City Council - Regular Meeting

SPEAKER: OK. SPEAKER: It is now time for our December 2nd, 2025, work section to open. It appears as if we have one resolution and one presentation, and we will start with our presentation from Miss Ali Rauch from Opelika Chamber. ALI RAUCH: OK. Now it's on. OK. Thank you so much for allowing me to be here tonight. I have put in front of you a request that I hope does not actually have to be needed. It is a request for an alternative date for the Opelika Christmas parade and tree lighting to happen, tree lighting only on Saturday evening. In the event that Friday evening's activities are truly just torrential rain pour drowned out, and we're unable to have it. Our planet, the Opelika Chamber, we're still planning to host everything on Friday night, rain or shine, even if it's a drizzle. But if tumultuous weather comes that prevents us from having, we would rather have an alternative date option. And so, what you have in front of you is a street closure request that includes just the area right around Courthouse Square. We would not be able to host the parade on an alternative date, too many of our partners are just not able to make that happen. But this is to allow us to still be able to host the tree lighting and all of the snowfall in Courthouse Square. So I have requested this very last-minute addition just so that we can have an alternative option in the event the weather does turn out to be worse than we would hope. I'm happy to answer any questions if that is appropriate. SPEAKER: So what time would the tree lighting? ALI RAUCH: We would keep the same timeline for Saturday, so the tree lighting would still happen at 7:30pm on Saturday night if we were to move it. Right now, plan A is, of course, to keep everything as planned.

The parade starts at 5:30 on Friday, the snowfall begins at 6:30, and then the tree lighting is at 7:30. Plan B is to still keep everything on Friday night, but just cancel the parade because if it's raining too much, you know, our floats won't be able to participate. But keep the tree lighting, and then plan C is moving it to Saturday. So hopefully we don't need this in any way, shape or form, but I'd rather have it available in case it's needed than to just have to cancel it entirely if we do have torrential rain. SPEAKER: So if it has to be on Saturday... SPEAKER: Mayor Smith, microphone please. MAYOR SMITH: So if it has to be on Saturday, what streets have to be closed? ALI RAUCH: So it would just be the parking lot around Courthouse Square. You should each have a packet in there that explains it. And then it would be Avenue B in front of First Baptist, and then I believe Ninth Street between just those two streets adjacent to Courthouse Square in the parking lot. But we wouldn't have to close down Eighth Street or any of the streets for the parade lineup. Our original street closure request was extensive because of all the parade lineup, but we will be making a firm decision at 9am or 10am on Friday morning. Two years ago, we cancelled or moved SNOPELIKA to a Sunday. And then that Friday night turned out to be a beautiful night. So we learned our lesson to not make that decision until the day of when the data for the weather is as clear and accurate as possible. SPEAKER: Thank you. SPEAKER: But what time will the street closure be on Saturday? ALI RAUCH: We would keep the same timeline as everything. So we would close off the Courthouse Square parking

lot at 5am to ensure there's no cars in the parking lot for our set-up. And then the streets adjacent would be closed at 2pm, so 2pm to 9pm. SPEAKER: OK. ALI RAUCH: Thank you so much. SPEAKER: Thank you. And we have one resolution from Master Eagle Scout, Nicholas Brock. NICHOLAS BROCK: First off, I wanna give y'all some papers just to basically explain my Eagle Scout project and the requirements. So first off, I would like to thank you all for giving me this opportunity to be here today. And I would like to introduce myself again if you guys forgot about me. My name is Nicholas Brock. I'm a senior at Opelika High School.

I run cross country and track, and I was a dual enrollment student at Southern Union. And my plan is to be a civil engineer, which is the reason why I want to build a Gaga Ball Pit. I think this would be a good a great opportunity to... Sorry, but OK, let me start over. I think it would be a great opportunity, a learning experience for me, you know, for trying to be a civil engineer. And I think this would be a great help if the community can help me financially and physically with this project. Not only do I have to lead this project, but I would have to teach others how to use tools safely and to build a sustainable Gaga Ball Pit for the people in Covington Rec Center. SPEAKER: Any questions? NICHOLAS BROCK: Any questions? SPEAKER: Nicholas. SPEAKER: Nicholas. I will say I had to ask my son what a Gaga Ball Pit was. And he said it was cool, so he said we needed one. So, Mayor Smith, I know... MAYOR SMITH: Actually, I ask. SPEAKER: Yeah, OK. He said we needed it. NICHOLAS BROCK: I think Gaga Ball Pi would be a great game to have at the Covington Rec 'cause it's more like dodgeball, but it's more than just throwing the balls at somebody. And then every summer camp I went to, even if you ask the guys that goes to the summer camps with me, you'll know that every time they have a Gaga Ball Pit there, we're always there and we're always competing. And there's a lot of teamwork that goes with it. So it really promotes a lot of good things. SPEAKER: I also think that Gaga Ball and with the youth, they're very fun. There's like music to your ears when you hear the kids out playing.

