Council Member Zachery addresses ongoing concerns in Lanett
BY JOHN BRICE
THE LAFAYETTE SUN
LANETT — District 1 Council Member Denise Zachery addressed a variety of challenges facing the city during Monday evening’s Lanett City Council meeting. Zachery began by correcting the record regarding her committee assignments and how they had been presented at a previous meeting.
“Mr. mayor, I will try to make this as brief as possible, but I need to clarify something about the Nov. 17 council meeting and the minutes,” Zachery said. “It was stated that I had no report on the police or the school. Previously, it has always been that we gave respect to each department head to allow them to speak and to let the citizens know what is going on from day to day. I have contacted the police, and I have asked the question about the school — I don’t know who to contact.
Normally, we have someone here to represent the school. I just want to respect them and let them speak for themselves since they are department heads.”
Zachery then asked Lanett Fire Chief Matt Shiver to provide an update on fire hydrant maintenance. Shiver shared a detailed explanation.
“Every year we check fire hydrants, we flush them and get how many gallons per minute,” Shiver said. “We have not done that this year. We are waiting — the water department has some work to do on the tank, and we don’t want to interfere with that. That being said, when we get done with that it may be too cold to do it. As soon as it warms up, we will do it. We will be flushing all the hydrants in the city, all districts. We will run something in the paper before we do that so everybody knows to flush their water so that we don’t get any dirty water.”
Zachery also discussed road maintenance concerns in areas shared by the city of Lanett and the city of West Point.
“During food distribution giveaways, I was helping with those and had the opportunity to talk with West Point Mayor Steve Trammell,” she said. “As you all know, we have got a bad area down there by Texaco when you are turning into Lanett off of [Highway] 29 coming up Cherry Drive — right there where the lottery is being sold. The road is rough. One of my visions is to clean up Cherry Drive. When people are turning into our city, I don’t want them to look down. That has been an eyesore for years. According to mayor Trammell, they will be working on that issue.”
In other business
• Resolution 11-25-04, renewing the city’s line of credit with Auburn Bank, was approved.
• District 2 Council Member Krisse Story said she recently spoke with most of the department heads for the committees she chairs and thanked them for their cooperation. She also noted progress with paving streets, replacing water meters, fixing low water pressure on South 15th Street due to a leak and cleaning up the bridge near the high school.
• District 3 Council Member Brad Lynn provided an update on the city’s financial audit, stating that accountants in Birmingham are finalizing the process and that no concerning findings have been reported so far.
• District 4 Council Member Charles Bagley wished the Lanett High School Panthers football team good luck in their state championship game in Birmingham.
