City Council - Regular Meeting

I have your attention, please. It is now 5:30 and I will call our March 3rd, 2026 work session meeting to order. We have a couple of presentations and of course we will start with the second one is listed on your agenda. But before we call up Dr. Why don't we ask uh Joyce would come up and tell how do we get to this point on presentation number two?

Okay. So, when uh the chamber moved over to their new building and left the the old chamber building uh vacant, uh it's been sitting there for uh a while. Uh I would say almost two years. Is that is that right? Anyway, we've we've not had any offers. We've had a few people look at it. Uh it's in need of some repairs uh because it's an old building and it's been sitting. You know all about that. Uh and so we have uh someone that's interested and has made an offer and that's on the uh agenda

agenda for tonight under an ordinance. Uh, I thought it would be a good idea uh for her to come and explain what she wants to do with the building and I think you'll be intrigued and uh anyway she can come and and tell you all about that.

Hey, I'm Katie Walter. I've met some of y'all. Um, my hope, and this is probably going to sound dramatic, but really, I drive past the building probably twice a day, like for as long as we've lived here, which we've been here for about nine years now. Um, we live on Third Avenue and Fourth Street, and we have two businesses. My husband owns a business right next to Sidetrack, the Game Shop. And then I have a business, um, a flower shop downtown, too. So, every time I drive by it, I think this would be amazing to put a clinic here. I'm a pediatrician by trade. Um, and so that is my goal is to be able to put um, a pediatric clinic there um, that not only does you know kind of standard care but also health and wellness too. I do obesity treatment now. Um, and I'm also an IBCLC, so a lactation consultant, so hopefully able to run all of those things. Um, hoping to make it a multid-disciplinary center with behavioral health and also dietetics too. Um, are there any other questions or things that you would want me to elaborate on from that standpoint? Am I allowed to say that? I don't know.

Yes, you are. Okay. Okay. And Oh, go ahead. So, it's not going to be be a pediatric clinic per se, like for just an average I mean, you know, just a normal p you're going to do special you're going to specialize. I would like to offer both. So, specialty plus general. So, general, too. Yeah. I'm the chair of pediatrics at VCOM. Okay. Um and we have a huge need for training our medical students in general PS and also specialty care. So I'm hoping to meet that need through that too.

I'm sorry. Also, will it be um I know you're at VCOM and at this um our university. So will students come in and train and also will it be offered at a discount to what what would the insurance um and the for who you will serve look like there?

Yeah. So I have a foundation where we do offer wellness care through that foundation which um basically is offered on a sliding scale basis. So whatever financial ability they have. I also take Medicaid and all private insurance too. So probably what typically happens is it's about 50% patients who have Medicaid for their insurance 50% private is tend that tends to be how it plays out here. But absolutely I would hope to serve the underserved as well as everyone. And we also typically have dietetic interns with us too. Nursing um students, nutrition students, child life, nonprofit studies. So, lots of Auburn University students, too.

Eddie. Yep. It's exciting to me to have a new business come downtown, especially one that's going to specialize in medical. Nobody ever thought about doing that. Yeah. And so, what a great location to do it in. And, uh, so, thank you for your investment in Opalikica and the things that you're going to do. Yeah. Absolutely. Like a Yeah, we're recovering Auburn residents. That's what I said. We've been here for nine years, though. So, any other questions that y'all have? Thank you. Thank you so very much. Thank you.

I have one other to ask Joey if you don't mind. uh how did we kind of derive at the selling price or or what may the appraisal may have been? We had an appraisal done. Uh, Bill Brown did it uh back shortly after the chamber uh left and it appraised for 600 uh 600

$600,000. Excuse me. And uh uh she's made an offer of $400,000. She's had some um people in to look at some of the things that need to be done to get it up to um again two years in a house like that is is a long time to be sitting there without any air or any utilities on it and stuff. So, uh it's mind and the mayor's opinion that this is a good opportunity to get a good business in there and uh that it's a fair offer. Thank you so very much. Based on what needs to be done to to bring it up. Thank you.

Auditor's text is Okay. So, we're just kind of moved maybe to or ask any of the council members or if there's any other thing that they want to discuss with any of the department heads or that's on our agenda that they may need clarification for or Mr. President, are we going to discuss the city's financial audit and statements? We are. as soon as the art he would just said the auditor is on his way in.

