City Authorizes Mayor, Clerk To Negotiate New Lease Rate Agreements
Property rental and purchases are still under negotiations between the city, a bank and tenants, according to recent reports. The city is standing pat on its offer for a building and negotiations for rental agreements have been delegated to the mayor and city clerk.
City Clerk Bill Fann reported that Renaissance Bank had made a counter offer of $39,000 for the former dental office of Dr. Tony Davis on Ray Avenue. This issue first arose several months ago when Dr. Ben Ingram approached the city on buying the building. It adjoins the medical offices of Drs. Rey and Joy Gavino and could be used to expand the practices. Dr. Ingram has agreed to purchase the dental equipment in the building.
The bank's offer came in response to the city's offer of $35,000 for the building, and officials have agreed not to increase the proposal.
The City Council has authorized Mayor Charlie Fagan and Fann to conduct lease negotiations with Dr. Maer Gao and Shine-N-Stars. Dr. Gao's medical office is in the east wing of the old Piedmont Hospital-Nursing Building, while Shine-N-Stars occupies a portion of the hospital's west wing and the nursing home space.
When the city regained control of the building late last year, the Piedmont Health Care Authority had set the lease for both entities at three years. Dr. Gao's rent was set at $450 per month, and Shine-N-Stars was to pay $2,000 monthly. The Shine-N-Stars agreement was reduced to $700 by the authority.
Once the city gained control, it changed the lease agreements to be renewed annually. The council earlier returned the children's home rent to $2,000, but officials from the agency appeared at a recent council meeting to cite the financial difficulties the increase would cause.
Fann said Dr. Gao's lease would continue for the remainder of the year, but said he and Fagan would begin negotiations with Shine-N-Stars.
The council recently accepted low bids on sports equipment and a police car. The bid accepted on the vehicle was from All-Ride, Inc. for $11,500. The vehicle is a 2004 Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor with 15,000 miles. Other bids were for a similar vehicle at $20,995 and a crew-cab pick-up at $20,995 from Ronnie Watkins Ford.
Bids were requested, but not received from Sunny King Ford of Anniston and Buster Miles Ford of Heflin.
The city has authorized Jeff Formby, the Park and Recreation director, to review all sports equipment bids and accept the lowest price on each item. Several years ago, the city adopted the practice of accepting the low price on each item, rather than the lowest total bid price from a single supplier.
Officials say this practice has resulted in significant savings on the annual purchases.
The annual Alabama League of Municipalities convention is drawing near, and officials have received word that the deadline for making reservations is March 24.
Earlier, the council had voted to stop paying the council members' expenses to the conventions. In a recent vote, the majority of the council voted to reinstate expense payments, with Councilwoman Mary Bramblett casting the lone dissenting vote.
The council has appointed Homer Voiles to the Library Board. Voiles will be replacing Keith Reedy whose term has expired. The appointment was by acclamation.

Emergency Response Team To Be Formed
Calhoun County Emergency Management Agency officials will be in Piedmont Saturday afternoon to form a local organization to help in preparing for and managing disasters.
Rick Freeman, the local Civil defense director, said the EMA will begin organizing a community emergency response team at a 2 p.m. meeting in the DAV Building on North Center Avenue.
"CERT members will offer training is disaster preparedness and planning. They will also have a goal of increasing community awareness of disaster preparedness," Freeman said.
"The members will provide assistance to any governmental agency that requests volunteer service."
Freeman added that after training, the CERT Members will be given back packs containing enough first-aid equipment, safety gear and clothing to treat 10 people.
He said he could be reached at 447-8384 to answer any questions.
Florida has a CERT program in place. A release from that organization said, "CERT teams can make the difference by using their training to save lives and protect property. With training, practice and working together as a team, CERT members will be able to do the greatest good for the greatest number after a disaster, while protecting themselves from becoming victims."

