On Monday, the Athens City council met to discuss budget items, the Fair Housing Proclamation and the Annual Business Meeting of the Alabama League of Municipalities. 

A resolution was introduced to appoint Mayor Ronnie Marks as the voting delegate for the Annual Business Meeting of the Alabama League of Municipalities.

“That’s something that the League of Municipalities put in place a number of years ago, and they have not been following that. They’re trying to make sure that the voting delegates because there’s been some concern on who is really legally voting delegates. When you go to these annual conferences, it’s generally the president, the president pro tempore and the mayor,” said Marks. “But I wanted you to know that’s something that should have been put in place some time ago and the league dropped the ball on it until they ran into a problem honestly, in South Alabama.”

The council unanimously voted to appoint Marks as a voting delegate for the League of Municipalities.

The council unanimously approved travel and education expenses in the amount of approximately $170 for the Athens Police Department.

The final resolution on the consent calendar was the approval of the Fair Housing Proclamation.

“You see in there where Governor Ivey signed the proclamation, it came from ADM, from Ken Boswell, and they’re requesting that all cities do, you know make sure that they’re passing this United States fair housing law, and he goes by title in the Civil Rights Act of 1968. And they’re wanting to make sure that each city does that. So we decided that he thought it was best just to do a proclamation,” said Marks.

The council unanimously voted to approve the proclamation.

The resolution to de-annex +/- 8.85 acres of property located on the west side of Mooresville Road, south of Newby Road died by lack of support.

Moving on from the planned agenda, two resolutions were introduced by the Council. The council introduced a resolution to appropriate up to $25 thousand from the 2021 surplus general fund for repairs to the senior center.

“We went down today and toured the senior center on Pryor Street. It’s needing a lot of work. Mayor Marks walked me and Councilman Harper through it and gave us an idea of things that needs to be fixed and he was right, it does, such as paint, carpet in bathrooms and stuff like that,” said Councilman Harold Wales.

The resolution to appropriate funds to the senior center was unanimously approved by the Council.

A resolution was introduced to purchase five new vehicles for the Athens Police Department.

“What this was is, as you know, a lot of times with these vehicles, they get ordered and we don’t get them in for a long period of time. These five police cars were originally ordered under the state contract, and while we were waiting on the cars to come in the contract expired,” said Councilwoman Dana Henry. “We actually had to bid on the cars. They actually have been delivered and they’re sitting at the dealership but we bid them we only got one bid in, we opened the bids today, And the one bid that we got was from the original vendor that had the state contract so this money is in the police department’s capital account.”

The contract was awarded to Stivers, Incorporated of Prattville, Alabama in the amount of $126 thousand.

The council voted unanimously in favor of the resolution.

During the meeting, Wales thanked the City of Athens for its support following a tragedy in his family.

“I want to take this time to thank the citizens of Athens, for the way they have reached out to me and my family. This is probably the hardest time we’ve ever dealt with. But you were there with your food, your gifts, your cards, your calls, your hugs, your visits, this town has got some great outstanding people in it,” said Wales. “I want to confess that maybe I’ve not done enough when someone loses a family member to call or go by and just offer any kind of assistance I can. I want to try to be a better man because the way you have reached out to us has meant a lot to us. Thank you.”

The City Council will meet again on April 11, 2022.