Okay. Um I would I have a question about um resolution number eight. Is it anyone here you can direct your question to? Um, I sent an email to Stephen Dah earlier today, but um, anyone from the administration that can answer any questions on this? I I have several questions I'd like to ask.

I don't know all the uh, answers other than Stephen sent out an email that was sent to the person that had inquired of each council member. Uh and so there has been a reply. But the Verata is the system we use for uh security. It uh it's those automatic locking doors and you have a fob. It does not use facial recognition. Uh just in time, Stephen. So, uh

you can take your backpack. Well, the only other thing that's the only cameras that are on there are the ones at the pickle ball court because they are continuously streamed and so you use that system, but it's there's no facial recognition or any any of that stuff going on with it. But Stephen answer Good evening, council. Is there any any other questions you want to ask about the Vicata system? I' I've got a couple. Yes, ma'am. Can you I know Joey kind of touched on it, but the privacy just people I'm getting calls about in general. Can you explain?

So, so we only use cameras on city property. Um, so our our camera systems are protect to protect city property. Um, city, it is a government building. So, if you're in a government building, you can probably expect it to be on camera. Uh, it doesn't matter if it's the county, the city, the state, federal government. Um, we don't share that video with anybody. There's no access to that video beyond the department that's actually using uh those cameras. So at the sports plex park have access to those videos, city hall, it's the city hall people and so on and so on. Um if there is an event uh we get a request from law enforcement and we share the video with uh with our police department, but in general they can't access the video uh unless they ask to. So,

and and if the video was needed, it would take a just like any other video at a store or anything. It would take a it would take a u a court order to get it right or a police officer could if they needed. That's one of those weird things with the cities because they are a city department just like it is and any other department. So, it does not require a court order because we own the video, right? Um but that's only on on our obviously if you were trying to get video of u Yeah. from the county then we'd have to get a call right so

and also some of that's for effect for example uh we have cameras in our parks and uh we unfortunately we've had events in those you can make a public records request for video and pay for it as well. Yeah. Um we only keep video for 30 days unless it's uh unless it's part of an investigation which case it's then downloaded and saw as part of evidence in in the uh in the police evidence system which is a uh a completely separate system. So Stephen, is this is this a new contract or is this a No, this is actually a renewal. These these cameras and these access controls already exist uh every everywhere in the city and we've been using them for about five years.

And where are we adding them? We're not adding any actually. No, this is a this is a renewal. Okay. Yes. So, no changes, no additions. Okay. One of the other questions that came uh to me uh via email was just the there there was a mention of a flock camera. Um and I just I know you're not don't see Chief Clifton. Um just in the email traffic we had today, these are not flock cameras. They're not tied to the flock camera system. No, sir.

Um, we do use flock cameras. Uh, we use flock cameras at the hospital. Um, and I know those are used all over the state, all over the all over the country. Uh, we've utilized them many times. Uh, do you can you explain and I know Chief Clifton's not here. Could you do you can you explain the flock system? So, so the flock system is uh is completely different from a uh from a security system. Those are cameras that are LTE cameras. They can be placed pretty much anywhere, right?

Um they are only accessible by our law enforcement. I don't have access to them. Um it's uh that's something they set up. Uh the the only thing I do there is provide them with the SIM cards for for the Verizon accounts, but other than that, they're completely locked down for law enforcement only. And as far as I'm aware, they're placed based on uh investigative for law enforcement needs. So, Captain, sorry, Chief Clifton to speak more intelligently about where and how they're placed because that's not something I do. So,

how often do the cameras get outdated? Like you have to upgrade. Is it something? Actually, we update them when they die. We don't we don't uh upgrade them. Um the we have updated some cameras in the past and usually that's because new technology came out and you know, so we're looking a long way and it's easier to look a long way with a 4K camera than it is with an HD camera or or or even the technology that was prior to that. But today, uh our cam about 80% of our cameras are 4K cameras at this point and uh the rest are HD and I like I said, we we just replace them through osmosis. Okay, good. Any others?

Thank you. Okay, thank you. Thank you.

