Members of the Old Three Notch Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution recently presented flag banners to the City of Andalusia to be displayed on the city’s decorative light poles in the downtown area. The banners, which were hung this week for Memorial Day, were purchased with fundraising proceeds from the organization’s patriotic fire hydrant proceeds. Shown from left are Brenda Gouge, Shirley House, Mayor Earl Johnson, Sue Bass Wilson and Brandi Evans.
The DAR also gifted banners to the City of Florala.
Members of the Andalusia City Council got a sneak peak at the newly-renovated Andalusia High School auditorium Tuesday, after hearing an update on construction progress from Superintendent Ted Watson.
“They’re still working on a punch list,” Watson said. “And there will still be some things to be finished, but I think the overall effect will be well-received Friday.”
State building inspectors gave the final go-ahead for use of the building last week, meaning the high school can hold commencement exercises there Friday. It will be the first event there since the renovation of the auditorium and gym – a project that will total approximately $12 million – began last spring. In May of 2018, commencement was held in the Kiwanis Community Center.
Council members toured the new auditorium after Tuesday’s council meeting. During that meeting, the council:
- Agreed to purchase shade structures, benches and fans for Cooper Pool. The total cost is $36,000. The shade structures will not be installed before the pool opens on June 3.
- Agreed to contribute $500 for the American Legion for a June celebration of the national organization’s centennial.
- Abated nine properties for weed and grass violations.
Council deals with abatements, OKs ordinance
In the same meeting in which the Andalusia City Council increased the minimum administrative fee for abatement of a property, approved abatements or several properties for weeds, and moved to have a dangerous structure torn down, a local resident begged the council to get even tougher on property owners.
Carter Williams, who lives on Church Street, appeared at the council’s workshop meeting to voice concerns about three pieces of property on his street which are regularly in abatement for unsightly weeds.
Williams said because the abatement process takes several weeks, a particular property was not mown more than two times last summer.
Whit Carroll, who manages abatements for the city, said the process begins with a courtesy letter from the city asking property owners to take care of problems. If the owners take no action, the official abatement proceedings begin. If a property owner fails to take care of weeds again during a 12-month period, the city’s ordinance allows the abatement officer to take action again without waiting for council approval.
Williams said he believes there is no need for the city to be courteous to repeat offenders.
Mayor Earl Johnson said if the city moved abatements at the fastest clip possible, it can’t prevent property from being overgrown.
“We can’t take action until it becomes a nuisance,” he said. “Even under the best circumstances, we can’t keep nuisance weeds cut like you and I keep ours cut. That’s not to say we can’t do a better job, and we’ll try.”
At present, Carroll takes bids to clean up nuisance property once it has been abated. Johnson suggested that the city accept bids to have one contractor to clean abated property to shorten the process.
In other business, the council:
• Approved an ordinance increasing the minimum administrative fees for any abatement to $150. That charge will be assessed along with any costs for work done to abated properties.
• Approved an abatement at 523 South Cotton Street asking for an unsafe structure to be torn down. The property owner did not appear at a public hearing during the meeting. Carroll said the walls are buckling and the floors are badly damaged, and the structure could present a danger. It could not be repaired at a reasonable cost, he said.
• Abated more than a dozen properties with overgrown weeds.
• Agreed to contributed $1,500 to the Andalusia Junior Rodeo Finals set for Andalusia at the end of May.
Councilman Will Sconiers, Councilman Kennith Mount, Councilman Ralph Wells, Mayor Earl Johnson, City Clerk John Thompson, Councilman Terry Powell and Councilwoman Hazel Griffin are shown with the award they received this week.
The Alabama League of Municipalities (ALM) has named Andalusia a Certified Municipality, an honor awarded to cities and towns in which the mayor and all council members have earned the professional designation of Certified Municipal Official.
The designation signifies that the mayor and all council members have completed a minimum of 40 credit hours of formal training on municipal government conducted or endorsed by ALM through its Certified Municipal Official program.
City Clerk John Thompson said that each of Andalusia’s elected officials has gone a step further, and also has earned the ALM’s advanced certification.
“As mayor, I am proud that Andalusia is just one of a handful of cities to be represented in the inaugural class of certified municipalities,” Mayor Earl Johnson said. “This is representative of the hard work you have done, reading the assigned materials, and getting up to speed on the law. I know the citizens you represent appreciate what this represents.”
The awards were presented in Mobile on Tuesday, during the closing session of ALM’s annual convention.
For 11 years, Wendell Dyess has been the master gardener for the City of Andalusia, but he said that his best memory of working with the city has been as the engineer of the Candyland Express.
Dyess spent 20 years in the Air Force before settling down and working at Shaw for another 10 years. He began working for the City of Andalusia 11 years ago as an assistant to Ginger Hassle.
“I like to say that I was thrown to the wolves in the beginning,” Dyess said. “They hired me to work under Ginger Hassle and she decided to leave in the middle of the summer. The city posted Ginger’s job opening and honestly I don’t think they found anybody that was qualified to fill it. They called me up to Andy Wiggins’ office and told me that they wanted me to take this job.”
Despite feeling unqualified, he accepted.
“I remember telling Mr. Andy that I was not qualified for this job at all,” Dyess said. “He just kept on saying, ‘Oh you can do it, you can do it,’ and so I kept on telling him, ‘Mr. Andy, I am not a master gardener, and when I wake up in the morning I’m still not going to be a master gardener,’ I ended up taking the job and Mr. Andy’s first instructions were, ‘Wendell just keep everything alive,’ and that’s what I did.”
Dyess said that he is going to miss the people he works with the most.
“The City of Andalusia has been so good to me,” Dyess said. “You just can’t ask for a better group of people to work with. More than anything, I am going to miss the people.”
He enjoyed driving the train at Candyland so much, that he was asked to continue after he retires.
“Mr. Andy asked me to come back and drive the train and I told him that I would,” Dyess said. “I just enjoy making the kids happy. That is why I do it. I remember last year, one Sunday during Candyland it was starting to rain pretty hard and we were starting to pack everything up, but a family from Florida had come all the way to see it. Those kids looked up at me and I took them on a train ride in the middle of the pouring rain. I just couldn’t say no. That is what makes it all worth while.”
Every morning for the past 11 years, Dyess said that he would drive down East Three Notch and Church Street to make sure that everything looked its best.
“I’m sure that there have been several days where people just thought that I was taking a joy ride,” Dyess said. “But I just did that to make sure that everything looked the way that it was supposed to.”
Dyess said he would advise his successor to just make sure to do the best they can do.
“Don’t let it overwhelm you,” Dyess said. “I’m going to tell you, there has been more than one day where I have had panic attacks, because there is just so much to do and so little people to do it.”
In his retirement, Dyess plans on cutting grass, spending time with grandchildren and raising goats.
“I’m just going to keep cutting grass,” Dyess said. “I told my grandson a couple months ago that when I retire, I’m going to buy some more goats. We used to have several goats. So Monday, he called me on the phone and said, ‘Grandpa, are you retiring today?’ and I told him no, that I was retiring tomorrow [Tuesday] and he said, ‘We gonna get some goats?’ and I told him, ‘We gonna get some goats.’ ”