The Brookhaven Board of Aldermen said Tuesday night they’d lookclosely at requests made by two lumber companies while alsoweighing the needs of the community.

Brookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce Executive VicePresident Cliff Brumfield and Rex Lumber representatives ChuckWatkins and Doug Boykin were a part of a cadre of representativespresenting a resolution of intent asking the board for severalallowances for the business.

The main sticking point for aldermen remains whether to allowthe lumber companies, Rex Lumber and Great Southern WoodPreserving, to have their own water wells. City ordinances have notallowed private industries to have their own water wells.

Rex officials pointed out that there are two defunct water wellson the property that could be resurrected to serve the lumbercompanies. The city would need to issue a permit for the wells tobe re-opened, city officials said.

The Industrial Development Foundation issued a letter to thecity board, as well as to the Lincoln County Board of Supervisors,endorsing the requests of Rex Lumber.

“They are not asking for the city to allow them to open the wellat this time, but simply to allow them to utilize the city’spermitting process in order to provide information relative to theexact impact and ramifications, if any, of the well,” the letterread.

The resolution also asked city leaders to allow a freeportexemption, a new enterprise exemption, and a bond exemption, all ofwhich Brumfield told the board are routine exemptions for a newbusiness.

But one issue of discussion was a request by Rex Lumber toreturn W.L. Behan Drive, which served Columbus Lumber as a privateroad, to the city for maintenance as a public thoroughfare. Boykinsaid the city had blocked the road several years ago and abandonedit, but the company wants to deed it back to the city.

The reason, officials said, is that the road is likely to beeligible for Economic Development Administration grant money as apublic road.

“The road looks like a good candidate for grant money,”Brumfield said. “When people come to this facility, that wouldgreatly improve that avenue to interact with the central businessdistrict. We don’t have a green light on the grant yet, buteveryone feels confident about it.”

The board went into a lengthy executive session about the issue,calling it “contract negotiations.” When they emerged, CityAttorney Joe Fernald read a response to Rex’s resolution of intent,saying that the city still needed time to look over the requestsinvolved.

“It is our intent to expeditiously review the terms of theresolution, revise them, and report back to Rex Lumber,” he said.”We intend to cooperate fully while also fulfilling our duties tothe taxpayers.”

Fernald, Mayor Les Bumgarner, City Clerk Mike Jinks, and Rexofficials will meet Wednesday at Fernald’s office to try to come toa further agreement, officials said.

“We’re not prepared to accept their resolution of intent as itis and the meeting is designed to iron out some details so we canaccept their resolution of intent,” Bumgarner said.

Bumgarner also said if an agreement cannot be made Wednesday,meetings will continue as frequently as needed to come to commonground. He said city officials would like to have a solution byMonday.

“If we don’t come to a solution on the water well everythingelse is moot,” Bumgarner said.

In other board activity, board members advised city watercustomers who had pipes burst during the recent freeze to bringreceipts from repairs in to the water department.

“That probably creates a problem for the guy at the house whofixes the leak himself,” Bumgarner said. “But we just need to seeproof of repair.”

Three firefighters also received routine promotions in the wakeof the retirement of shift Captain Ferman Freeman from theBrookhaven Fire Department after 24 years.