And now we will hear from John to give us a report on our audit report. Thanks for being flexible with the agenda. Um got the audit. I think you guys had a chance to to look at it maybe over the weekend. It's it's pretty big. So happy to answer any questions you have and it's good to be with you all. Thank you for letting the firm do uh this audit every year. Thank you. Um it's a good audit. Um you guys have a good accounting department. Cindy Boyd is CFO and John Hayes the controller. They they do a really good job. So um there were just a few little minor issues we can talk about. Um, but got the audit report and if you have questions, I'm always happy to answer your your questions. Page seven, I just want to point out starts the MDNA. That's that's the uh management's discussion and analysis of the financials and Cindy and John write that primarily. There are a couple of graphs that you can look at that I think are interesting. It, you know, page 13 shows the revenue. It's a little pie chart. So, it'll help you understand where all the revenue comes from, different taxes, um, occupational license, that sort of thing. The the next page, page 14, is a similar graph. It's got all the expenditures. And this year, you'll see the debt service expenditures are way much larger part uh, portion of that graph than in the past because a lot of debt was paid off this past year. The governmentwide financials are on page 21 and that is uh full acrruel accounting for the government and there's uh 582

million in assets 168 million liabilities the difference of about 414 million in is your net assets. Um the city page 23 is the statement of activities. Shows revenue and it shows your expenses. It's a it's a funny looking uh statement of activities. If you're familiar with financial statements, you've never seen an income statement like this before. Happy to explain it. But the the bottom part actually has the revenues. And so the number above that, there's a $92 million number in brackets. That's the amount of money the city has to get in tax revenue and licenses and things like that to break even. So that's that's sort of the purpose of it. That number that you brought in was like 107 million. So you're you're more than covering the expenses there. Page 24 is the government the fund balance um balance sheet. This is what you're used to looking at month in month out. It's just fund level. The general fund had 73 million in its total fund balances. 71 million was unassigned. So, that's a that's a healthy number. Um, this past year, you did pay some debt down, use some some resources to do that. Um, page 30, you've got the uh business type activities. You've got the electric, utility, sewer, solid waste. All of those were profitable. So, you're not subsidizing anyone's electricity. Um, OPS actually transferred $4 million to the general fund again this past year. They paid off all their debt. There's no debt at all as we sit here today in those funds. Um,

any questions on the financials? After that, I would call your attention to um You spent about 37 million in capital outlay. You spent about 20 million paying debt off this past year fund level. Um you spent another, you know, similar amount to pay the debt off in the OPS. Page 50 is the debt footnote. If you want to get into the debt of the city, that's a good note to look at. Um page 67 is your budget. You can look at how you did actuals compared to budget. The very back page 97's the debt schedules. So you can you can get real familiar with the debt looking at that. Um the statistics are on page 105. That's interesting to look at. You can look at what tax revenues done the last 10 years and look at what expenses have done the last 10 years. Both of them have gone up a lot past 10 years. Um, your legal debt margin is on page 112. It's about 132 million. Um, we also did a federal compliance audit because you you receive uh you you have expenditures of over a million dollars in federal money. So, we had to do a compliance audit. Uh there was there's one relatively minor issue that we found and and really a lot of your grants are reimbursement grants and as you spend money you need to be recording the receivable and the revenue because as you spend money the grant owes you money and so we were kind of waiting to make that entry until the department got back to us well you know I've talked to Cindy and John and we've come up with a control they've come up with a control that they will estimate that revenue and that receivable on the front end so we're not having to wait. They'll end up reconciling it with the department head, but it'll go ahead and

get it recorded on the books. So the books need to reflect what people owe. Um, every year I talk about cyber um with Stephen and and that's you guys get attacked like 80,000 times a day. So pay attention to him. um he does a good job and that is a serious threat to the city that uh is valid. Uh the the only other thing is I would say keep up with some receivables from other government agencies. Sometimes they can get a little bit old and you guys need to remind them, hey, pay your bill. Any questions for me?

Thank you. Good to see some new faces. Okay, we're returning to our to see if there's any. Mr. President, since we do have 10 minutes, Chief Clifton's here. I was wondering if I could get him to come up maybe just talk a little bit about that flock camera system while we got 10 minutes if that's that's fine.