We just recently built one last year at Boys and Girls Club, and the kids really enjoy it. So for that demographic over there, that would be a great thing to introduce to the community as well as showing teamwork, team building skills and just the enjoyment and excitement of the pit. So have you all already had the pricing of it or? NICHOLAS BROCK: The pricing? So I did my estimate, and it's about gonna be 1,300. I think it says it on one of those pages. But yeah, I think it's gonna be about 1,300. SPEAKER: And are you asking the support of the council or is Parks and Rec? NICHOLAS BROCK: No, I'm asking just by donators or companies, anybody that can help me out. SPEAKER: I think part of his project is the fundraising part of it. NICHOLAS BROCK: Yeah. SPEAKER: So I think the resolution is just to give him permission to have the Gaga Pit on Covington Park's property. SPEAKER: And I do believe that Mr Bell and his staff has done their due diligence and agree that this would be a great asset to Covington Park. BELL: We've met over there with Nicholas, picked out a spot and decided if we got a great place for it. SPEAKER: Alright. Thank you so very much, young man. SPEAKER: Thank you. NICHOLAS BROCK: And thank you y'all. SPEAKER: All. I'm looking forward to you teaching me how to play. NICHOLAS BROCK: Alright, I got you. SPEAKER: Thank you. NICHOLAS BROCK: Thank you. (APPLAUSE) SPEAKER: And if there's nothing else to come before the council and the work session, we'll close and open again in one minute for the regular meeting. SPEAKER: You can go ahead and do it now if you want to. SPEAKER: Is it. SPEAKER: 6:00? SPEAKER: It's cool. It is now 6:00, and I call our December 2nd council meeting to order. Call the roll, Mr Jones. JONES: Miss Holmes. HOLMES: Here. JONES: Miss Walton. WALTON: Here. JONES: Mr Rupin. RUPIN: Here. JONES: Mr Rauch. ALI RAUCH: Here.

SPEAKER: And our invocation will be given us by Reverend Anthony Pogue from the pastor of Bethesda Baptist Church. And our Pledge of Allegiance will be led by Eugene Benford, Anna Carr and Javier Perez, Sonia Harris, and they all from West Forest Intermediate School. May we stand for our invocation and pledge. ANTHONY POGUE: First, I wanna say congratulations to our mayor and the new administration. Thank you, guys, for serving. Let us pray. Father God, I wanna thank you first for the opportunity of us being here tonight. We know it was all in your hands. And we're grateful for that. Lord, we come this afternoon praying for our city. And first of all, Lord, I wanna say thank you for placing the spirit of serving in the hearts of those who were on this council and this mayor. We thank you for that. We're praying right now that you would let your will be in their hearts, Father God, that they may base their decisions on the things that you would have them to do, Father God. And we're grateful for that. Lord, we're praying right now not just for our members of our government, Lord, but we're praying for our first responders, we're praying for our police department, we're praying for our fire department and all of our city workers. Father God. We're praying that you cover this great city, Lord, as only you can. Allow your hand to continue to cover us, Lord, and let us be the light that you would have us to be. We ask that you pierce all of our hearts this day, Master, that we are servants of yours and not of our own. We thank you, Master, and we pray for your continued blessings. It's in your son, Jesus Christ name that I do pray. Let us all say Amen. SPEAKER: Amen. SPEAKER: Amen. SPEAKER: I do wanna say something real quick.

