By Jody Stewart
Monday night the LaFayette City council met at the Alfa Building with a larger than normal crowd present. The agenda included swearing in of new councilman, discussing water rates and passing a proclamation for LaFayette to have a Day of Prayer.
The proclamation reads:
“We as duly elected and appointed leaders of the City of LaFayette recognize our civil responsibilities to those whom we serve; and we feel the obligation we have to dutifully fulfill our offices and carry out the function as Mayor and Council of the City of LaFayette.
We humbly acknowledge our dependence upon God for wisdom, courage and power, and upon the spiritual and moral support of all people of Chambers County and in so doing, we urge the support of all people in praying for their leaders, thus enabling them to direct
and serve to the best of their abilities and we proclaim August 5, 2022 as A Day of Prayer for Chambers County.”
The council also had to consider and vote on signing a contract with Spectrum to run a highly advanced internet service to the building for the upcoming Tel-A-Med service.
City Clerk Louis Davidson explained that Auburn University would reimburse the city for the installation up to $2500 and reimburse the city for monthly cost up to a certain amount. Clerk Davidson explained Auburn’s commitment should more than cover the city’s incurred expenses and the council voted unanimously to sign the contract with Spectrum.
Fire Chief Doody explained this was a big first step to kick off the build out for the Tel-A-Med. “This internet is not like the internet we have in our homes or offices. Spectrum will be handling a server, many switches, handling cyber security and they will have security cameras that will allow us at the fire department to monitor.”
Bids for construction will be going out soon and the hope for a December 2022 opening is still in the works.
Mayor Vines also addressed the issue that city employees had not had a cost of living raise since 2014. “We must take care of our employees. We have to do something about this soon.”
New Councilman Ennis said this should be addressed in the budget meeting.