamson, the city’s director of engineering.