If you wanna take a picture that way, you don't get the back of their head. Come on. Y'all come take a picture. Alright, guys. All ready? (INAUDIBLE) Y'all ready? I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. SPEAKER: Thank you, guys. SPEAKER: Thank you. SPEAKER: Thank you. SPEAKER: OK. We look to adopt an agenda that has been presented to us. Are there any items that need to be added to, removed from, or changed to the order of the presented agenda? SPEAKER: I will say that this is the time if you would like to add the request from Ali Rauch to the agenda to be approved, this would be the time to do it. So you would make a motion to add the item to the agenda under and it would fall under General business item number one. We would need a motion and a second, and call the roll to add that item. SPEAKER: So I move or do I need to stay motion? SPEAKER: You're good. SPEAKER: OK. SPEAKER: So you want a second? SPEAKER: Second. SPEAKER: Alright. SPEAKER: Discussion. SPEAKER: Are there any discussion? Having none, call the roll. JONES: Miss Holmes. HOLMES: Aye. JONES: Miss Walton. WALTON: Aye. JONES: Mr Baines. BAINES: Aye. JONES: Mr Rauch? ALI RAUCH: Aye. JONES: Mr Allen? ALLEN: Aye. JONES: All voted aye to add the item to general business as item number one.

It's that request for the backup date on Opelika. SPEAKER: Now, I suppose we need a motion to accept the agenda with the added or item. JONES: Correct. SPEAKER: I make a motion. We accept the amended agenda. SPEAKER: Is there a second? SPEAKER: Second? SPEAKER: Do we have a motion and second? Are they are they in the discussion? If not, call the roll, Mr Jones. JONES: Miss Holmes HOLMES: Aye. JONES: Miss Walton WALTON: Aye. JONES: Mr Baines BAINES: Aye. ALI RAUCH: Aye. ALLEN: Aye. SPEAKER: All voted aye to approve the adopted agenda. SPEAKER: The additional items will be placed on as item one under General Business. SPEAKER: Yep. Got it. SPEAKER: And you also been are you received a copy of the minutes from our November 18th our meeting. Is there a motion for approval? SPEAKER: So moved. SPEAKER: Is there a second? SPEAKER: Second. SPEAKER: Are there any corrections, additions or deletions? Having none, the minutes will stand approved as presented. No unfinished business will move to the mayor's comment and recognition. Mayor Smith. MAYOR SMITH: Thank you, Mr President. First of all, I'd like to, uh, appoint Mr Ben Bugg to the Opelika Planning Commission for a term to expire on February the 15th of 2030. The city's financial reports should be in your packet. If you have any questions about those, call me or Cindy Boyd or Joy, and we'll try to answer them. At this point, I'd like to invite Sam Bailey to the front, and Bubba and Michelle Dean. SPEAKER: Would you like to have all the representatives from the American League come with them for the picture as well? MAYOR SMITH: Absolutely. Yes, please.

SPEAKER: Big check. SPEAKER: Big check. SPEAKER: Big check. SPEAKER: Big check. SPEAKER: There you go. Perfect. SPEAKER: So, Sam, tell us what's going on here. SAM: Well, you know, we need a new surface on the Miracle League at West Ridge. And the Miracle League group have been holding on to and raising this money to help with that project. So they're donating $40,000 towards the resurfacing of the Miracle League field. We're certainly appreciative. SPEAKER: You know, thank you would be not the right words to express our appreciation. I looked over at Mayor Patton as Sam was talking about this, and I think $40,000 is about what we spent on the Miracle field when we did it, whatever it was 15 years ago. And for you guys to step up and resurface, it touches us as a community. So thank you very much for doing that. And we promise that we'll treat it right. SPEAKER: Thank you. SPEAKER: Thank you. SPEAKER: Thank you. SPEAKER: You're going to get a picture. SPEAKER: Thank you so much. SPEAKER: We do have the right to check already. SPEAKER: That's important too. SPEAKER: I guess I'll swap them out. SPEAKER: Yeah, I'll do the next one now.