Sorry to put you on the spot. We were talking earlier about the cameras that were uh the renewal of a contract and there were some questions about the their connection with the flock system and Stephen shared with us that that was not the case and then he was just going to get you maybe just to tell us what flock is and okay what it does capabilities and how you use it.

Yes sir. Uh flock cameras is a uh camera systems that we have throughout the city. Not only does the city of Okala have these flot cameras, also private businesses, I can name a few Lowe's, uh, East Alabama Health, uh, couple HOAs in different neighborhoods have flock cameras. And these cameras capture uh, vehicle data, make model cars, tag numbers, and so forth. So, we use it uh throughout. It ain't just us. It's throughout the the state of Alabama as well as the country. These cameras, if we have a robbery, we'll say at Circle K gas station. From their surveillance cameras, we can see a, for example, a red Chevrolet pickup truck is the one that committed this robbery. I can put that vehicle description inside flocked camera uh software and it will track that if it if that red pickup truck drove by that camera, I'll be able to get that tag number and then my detective would be able to run that tag to find out who that individual is. The flock camera system itself does not run tags or track anybody. it just officer initiated uh tracking uh of the cameras that are strategically placed throughout the city, county, and the state. So, any questions on anything else about it? Uh we've been in partnered with them for I think going on five or six years. We were the one of the few uh law enforcement agencies to use this uh software and technology uh years ago. We have a supervisor that monitors all uh anybody that's using this uh just like anytime an officer uses uh the database

to run a tag number or a driver's license number, it's flagged so we can go back and monitor who is using what and why. Uh, every time somebody uses a flock camera software, they have to put the case number in reference to why he was looking at that. We say if it was a robbery, it would be a robbery case number or a theft, a retail theft from Walmart or whatever. So, it's tracked that way and by the individual that actually looked it up. Uh, so I can have oversight to making sure it's not being misused. Uh, there are some um, you know, in the news there are a lot of isconceptions about flock being used inappropriately. Uh I can assure you that it's not what the case here at Opaka Police Department because we have supervisor oversight.

Chief, I was I actually talked to the headquarters about a month ago and if you mentioned Opaikica to them, they're just tickled to death um because they know um we were one of the first and appreciate everything that you do. Can you in a rough rounded estimate um how many instances these cameras have helped in solving a crime or assisting the police department for public safety reasons? I would say anywhere since we've had it, 900,000 cases, if not more.

Um it's because we can't have eyes everywhere and we can't we can't patrol the streets 100%. I have to use technology to support my police officers. Um, and that's and this is a great tool to do that. Um, and we use them for mainly felony crimes. Uh, not traffic, you know, we don't do use it for traffic, but we do use it for anytime we have a crime and we have a vehicle description to track it that way and to see if they're coming in and out of town. And I will say for the city of Opaikica, most time it's out oftowners that are the ones that are committing the crimes. Uh so that's when we kind of ask our partners in Georgia and other places to help us uh find out who this person is.

Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions or that you might want to ask to and the department head or from any other place concerning anything that's on our agenda for the night? If no other, we'll close this work session and start our regular meeting at six six o'clock. Thank you so very much. I might need you to have me pronounce. Thank you.

talking. Just want to know Yeah, that's what we'll do. Coach can call names of coaches and players. have your attention, please. It's now six o'clock and we've called our February Wow.

March March 3rd meeting. So, I'm trying to take y'all back. Meeting to order. Roll call. Mr. Jones. here. Here I here.

Tonight, our invocation will be given to us by Bill Jameson from the Church of the Hollands and our pledge will be led by Jose Sanchez Madrid and Amelia McIll. May we all stand. They're both from the Foxrun School. Let us pray. I'm reminded of scripture 1 Timothy 2:es 1-4. Therefore exalt first of all that you make supplication prayers and a session and giving of thanks for everyone for kings and for all who are in authority that you may lead a quiet and peaceable life and all godliness and honesty for this is God's uh good and acceptable will in the sight of God our savior who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of of the truth. It is my privilege to pray for this council meeting. Father God, in Jesus name, I thank you for this opportunity to come before your throne with thanksgiving and our hearts and praise upon our lips. Thank you, Lord God, for our council uh men and women. Lord, I lift up to you uh Mayor Eddie Smith and George Allen from Ward One. Um Jantika, I hope I said that right. Hugley Holmes from W 2 and Lee Wattley from W three. Chuck Beans from W 4,

