‘Fix the street’ – Mobile City Council signs off on first of two road-paving contracts

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - The City Council on Tuesday followed through on a plan to embark on the largest road-paving campaign in the city’s history, approving a nearly $11.4 million contract with Harwell & Co., LLC.

The contract covers most of the city. Within the next two weeks, the council will consider a separate contract for District 6 in west Mobile. Together, the city will spend more than $17 million.

Hundreds of roads are in line for repaving. It has the enthusiastic support of all seven council members. Councilman Cory Penn, who represents parts of Midtown and northern Mobile, said it is long overdue.

“Of course, you want to make sure that the City of Mobile has the best roads, and so being able to provide this type of service to our city – we hear it all the time,” he said. “So many potholes. Why not just, you know, fix the street? That’s what we’redoing. Our goal is to make sure we have quality of life for our residents.”

This money is coming from the Capital Improvements Plan that is funded by a one-cent sales tax first passed in 2010.

“That’s what we’re supposed to be doing down here,” Councilman Ben Reynolds said. “And, you know, people pay taxes. They want their infrastructure to be improved. And my goal is, by the time I leave office, I want to have all of our roads an ‘A’ quality or better in the district. So the only way we’re going to get there is to allocate substantial capital improvement money within the district to the roads.”

Each council member directs $4 million a year from capital improvement funds. The city uses those funds every other year for road projects, relying on Pay-As-You-Go funds from Mobile County for the other years.

“So really, in a term, a four-year term, you really only get two bites at the apple,” Reynolds said. “So, it makes sense to allocate as much as you possibly can, consolidate funds from previous unspent funds … and put them into resurfacing because next year, we’re not gonna have a resurfacing contract.”

City officials have said the work will begin after Memorial Day. They hope to finish up in about 15 or 16 months.

‘Fix the street’ – Mobile City Council signs off on first of two road-paving contracts

Hegseth Dismisses Concerns Over U.S. Weapons Stockpiles After Iran Conflict

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is pushing back hard on reports that U.S. weapons stockpiles have been dangerously drawn down following the conflict with Iran. 

Testifying before a House Appropriations subcommittee Tuesday, Hegseth called the concern foolishly and unhelpfully overstated — telling lawmakers flatly that the U.S. has all the munitions needed to execute its missions. 

He also went after Democratic Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, who said after a classified briefing that it was — quote — shocking how deep the military has gone into its magazines, pointing specifically to heavy use of Tomahawk cruise missiles, ATACMS rockets, and Patriot air defense interceptors. Hegseth accused Kelly of improperly disclosing sensitive information and suggested the former Navy pilot may have violated his oath. Kelly fired back, saying the information was not classified and that the full cost of the Iran conflict still hasn't been explained to the American people.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Dan Caine, offered a more measured take — telling lawmakers the U.S. currently has sufficient munitions for what it's tasked to do, while acknowledging commanders will always want more.

But analysts say the deeper concern isn't today — it's tomorrow. A report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies found that while current stockpiles are sufficient for ongoing operations, the real worry is readiness for a future conflict with a peer adversary like China. That kind of fight would require sustained use of the same high-end missiles now being depleted — long-range strike weapons and advanced interceptors that take years to replace. Even before recent conflicts, it took roughly two years from contract to first delivery on many missile systems. Now analysts say new orders could take four to five years to fully deliver, as demand outpaces production capacity.

Defense contractors are trying to close that gap. RTX and Lockheed Martin are both ramping up production and investing billions to expand manufacturing. The Pentagon is pushing multi-year procurement deals to give companies more predictable demand.