SPEAKER: Thank you. SPEAKER: Thank you. SPEAKER: Thank you. Good to see you, my friend. At this point, I would like to invite Christie Smith, the president of the Opelika Pickleball Club, to come join Sam and I. SPEAKER: Have it in there. SPEAKER: OK. Sam, Christie, tell us what's going on here. SAM: Well, Pickleball Club is donating $50,000 back. We realized the original 12 courts we built, the lighting was probably not up to where it should have been, but nobody had a facility like that and really didn't know how to do it. So this is just an additional amount of lighting that's going in to bring that caught up to the standards needed. And the Pickleball club is donating $50,000 toward that project. SPEAKER: Thank you. SPEAKER: Gotta get a picture. So now we have how many courts? SAM: We have 24 completed, covered and lighted. And we're in the process of having nine more. SPEAKER: If you are not aware of what is going on with pickleball in Opelika, Alabama, I think it's put us on the map, and I think that people from all over the country are enjoying the opportunity to come to Opelika, and we're certainly enjoying the opportunity for them to come to Opelika. And it's all got to do with pickleball. And so we thank you, Kristen, and thank you, Sam, for your leadership and continued commitment that the city or that Pickleball association has made to the city and given dollars back to help us maintain those courts. So thank you very much. CHRISTIE: I'm very proud. We have 648 active members. We just had a new member who just joined, who just moved to Opelika because of Pickleball. SPEAKER: Alright.

SPEAKER: You got the real check on that. SPEAKER: I got the real check. SPEAKER: Public hearings, Mr Jones. JONES: Mr President, first item under public hearings is a public hearing to approve the First Amendment to a broad metro development agreement. SPEAKER: I declare this public hearing open. If there is anyone who wants to speak for or against this item, please come to the podium to my left and state your name and address. And remember, you have three minutes to speak. Having none, I declare this public hearing closed. JONES: Second public hearing is to approve the First Amendment to the Mila Manufacturing Project Agreement. SPEAKER: I declare this public hearing open. If there's anyone to speak for or against this item, please come to the podium to my left and state your name and address. And remember, you have three minutes to speak. Having none, I declare this public hearing closed. JONES: Third and final public hearing is to amend the zoning ordinance and map of 2051 Alabama Highway 169. It's 48.06 acres from a R1 to a C3. SPEAKER: I declare this public hearing open if there's anyone who wants to speak for or against this item, please come to the podium to my left and state your name and address. And remember, you have three minutes to speak. Having none, I declare this public hearing closed.

A gender related public comments. Mr Jones. JONES: If you would like to speak to the council about anything that is on tonight's agenda, please come to the podium to my left. If you have not, please sign in a Sign-in Sheet. Name. If you do speak, please state your name and your address, and please keep it to three minutes or less. Thanks. AARON BUSHEY: Good evening. Council, mayor. Aaron Bushey, 408 South Eighth Street. I'm here tonight over my concerns over the movement of the date for Opelika. I don't know what the true information is. The information I heard earlier in the day is different than what it waa presented later this evening by Mr (INAUDIBLE). Those of us who operate businesses in Opelika have no communication with what is going to happen many times. And you show up at your business, and all of a sudden, your business is closed. I just happened to hear about this. And it's very frustrating when you don't know how to prepare. If your streets are closed on a Saturday during Christmas season, you're gonna lose a lot of money, you're gonna lose customers, and they may or may not use the data. I get that. But there's no communication, there's no dialogue. There's no way to find a resolution that would be beneficial to both of us or all of us. I mean, the whale will be impacted. The surf shop will be impacted. The businesses on Eighth that use parking like Davis man in the breezeway, everybody is impacted.

And because you're closing the streets down completely. So if people come in from out of town and they see everything's closed, they just keep on moving. It's cumulative. I've talked to several of you about this in the past, but events that impact businesses should be discussed with the businesses prior to bringing it to City Council, getting it passed, and then we find out after the fact. So I'm asking you to consider either denying the request, finding another date or some sort of medium where it's not going to close the entire street for the entire day right before Christmas. So thank you for your time. Appreciate it. SPEAKER: General business, Mr Jones. JONES: Oh, we're going to consent agenda, Mr President. SPEAKER: Oh, OK. Counselor, you received a copy of this consent agenda. Do any of you wish to remove any item to be addressed on our regular agenda? Having urged that motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. SPEAKER: So moved. SPEAKER: Second. SPEAKER: Any discussion? Having none. Call the roll. Mr Jones. JONES: Miss Holmes. HOLMES: Aye. JONES: Miss Walton. WALTON: Aye. JONES: Mr Baines. BAINES: Aye. JONES: Mr Rauch. ALI RAUCH: Aye. JONES: Mr Allen. ALLEN: Aye.

