Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

LANETT — At its Monday meeting, the Lanett City Council approved its portion of a dispatch service agreement, accepted a water pollution prevention report and announced a holiday closing for the annual Juneteenth celebration.

The dispatch service agreement is between the Chambers County Emergency Management Agency, the Chambers County government, the three major cities in Chambers County, water authorities and firefighting organizations. This includes the Sheriff’s Department, the cities of Lanett, Valley and LaFayette, the East Alabama Water, Sewer and Fire Protection District, the Huguley Water Authority and the Chambers County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association.

This cooperative agreement between all parties allows the Chambers County EMA to coordinate an emergency management program to prepare, prevent, plan, respond and recover from all hazard-related events. The EMA develops and maintains emergency plans and procedures to address a wide range of potential disasters and emergencies including natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes, and floods and other incidents such as wildfires and industrial accidents.

The approval of a water pollution prevention report is done once a year. It lists the actions and schedules necessary to maintain effluent requirements that are needed to prevent the overflow of raw sewage into the Chattahoochee River. To maintain the current system in working order, a clarifier and two blower units were refurbished in the past year, two sludge pumps were replaced and the flow meters were calibrated.

The mayor and council declared Friday, June 19 as a holiday to celebrate Juneteenth. City hall will be closed and employees will have the day off on Friday. June 21. The city will be hosting a Juneteenth celebration in the downtown area on Saturday, June 15. There will be a community festival, an educational program to honor local seniors who are at least 95 years of age, a farmer’s market during the day and a fireworks display after sundown.

Darren Leva approached the council with a request to remove some trees on a right-of-way. Leva explained to them that he owns a parcel of land at the corner of 17th Avenue and 3rd Street and the only way to reach it is through a city right of way. Trees that are currently growing along this right-of-way block entrance to the site. No action on the request was taken on Monday, but City Attorney Stanley Gray said he would meet with Leva to discuss what could be done.

Mayor Jamie Heard informed the council in his report that he and other city officials had been talking to Ken Boswell, director of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA), about grants that are available for cities the size of Lanett.

“There’s a process to go through,” he said. “We told [ADECA] that we need help with our streets and in the removal of dilapidated properties. He told us there was a good chance that we could get some help from the state through some kind of grant.”

The mayor invited residents of Council Districts 4 and 5 to attend some upcoming meetings that will soon be taking place in the Jane Farrar Event Center in the downtown area. The District 4 meeting will take place at 5 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, June 11, and the District 5 meeting on Thursday, June 13, also at 5 p.m. It will be an opportunity for the residents of these two districts to meet with the mayor, their council representative and other city officials to ask questions about what has been going on in their district and in the city in general.

Heard said that Lanett is his home and he wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.

“I have lived on the same street for 66 years,” he said