Local Dixie Youth League Opened To Surrounding Areas' Players
When the first ball is thrown this spring to open the 2006 youth baseball season, one league will show a dramatic increase in players.
Jeff Formby, park and recreation director, said the Dixie Youth League had opened a "Zero Zone" program for 11- and 12-year-old players. He said this is the first year for the program and the Piedmont Dixie Youth League is open to youngsters from Spring Garden, White Plains and other surrounding communities.
Players must be of eligible age before May 1.
According to Formby, about 90 players are expected to fill the rosters of 6 teams and 12 coaches. Four teams usually make up the local league.
It simply means more baseball, Formby noted. "We hope it will bring in more kids, and there will be no increased cost to the city."
With the larger league, there will be only a few rule changes. The director said runners will be able to "lead off base and steal," if the catcher misses a third strike the runner can try to advance, and the pitcher can pitch from a stretch and officials can call balks.
Formby said the opening day for the season will April 22. On that day a name will be added to the Piedmont Sports Memorial.
Piedmont will also be hosting the Dixie Youth sub-district tournament during the week of June 26.

Strictly Personal
Now, Others Are Coming To Ask Us How We Did It...
There has been a hint of spring in the air, but this is March and anything can happen with the weather. In March we have had snow, a blizzard, torrential rains, a tornado, an earthquake and a hurricane. I have often thought the only the we lack is for Duggar Mountain to erupt.
Since it's March, please keep those weather radios handy.
Before getting into this week's topic, I want to take a little space to pay our respects to the family of Joyce Rogers. Joyce passed away after a long illness. For years, she owned and operated The Jean Barn. She was my customer, as I was hers, but moreover she was a dear friend. It was impossible to leave Joyce without a smile on your lips. He sense of humor and wit were contageous. We are saddened by her loss, but sorrowfully grateful that her suffering has ended.
Now, I want to report on a situation, or rather a recently developed situation that I find most pleasing and gratifying.
It is not an apparent development, to most people, but if you have been involved in city business for about 40 years, it is becoming more evident everyday.
Let me take you back several years when Piedmont was trying to find its way. Some downtown businesses were closing because the owners were retiring and their children had no interest in taking over. Others closed due to lack of trade. The traffic and business seemed to have moved to the bypass.
Still, some folks hung on to their downtown businesses and managed to survive. This newspaper is one of them.
During this time, city officials were contacting and visiting other cities to see how they had improved themselves and what avenues might be available to Piedmont.
This was the norm for many, many years. Then things began to change.
It was a long, drawn-out process, but the urban renewal canopies finally began to fall. There were months of work involved in the installation of widened streets and new sidewalks. In the meantime, several downtown stores were refurbished, awnings were installed, and there was a new look in the downtown area.
While this was the main attraction, the city was making some less obvious improvements. There has been unprecedented work in the area of nuisance abatement. Many eyesores have been repaired or razed. The city has its own fiber-optic communications system in place. While it is currently saving hundreds of dollars each month, it can be expanded to offer other services.
Now, people from other areas are coming to Piedmont to see how we did things. So far this year, local officials have met with two delegations from other cities. In each case, they marveled at the progress Piedmont had made.
I couldn't help getting small chuckle when Calhoun County announced its plans to offer fiber-optic services to its offices with the possibility of expanding it to include city governments. It was hailed as a major step forward. The people in Anniston didn't know that Piedmont's fiber-optic system had been in operation for months.
I serve on the city's Commercial Development Authority and recently had the opportunity to travel to a small city that had recently created a CDA of their own. They had been to Piedmont and were wanting information on the authority's operation. It was a pleasure to meet with the group, and I provided them with the information they requested. I also learned that they had visited other cities, but had selected Piedmont as their model for progress.
Sure, there is still a long way to go in the development of our city's potential. Prospects are calling or visiting each week. City officials are aware of the existing problems in our downtown area where a few buildings remain in poor condition. The fiber-optic system is not yet expanded to accommodate all city departments and the schools. There are still some eyesores in the community, and, yes, the paving program is far from complete.
The point is our needs have been identified, and there have been giant steps made toward correcting them.
Again, it has been several years ago, but Piedmont was looking to others for answers. Through hard work, wise planning and careful financial management, people are now coming to us to see what we have done. Piedmont is now the model for others. It's a nice change.