JONES: All voted aye to approve the unanimous consent agenda. SPEAKER: So we'll do general business. SPEAKER: Now, we're a general business. Yes. And you did add an item to general business tonight. Number one is the request for downtown street closure for the Opelika and tree lighting on Saturday, December 6th, as the backup date. SPEAKER: Is there a motion for approval? SPEAKER: So moved. SPEAKER: Is there a second? SPEAKER: Second. SPEAKER: Any discussion? SPEAKER: Yes. So I know he was saying that some of the business will be impacted, but I'm looking at a packet. Is this the same packet where the business assigned or signed that will be affected, and agreed to it, that's in the back for the new date? SPEAKER: I'd have to check with Miss Route, but it seems to me like that was for the all of downtown that was originally done. Is that correct? So that was the original signed off. But that's for the Friday. That's not for the Saturday. SPEAKER: OK. And so is the proposal that the gentleman that spoke about it, is it the well or the front street that is being impacted or? SPEAKER: His business is almost anything which is on Eighth Street beside the courthouse. Yeah. On Ninth Street. The well is on Avenue A. SPEAKER: Yeah, I know. SPEAKER: And then you got almost anything. And then what the request says is all the way up to Eighth Street. Now, that does cut off the parking lot behind all those businesses that face Eighth Street. So I don't know if they wanna adjust that and move that closer.

I don't know if they just wanna do the parking lots. I mean, that's up to between y'all and them. I mean, I don't know. SPEAKER: I was just wondering if we could leave that street open. Would it be conducive to leave the street open and just block off the parking lot on that? SPEAKER: I mean, yeah, you can explain why you need the street. Sure. SPEAKER: Again, I do wanna reiterate that we do not plan to and do not want to use this date. I'm not sure where that information came from because I was not communicated to or asked about that today at all. But this is a backup, truly. The plan and hope is that everything happens as expected on Friday. And all of those signatures, we visited every business, including almost anything, to notify them of that first date. So this is the reason that we try to close the streets around Courthouse Square is because you have a lot of children running around and playing in all of the snowfall, which goes up to the curbs. We've moved all the food trucks to the parking lot area so that that's kind of out of the streets. That had caused a lot of street closures in the vicinity of Opelika last year, and we've moved that into the parking lot. But right now, we're still working out the logistics of adding some tents right there along that for some of our sponsors and people that if they cannot participate in a parade, need a space to be able to still experience the event and share information. And so if you would prefer not to close that down, we certainly would respect that decision. But we included closing that street down merely for a safety perspective and follow the recommendations of the police department and EMA from that. And we've we have always closed that block, even when it was just a courthouse square activity, we had closed

that one street, but the first Baptist parking lot adjacent to Ninth Street and Avenue B would still be open. The parking lot at the courthouse would still be open, which would be adjacent to the surgery shop as well. So it doesn't go all the way to 10th Street. Our original street closures for Opelika close all the way to 10th Street and all the way to sixth Street or to seventh Street. So it's a much, much bigger impact than this one. SPEAKER: And just remind me. You're saying the streets would be closed at 5am? SPEAKER: No, the Courthouse Square parking lot would be closed at 5am because we have a lot of things getting set up in that vicinity. The street closure would start at 2pm. We could possibly look at moving that back if needed, 'cause, again, we're not having parade lineup happening in that area. So we could certainly explore pushing that back to maybe 4 or 5 pm, so that we're just closing it right before the activities begin. SPEAKER: I think in your packet, you submitted, you said 9am on the packet. So we need to adjust that if you're saying two, 'cause I believe the packet you gave me said 9am. Is that not correct? SPEAKER: I'm reading it. SPEAKER: The street closure application. SPEAKER: Do y'all have the packet? SPEAKER: It's time to set up barricade block 9am. SPEAKER: Says 9am. SPEAKER: Then that is an error. So I apologize for that. SPEAKER: So you're saying 2:00 would... SPEAKER: Correct. 2:00 is was the actual time that should have been written on that form. SPEAKER: But can you push it back to 5:00? Would that be feasible? SPEAKER: I do think that. As long as we can continue to close the parking lot at 5am, I think the streets could be moved to later for sure.

