By John Brice
Correspondent
The LaFayette City Council met on Monday, July 22nd of 2024 at the Chambers County Farmers Federation Agricultural Center at the ALFA building in LaFayette. In attendance were Mayor Kenneth Vines, Councilman Terry G. Mangram, Councilman David Ennis, Councilman Toney B. Thomas, Councilman Michael C. Ellis and Councilwoman Tammie B. Williams. City Clerk Louis T. Davidson, City Attorney Joseph M. Tucker, Fire Chief James Doody and LaFayette Police Department Interim Chief Captain Christopher Trice were also present. The meeting began with an invocation led by Mayor Vines and standard procedures such as roll call as well as approval of the minutes from the previous meeting.
First up at the podium were Ms. Linda Haynes and Mr. Stephen Jaye from the Alabama Department of Public Health with a free health screening discussion. One of the main factors motivating this presentation is the unfortunate situation involving Chambers County having the highest cervical cancer rates in Alabama. Residents are urged to get informed about the disease and the human papillomavirus (HPV) infection that causes it as well as getting screened and vaccinated. Free mammograms and pap smears will also be made available and female patients in affected age ranges are encouraged to participate in the potentially lifesaving services.
Next up was local resident Mrs. Carolyn Wheeler to lead a LaFayette City Cemetery discussion. Wheeler gave background on past efforts to maintain the cemetery by remarking “We started ten years ago and I want to recognize, this is Dante Bledsoe and Robert Green who is George’s brother. They are the ones that started helping us in the very beginning and you would have thought that their mother was buried in that cemetery. That is how devoted that they were. They pulled up monuments to level them, there was nothing that they could not get to. But they found real jobs and better jobs, that is the reason that they could not help us any more. Without these two guys, I do not think that we would have ever gotten off the ground.”
Since that time, the cemetery has fallen into disrepair with Wheeler explaining “We have taken up donations, we have sent out a letter. Not every year, but maybe every other year, asking for donations. We have done very well with our donations. But nobody will volunteer to help at the cemetery, I have asked and asked and asked. So, my suggestion to you all, and I hope you can help us out, is getting George some help. There have been times that he has sent some guys when they were not busy, he would send them to the cemetery. They would work about an hour, then there’s a water line that would break. So here they go, they would leave.”
Moving on to the next agenda item was an Avondale Ballfield discussion regarding heavy volumes of usage by the public that needs oversight. Councilmen Ellis and Thomas emphasized that working towards a solution through the Recreation Committee would be the best course of action in managing use of the facility going forward. At that point Councilman Thomas led a New City Hall discussion by remarking that it is long overdue to move personnel out of the old building due to structural issues with leaking roofs which makes for an unsafe work environment. Councilman Ellis also raised the issue of leaks in the Police Department building and a motion was approved to move forward with efforts to prepare a new city hall location.
Code Enforcement Officer Kim Langley then took to the podium to revisit efforts by the city to address dilapidated structures in the city. Complicating matters is the fact that some of the structures have become occupied with power restored to the residences since the property owners were first notified that they needed to comply with city codes sixty days previously. Due to concerns of budgetary constraints for the city to incur the costs associated with demolishing the structures, the motion was approved to table the discussion until the next meeting so that in the meantime a specific course of action could be worked out with related budgeting.
Finishing out the meeting was a motion approved with a roll call vote to table considerations of a professional service agreement with Local Government Services, LLC for cable television franchise management related to an agreement with Spectrum that is up for renewal until further details could be determined. There was a single motion to convey three cemetery deeds which was approved and the meeting was adjourned.
