Mayor Vines presents awards to the winners of the 2023 AMEA Scholarship.
Winners of the 2023 AMEA Scholarship from LaFayette High School pose for a group portrait.
By John Brice
Correspondent
The LaFayette City Council met on Monday, May 8th of 2023 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 Toney B. Thomas, Councilman Michael C. Ellis and Councilwoman Tammie B. Williams. Police Chief George Rampey, City Clerk Louis T. Davidson and City Attorney Joseph M. Tucker were also present. The meeting began with an invocation led by Chief Rampey and standard procedures such as roll call as well as approval of the minutes from the previous meeting.
First up on the agenda was a presentation of the 2023 Alabama Municipal Electric Authority Scholarship Award to four LaFayette High school students. Mayor Vines stood before the meeting to present Samantha Danielle Cousins, MaKenzie Elise Finley, JI’Nysha Shy’Bryan Story and Emrald Erieona Wilkins with the award.
Next up was an announcement of the 2nd Annual Memorial Ride for Chambers County Deputy J’Mar Abel being organized by Mrs. Candy Miles which the council voted unanimously to permit the event to proceed.
Clerk Davidson then took to the podium to address the imminent vacancy of a seat on the Board of Adjustment Committee by board member Charmel Wright who will be moving to Georgia. Councilwoman Williams proposed selecting a replacement member for the board during the interim before the next meeting at which the final decision would be confirmed and the motion was approved by the council.
Subsequently the Main Street Food Truck Festival was announced by Clerk Davidson which will take place on Friday May 12th starting at 5:00pm and continuing through until 9:00pm CST. Councilman Thomas asked what the names of food trucks participating would be to which Councilwoman Williams replied that the official facebook page for Main Street LaFayette had posted a list for those involved.
Resolution 2023-05-08-01 which refers to a Professional Service Agreement with Local Government Services, LLC was then up for a discussion initiated by Clerk Davidson who stated that it related to authorizing a third party to renegotiate a contract with Charter Communications for the city’s cable internet service.
Councilman Ellis remarked that Charter was the only cable company currently providing service in the city and it is crucial that they lower their prices in large part because they are using utility poles owned by the city. Councilwoman Williams requested that Attorney Tucker draft a letter to be sent to Charter requesting a discount on services to which he responded that Charter had taken a hard position on their prices, however, it was still a worthwhile effort to seek a decrease in the cost. Approval for the motion came about through a roll call vote and the meeting was adjourned.