SPEAKER: And what time does the business close on Saturday? SPEAKER: We close at five, but it doesn't matter. That's more than sufficient. So 4:00 if it's easier for you. SPEAKER: Sure. SPEAKER: So are we going to change it to four or five? SPEAKER: Let's change it to 4pm. That would be great. Thank you. SPEAKER: So, do we need another motion? SPEAKER: No, I got it, I got it. SPEAKER: Any other discussion? If not, call the roll, Mr Jones. JONES: OK. This is to approve the street closure for the backup date at 4pm to 9pm. SPEAKER: Right. JONES: Miss Holmes. HOLMES: Aye. JONES: Miss Walton. WALTON: Aye. JONES: Mr Baines. BAINES: Aye. JONES: Mr Rauch. ALI RAUCH: Aye. JONES: Mr Allen. ALLEN: Aye. JONES: All voted aye. SPEAKER: Resolution, Mr Treece. TREECE: Thank you, Mr President. Tonight, we have as resolution number one, expense reports from various folks, Council members, for your approval. That one's pretty simple. Should be in your packets. SPEAKER: Is there a motion for approval? SPEAKER: So moved. SPEAKER: Second. SPEAKER: Second. SPEAKER: Any discussion? Having none. Call the roll, Mr Jones. JONES: Miss Holmes. HOLMES: Aye. JONES: Miss Walton WALTON: Aye. JONES: Mr Baines BAINES: Aye. JONES: Mr Rauch. ALI RAUCH: Aye. JONES: Mr Allen. ALLEN: Aye. JONES: All voted aye. TREECE: Mr President, the second resolution is to approve and the acceptance of a settlement and release in relation to a class action lawsuit of which the city of Opelika is but a very small part.

Because the city sometimes accepts discover cards as payment, the company itself, Discover had apparently mischaracterized some of those accounts, inuring to the benefit of anybody but the city of Opelika. So they've prepared a settlement agreement. There were two lawsuits filed. They were all transferred to Cook County, Illinois. It's nominal amounts, but we're asking that you approve signing off on that settlement, and we'll get what we get. SPEAKER: Is there a motion for approval? SPEAKER: So moved. SPEAKER: Second. SPEAKER: Second. SPEAKER: Any discussion? Having none, call the roll, Mr Jones. JONES: Miss Holmes. HOLMES: Aye. JONES: Miss Walton WALTON: Aye. JONES: Mr Baines. BAINES: Aye. JONES: Mr Rauch. ALI RAUCH: Aye. JONES: Mr Allen. ALLEN: Aye. JONES: All voted aye. TREECE: Mr President, item number three is a resolution to approve the First Amendment of a broad metro development agreement. SPEAKER: Is there a motion for approval? SPEAKER: So moved. SPEAKER: Is there a second? IS there a second? Is there a second? SPEAKER: Second. SPEAKER: Any discussion? Having none, call the roll, Mr Jones. JONES: Miss Holmes. HOLMES: Aye. JONES: Miss Walton WALTON: Aye. JONES: Mr Baines BAINES: Aye. JONES: Mr Rauch. ALI RAUCH: Aye. JONES: Mr Allen. ALLEN: Aye. JONES: All voted aye. TREECE: Mr President, the fourth resolution is to approve a First Amendment to the Miller Manufacturing Project agreement, resulting in a delay. SPEAKER: Is there a motion for approval? SPEAKER: Motion to approve. SPEAKER: Is there a second? SPEAKER: Second. SPEAKER: Any discussion? Having none, call the roll, Mr Jones. JONES: Miss Holmes. HOLMES: Aye JONES: Mr Baines BAINES: Aye. JONES: Mr Rauch. ALI RAUCH: Aye.

