By John Brice
Correspondent
Downtown LaFayette will be the location for a celebration day of the “Weather Radios for Seniors” project on Wednesday, June 14th of 2023 starting at 10am at the Chambers County Courthouse. Coosa Valley Resource Conservation and Development Council, a non-profit organization located in Heflin, has awarded a $5,000 grant to the City of LaFayette for the purchase of weather radios to be provided to elderly participants of the LaFayette Senior Center as well as the Lanett Senior Center.
According to a recent press release from the Coosa Valley RC&D Council, these radios “will provide the seniors with access to accurate information regarding weather conditions in the area and give them peace of mind when inclement weather occurs.”
Representatives from the Coosa Valley RC&D will meet with Alabama Senator for Senate District 13 Randy Price, Alabama Representative for District 38 Debbie Wood and Alabama Representative for District 37 Bob Fincher to commemorate the fiscal year 2023 project. City of LaFayette Councilman Toney B. Thomas worked together with Alabama Department of Senior Services Board Chairman Ray Edwards, a resident of Valley, regarding this grant.
Weather radios are battery operated devices that provide real time weather information and alerts broadcast by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration network of radio stations, directly from the nearest National Weather Service office. NOAA Weather Radio broadcasts official Weather Service warnings, watches, forecasts and information on other hazards 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
According to the description on their official website, the RC&D “was initially started back in the 1960’s to address rural poverty and help rural communities generate sustainable natural resource-based economies. Although today many RC&D Areas are not rural and are not poor, the need for the RC&D concept is just as strong as ever. RC&D is collaborative, multi-leveled, action-oriented, and inclusive. And, sometimes, ‘RC&D’ is difficult to explain and difficult to quantify. However, the effect of the RC&D approach to solving community problems involving local people in voluntary, empowering ways can be felt with almost every RC&D project that happens across the country.”
It goes on to continue “The purpose of the RC&D program is to accelerate the conservation, development and utilization of natural resources, improve the general level of economic activity, and to enhance the environment and standard of living in designated RC&D areas.”
Their press release further states that their program “secures funding from the state legislature, private foundations, and federal partnership. Coosa Valley RC&D funding is distributed throughout their council area, which includes Calhoun, Chambers, Cherokee, Clay, Cleburne, Coosa, Etowah, Randolph, St. Clair, Talladega and Tallapoosa counties.”