President Pro Tim Todd Roush from W five, and Bobby Trice, the city attorney. Father, we lift these men up before you, and we ask, Lord God, that you would uh give us grace, give us wisdom, and Lord, you would visit us by your Holy Spirit to guide us in our discussions, our deliberations, our interactions. May we do those things that are pleasing to you, Father. We ask your blessings upon this meeting, Lord. May we, Lord God, do your perfect will and leave with a sense of accomplishment, Lord God, that you are pleased with how we conduct ourselves. We give you all the glory, the honor and praise in Jesus' name. Amen. And amen.

Amen. I aliance 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. At this time, we'll have the adoption of the agenda. Are there any items that need to be added to, removed from a change to the order of the presented agenda? Having none, is there a motion for approval?

So move. Second. Second. This motion and properly second. Any discussion? Having none, call the role. Mr. Jones. Miss Hall. Hi. M. Wall. Hi. Mr. B. I. Mr. Rout. Hi. Mr. Alen. I. All voted I to approve the agenda. You also was received a copy of the minute from our last regular meeting on February the 17th, 2026. Is there a motion for approval? Some moved. Second. Second.

Are there any discussion? Are there any correction, additions or deletions? Having none, the minutes will stand approved as presented. You will also receive a copy of the minutes from our special meeting on February 24th, 2026. Is there a motion for approval? So moved. Second. Second.

Are there any corrections, addition, or deletion? If not, the minute will stand approved as presented. Mayor Mayor comments. Welcome home, Mr. Mayor.

Mr. President, Uh, I'd like to invite Coach Wesley Button and the Opalaka High School basketball team to come up front and join me, please. people in the back.

I need to Hey, Brooke, I need to get before I recognize you, I want to pay say a special uh welcome to Dr. Kevin Davis, Miss uh Miss Fisher. Uh the superintendent and the principal of the black city schools or the black high school. So we we thank y'all for being here. Yeah. Any minute.

Come on up front with us, please. As they make their way up here, let me just say a few words. Uh, I'd like to welcome the Opala boys opaque bulldog boys basketball team as coaches. Uh, we are incredibly proud of the hard work and determination that you all have uh put forward or did did put forward during this past basketball season. You know, there's nothing like beating Central and who's the other one?

All right. It was amazing to to watch you guys uh as the season went along uh you you progressively got better which is one of the things that you're supposed to do and compete in the tournament and had uh a couple of things changed in the doen game we would still be playing. Uh so I just want to say thank you to each one of you. We have a small gift and I'm going to uh get coach buttons to read the names to make sure we get them correct.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I appreciate it. I'm going introduce my coaches first. U Dennis Stribbling, uh TJ Presley, Aaron Brooks, and Blair Irving. All right. These these four guys are u absolutely pivotal in our program. They put in a lot of time and effort to these guys. And uh coaches, I appreciate you guys more than you know. Yes, sir.

All right. Thank you for all your hard work that you did FOR PLAYERS. PLAYERS, we'll start with my seniors. Card Wright, Caleb Baker, and AJ Harvest. Seniors, thank y'all for everything you've done for Hope Basketball. You will be missed. All right. Love y'all. All right. Uh we'll go with our juniors. All right. Brady McN, Kyrie Johnson, Jaren Holloway, Kai Truit, and Elijah Oen. All right. And then uh our lone sophomore uh Tristan Moore Trist and then we had three ninth graders uh play up on varsity this year. Uh Noah Little Page, London Ray, and Fad Thomas.

Uh and I I just want to say that this this group uh has been an absolute joy to coach. Um the like you said, Mr. made, you know, the the progression that we made over the course of the season was phenomenal. Um, and it it made my job easier knowing that every day I got to go be with these guys in the gym. Uh, and I'm glad that all of our hard work and long hours in the gym paid off this year. Uh, like I said, seniors, thank you for what you've done, guys. As we have said many times since that do game, job's not finished. All right, job's not finished. We will be back. All right, so thank y'all. Great season, guys. We're gonna try to get a picture.