JONES: Mr Allen. ALLEN: Aye. JONES: All voted aye. TREECE: Resolution number five, Mr President, is the annual appropriation contract for fiscal year 2026 with the Opelika Chamber of Commerce and the amount of $115,000. SPEAKER: Is there a motion for approval? SPEAKER: So moved. SPEAKER: Is there a second? SPEAKER: Second. SPEAKER: Any discussion? SPEAKER: Discussion. I will be abstaining from this vote due to my relationship with the president of Opelika Chamber of Commerce. Mr City clerk, if you could have a signed resolution and send it to the State Ethics Commission, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you. SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr. Ralph. Any other discussion? Having none, call the roll. Mr Jones. JONES: Miss Holmes. HOLMES: Aye. JONES: Miss Walton. WALTON: Aye. JONES: Mr Baines. BAINES: Aye. JONES: Mr Rauch. ALI RAUCH: Abstain. JONES: Mr Allen. ALLEN: Aye. JONES: Four ayes, one abstain. Motion carries. SPEAKER: Ordinances, Mr Treece. TREECE: We have one more resolution, Mr President. SPEAKER: I'm sorry. TREECE: This resolution is to approve the 2025 Christmas holiday schedule for city employees. SPEAKER: So moved. SPEAKER: Is there a motion for approval? Is that. SPEAKER: Second? Second? SPEAKER: Any discussion? Having none, call the roll, Mr Jones? JONES: Miss Holmes HOLMES: Aye. JONES: Miss Walton. WALTON: Aye. JONES: Mr Baines. BAINES: Aye. JONES: Mr Rauch. ALI RAUCH: Aye. JONES: Mr Allen. ALLEN: Aye. JONES: All voted aye to approve. SPEAKER: Ordinances, Mr Treece. TREECE: Yes, sir. Mr President, the first ordinance for second reading is to amend the zoning ordinance of the city and the map at 1401 Speedway Drive. It's 1.933 acres from an R5 m to a C2. SPEAKER: Is there a motion for approval? SPEAKER: So moved. SPEAKER: Is there a second? SPEAKER: Second? SPEAKER: Any discussion? Having none, call the roll, Mr Jones. JONES: Miss Holmes. HOLMES: Aye. JONES: Miss Walton. WALTON: Aye.

JONES: Mr Baines. BAINES: Aye. JONES: Mr Rauch. ALI RAUCH: Aye. JONES: Mr Allen. ALLEN: Aye. JONES: All voted aye to approve. TREECE: The second ordinance, Mr President, is to amend the zoning ordinance and map at 2051 Alabama Highway 169, consisting of 48.06 acres. That would change it from an R1 to a C3. This is the first reading. SPEAKER: I would like to ask a member of the Council to introduce this ordinance for the first reading. SPEAKER: Granted. SPEAKER: Thank you. Second roster. Public comments. SPEAKER: So now, if you'd like to speak to the mayor or council about anything else, please come to the podium to my left. Please sign in the sign-in sheet if you have not done so already. Name. If you do speak, state your name and your address. MADDIE CLARK: Oh, I'm good, I'm good. I'm gonna sue you. Y'all are all witnesses. SPEAKER: State your name, your address and keep it to three minutes or less. MADDIE CLARK: Your first since me and mayor. SPEAKER: Alright SPEAKER: No comment. SPEAKER: No comment. MADDIE CLARK: My name is Maddie Clark. I live at 706 Orchard Avenue, Opelika, Alabama. I keep coming for these bad houses. There's one on the corner of Orchard Avenue. You can't hardly find the address, but the window's out, paper is in the windows, and there's a little old white lady that lives there. Nobody should be allowed to live there. But I know y'all can't do anything about it, but y'all do know the person that's over these houses. And there's also one on Martin Luther King on the corner there. It's two all up too. I don't know who's supposed to be riding around checking on these houses besides me, but I don't work. Y'all didn't appoint me up here. If you had, I would have straightened it out.

But I don't know who y'all appointed. But whoever's appointed to see about these houses, they are not doing the job. So would somebody check on these houses and check on that little lady that's living in that house, 'cause it's cold. Thank you very much. SPEAKER: I know, come see me. BRADLEY HADDEN: My name is Bradley Hadden. I live at 1805 Archer Court here in Opelika. Hello, I'm Bradley Hadden with Topshelf Alternatives. I'm speaking tonight in regards to the moratorium I brought up at the last city council meeting the city had put in place. As we're getting closer to December 15th deadline, I'm desperately trying to forecast my business moving forward into next year, and not knowing if I will be allowed to operate in the city or not is the first of many decisions I must take into account when deciding the future of my small business. There are multiple pieces to this new bill, between the ABC board and just the city in general, all moving at once and is left most store owners in a state of limbo. I'm trying my best to get all my ducks in a row leading into next year. So I know what that means for my business. The moratorium is step one. I urge the Council to add the moratorium to current business and vote to remove or extend it, so I can make an informed decision for the future of top-shelf alternatives. As always, thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you all. If you have questions, I'll take them if that's something you do.

SPEAKER: Well, the character trait of the month is generosity. The quality of being kind and generous, showing a readiness to give more of something that is strictly necessary or expected. I will now entertain a motion to adjourn. SPEAKER: So moved. SPEAKER: Second. SPEAKER: Any discussion? Call the roll. JONES: Miss Holmes. HOLMES: Aye. JONES: Miss Walton. WALTON: Aye.