By John Brice
Correspondent
The LaFayette City Council met on Monday, October 9th 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 David Ennis, Councilman Toney B. Thomas, Councilman Michael C. Ellis and Councilwoman Tammie B. Williams. Assistant City Clerk Diane W. Perry, City Attorney Joseph M. Tucker, Police Chief George Rampey, Fire & EMS Chief Jim Doody, Street, Sanitation and Cemetery Superintendent George Green, Wastewater Collection Superintendent Richard Chapman and Electric Superintendent Chris Sanders 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 at the podium was Chief Doody with an announcement of a free OnMed demonstration for City of LaFayette Employees and a quarterly activity report for the Health and Wellness Center. Doody reported that there has been a major uptick in visitors to the center with more and more of them coming for actual medical consults as opposed to demonstrations in the earlier months.
These trends have made the LaFayette location the best performing in the entire OnMed system with more prescriptions being written than ever. Going forward into the future is the expectation that medicare and medicaid support will be available for patients as well as popular health insurance providers such as Blue Cross Blue Shield. Councilwoman Williams recalled her wonderful experience using the services at the center for her own personal needs.
Next up Councilman Thomas stated the need for a Recreation Board appointment from his District C for LaFayette resident Rachel Vines which a motion was approved for.
Premium pay for part time employees was next up for discussion where Mayor Vines started off by commenting that the council knows that taking care of employees is important, which has largely been accomplished for full time workers already but also noted the need for part-time employees to be rewarded as well. Contributions made by part-time employees during the strain of the covid emergency allowed the city to keep going by their putting in extra time at work and Vines expressed his intention to do something to reward them and urged the council come up with a number for their monetary compensation.
Councilman Ennis asked if the council could get the additional hours calculated that part time employees put in for that to be factored in so that only deserving employees were compensated. Councilman Mangram concurred, stating that rewards should be reserved for part-time employees who actually deserve them. Councilman Ellis recommended that the discussion be continued at the next meeting when the relevant data was available and the subject was concluded for the time being.
This year the holiday season conflicts with council meeting dates in November and December which prompted the council to subsequently approve a motion to reschedule meetings for those months at which point a brief discussion of revisiting a chemical bid of Sodium Hydroxide for the water plant was tabled until more information was available.
Notices of claim for Cammie Hester, Louise Forster, Ashla Williams and Bettye Ray were all approved with a single motion upon the recommendation of Attorney Tucker to be paid for settling damage done to clothing they were washing which was stained by contaminated water from the city’s water plant. This led to an extended discussion amongst the council and with Superintendent Chapman where the lack of certainty at what caused this water contamination was lamented especially because it has occurred in the past with citizens having to be compensated by the city for their laundry being stained.
Councilman Mangram pointedly demanded to know whether new meters to more efficiently monitor water levels in the city system had been installed which then led to further discussion regarding ongoing issues with theft of water services which is a sore subject that has come up repeatedly in past meetings and continues to plague the city’s resources.
Councilman Ennis and Councilwoman Williams concurred that it is time for the city to take a more aggressively consistent stance towards arresting and prosecuting individuals caught stealing water services. It was emphasized by Councilman Ennis that this was not a criticism of Mayor Vines or an attempt to blame any city employees to which Mayor Vines underscored the need for following proper procedures and having all the evidence collected before going to a judge for an arrest warrant.
Councilman Thomas asked Superintendent Green for an update regarding the ongoing road work being done on Hospital Street to which Green indicated that it is going extremely well and that within the next week it should again be opened up for travel.
Councilman Ellis requested $75,000 in funds to be allotted for youth athletic activities this coming Spring, reflecting on the outstanding success that the city’s programs have enjoyed in the past year.
At that point Ordinance Number 480 for a severe weather preparedness tax holiday on February 23rd through the 25th, 2024 was approved with a roll call vote as well as seven cemetery deed conveyances being approved with a single motion which then led to a motion to adjourn being approved.