I'm gonna move you to the middle. Y'all can come up or go back in around right here. Squeeze in around. Come on, Kelly.

Go ahead. Thank you all. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you all. What's up, man? Yeah, you deserve

a last home game. Yeah. Uh, I'd like is Shannon Harris here. Would you come join me, please?

We have a proclamation that we would like to present to Shannon. I want to give you a little bit of the background. Uh Shannon has already received a similar proclamation from Mayor Randall Woodin in Birmingham and Governor K. Ivy in March of 2025 when she was volunteering with the National Blood Clot Alliance. That motivated her to form her own organization called the Marcus Wayne Foundation. Marcus Wayne was your dad and he passed away uh with a blood clot. Um talk to us about that. I should have something to read if you don't mind.

Yeah, absolutely. You can even read this.

Good evening. My name is Dr. Shannon Colquit Harris and I am the founder and president of the Marcus Wayne Foundation for Blood Cloud Awareness. I am also the daughter of Lieutenant Marcus Kquit who passed away from a pulmonary embolism in September 2024. My father retired from the Opalaka Police Department and was serving as a security officer with the housing authority at the time of his passing. He was a man who meant the world to everyone fortunate enough to know him. A devoted husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, and friend. He had a gift of bringing joy wherever he went, whether that was through his love of singing or fishing. It is in his memory and in his honor that I created this foundation with the mission of increasing awareness of blood clots, including the risk, symptoms, and prevention strategies throughout Alabama communities. This proclamation marks a meaningful first step and call to action and spreading awareness of just how serious and life-threatening blood clots can be. On behalf of myself, my family, and the Marcus Wayne Foundation for blood clot awareness, I want to express our deepest gratitude for the city of Opaikica for recognizing this critical public health issue. My father gave so much to this community throughout his life and we are truly humbled that his legacy along with the memory of so many others lost to blood clots will live on through this foundation.

We would like to invite the y'all up so we can get a picture please. She did a great job. So in honor of officer, I'm going to give you that that proclamation by Thank you all so much. agenda related public comments. Mr.

All right. Now would be time if you like to speak to the council or the mayor about anything that is specifically on the agenda. Come to the podium to my left. If you have not, sign the signing sheet with your contact information, name, telephone address, email. If you do speak, please state your name and your address. Please keep it three minutes or less. Thanks. Having we'll move on for the adoption of the consent agenda. Does any council member wish to remove any item from the consent agenda and address it as part of our regular agenda?

Having none, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? So move second. Second. Second. Okay. Any discussion? Having none, call the role. Mr. Jones, I wal. Mr. B. I Mr. Rout I Mr. Allen I all voted I to approve the items on the consent agenda.

Well down to the ordinance. Mr. Sh. Thank you Mr. President. Tonight's first ordinance is to approve or disapprove of an annexation petition by Janie Powers and John Morgan consisting of 4.6 6 acres at 223 Lee Road 799, also North Andrews Road. Um, this is a first reading. I would like to ask a member of the council to introduce this ordinance for first reading. My pleasure. Thank you very much.

Ordinance number two is to declare 601 Avenue surplus property and approve conveyance. um to a prospective buyer. This is also a first reading. I would like to ask a member of the council to introduce this ordinance for first reading. My pleasure. Thank you very much. Second roster. Yep. All right. Now, of public comment. Yeah. Anything else? You'd like to speak the mayor of the council, please come pod to my left. Name, telephone, address, or email on the signing sheet. Please state your name and your address. Please keep it three minutes or less.

I just wanted to talk to you. No, we got I'll do it.

