Reports presented at LaFayette City Council
BY KADIE TAYLOR
THE LAFAYETTE SUN
LAFAYETTE — At the Jan. 28 LaFayette City Council Meeting, council members and locals were presented the Greater Valley Area Chamber of Commerce Quarterly Report, the Fiscal Year 2024 LaFayette Annual Financial Report and an update on the Highway 431 Waterline Replacement Project.
Greater Valley Area Chamber of Commerce Director Carrie Wood shared updates on events held in the last quarter and reminded community members to look out for the events scheduled for the current quarter.
“In November, of course, we hosted the 6th Annual Rocketfest on the Square,” she said. “We had a total of 72 vendors, and I would say between 1,500 and 2,000 people here in downtown LaFayette on the Square for that day.”
Chris Neuenschwander of Jackson Tornton presented information on 2024 finances for the city of LaFayette, including sharing the standing of pensions for city employees.
“Your biggest obligation, which you want, is a pension for the employees, because they want to retire one day, right? And so the net pension obligation, which is an actuarially determined number, is only $1.5 million, but what you need to know is that it’s 80% funded,” he said. “And what I will tell you, with my experience with all my other clients, is that is a sweet spot. You are set up perfectly to look at your employees and say, ‘When you retire under the Employees’ Retirement Systems of Alabama, which Bronner and his team back in Montgomery, oversee, you’ll have a pension.’ I believe that, because an actuarial adjustment could make it 100% funded, or 70% funded — but 80% is a really nice number. So, to kind of capture what all that means, you have reserves. And a lot of towns don’t have that and can’t say that.
“There are some things that could be trued up, but at the end of the day, I think you have a good product here and something that you can be proud of,” he said. “This city is not in trouble, and it has a pathway to be greater than today, if that is your vision.”
Austin Harmon of Harmon Engineering provided an update on the Highway 431 Waterline Replacement Project.
“[The ALDOT project] is actually being bid this month,” he said. “[After] discussion with ALDOT, they are willing to move that project and hold off on it until the 2027 cycle. So that is great news — that would have been something that would have been very hard to work around if they weren’t willing to do that, [but] they’re looking for a very strong commitment from the city to get this project done.”
In Other Business:
• The council voted to approve the minutes from the Jan. 12 regular meeting and the Jan. 16 special-called meeting.
• The council voted to approve Resolution No. 2026-01-28-01 by accepting the sanitation bid from 121 Disposal.
• The council voted to approve the list of surplus items.
• The council voted to approve the account audits.
• The council voted to convey Cemetery Deed No. 1829 to Eddie B. Giddens at Handy Cemetery.