Good afternoon. My name is Maddie Clark. 706 Orchard Avenue. This thing got to be lower. 706 Orchard Avenue, Opaikica. I'm asking, which I've been asking for this for five years, too. on First Avenue where that uh over there by Piggly Wiggly where that nasty pond is that people still fish in. They still don't have anything to say. That's that's dangerous. It could have be a fence or a a red mark or something. Somebody's already drowned in there one time and I've asked and asked to just put something to let people know that there's a lake over there. I need to dry it up because people still fish over there and I know that's not healthy. And also uh are the plans still in to have a walking trail over that Coington Wreck? I haven't heard anything about that. Is that that plan still going on? Uh is dead, never was alive or uh what? I'd like to know something about that cuz we really need one over at Coverton Wreck and I thought we were going to get one. But anyway, those only two things I got tonight. Thank you so much. Good evening. Uh, I'm Billy U. Allen. I live at 9:30 Redan Trace, Stone Mountain, Georgia. And I would like to well, I come before you tonight to talk about three things. And uh these things uh I've spoken with the council before, maybe not the new ones, but I'm sure you probably heard of them. But the first thing is in the area of West Street, Grove Street, West Street.

Uh there are a lot of houses that are in bad condition. There are properties that are that are just blighted areas and I would like to support Miss Maddie Clark and her effort in trying to get those areas cleaned up. Uh I've contracted with an individual to clean up my property in that area and I would like for the city to support us in getting that property in those areas clean. Uh if you can spearhead some type of campaign, some type of work effort to get it done. We would we would truly appreciate it. And again, I commend Miss Clark and all her work in trying to get that area clean. She's she's been up here for years. She says she's going to do it until she pass away. She told you all that before and and I feel the same way. I'm with her in that. The second thing is the hard cemetery which is uh just north of Opalaka High School. If the council would kindly go to Lraange and look at the Malberry Street cemetery project that they have there where they have Confederate soldiers, slave owners, ex-slaves, and other individuals there that they've honored. They've developed a a beautiful shrine to those people. And if we can do that in Opak, I think it will be a great asset. We we need to we need to address that cemetery, get a resolution and make sure that that cemetery is kept in a a manner that those people that are in turn there will be satisfied and also their ancestors.

And lastly, uh I kind of said this init uh I've been coming here for five, six years just like Miss Clark and others. And again, I love Opaikica. I think Opel can do better in certain areas. And eliminating those blighted areas is something I think we can do and we can do better with that cemetery. I know my time is up. I will sit down and uh I will continue to work with Miss Clark and others till we get that done. Thank you very much. All right. City clerk's been asked to present this that for the record and I will read the statement from Mr. Lindberg Jackson. Mr. Jack Well, I can't get that to work, but it's fine. Mr. Jackson of 136 Arrowhead Drive, Montgomery, Alabama to Opalaka City Mayor and Council members. This communication is a continuation of the January 6, 2026 complaint for documentation that was given to the council regarding the release of electrical power request submitted for 1408 Monroe Avenue in Opalikica. Then in relationship to the previous request and complaint, I am asking that the city clerk to read this follow-up complaint into the record due to me having requested the records and a detailed itemized copy of the code violation that does not allow temporary power for work to continue at 1408 Monroe Avenue having it approved by code enforcement for connection and all deposits and fees being paid for both garbage and power to be connected, but no written explanation concerning ordinances that prohibits

connection. ction for interior and security purposes being given. Also, when in municipal court last week, I think I heard the environmental services director state his department had nothing to do with approving electrical power. There is a need for additional security cameras to protect the property from vandals and trespassers and illegal dumping in front of the property. Also, there has been in excess of over $40,000 done into the interior and exterior over the span of the last three years or more that removed the house from an unsafe, sound, and sanitary place that had previously been scheduled for demolition by the council. Should there had been any leftover debris from previous demo, it has been moved and the property has fencing along the eastern property line and scheduled to be completed along the northern property line and a van vintage vehicle from family is to be enclosed by tent or carport which will alleviate any further violations. So, I am asking the mayor and council review any and all charges that is against myself and Miss Humphrey and to have these charges vacated due to the substantial amount of work and funds that have been spent over the last two months in which my property owners are generally not subjected to. Member Jackson.

No, no, that's your three minutes, Mr. Jackson. That's that's your three minutes. Didn't see it out. Well, I couldn't get it to go, but yeah, that that's your freedom and others. The character trait of the month is compassion. A sympathetic consciousness of others distressed with the desire to alleviate it. And at this time, I will now entertain a motion to adjoin. So move.

Second. Call the RO. Mr. Jones. M. Holmes. I. Walton. Hi. Mr. B. I r. Mr. R. I.