City Council Announces New Location for City Hall in Anniston

City Council Meeting

• Invocation
• Pledge of Allegiance
• Call to Order
• Roll Call
  • Mayor Jack Draper – Present
  • Ward 1 Councilman Jay Jenkins – Present
  • Ward 2 Councilman Demetric D. Roberts – Present
  • Ward 3 Councilwoman Ciara Smith – Present
  • Ward 4 Councilwoman Millie Harris – Present
• Reading/Approval of Minutes – Unanimously Approved 
• Additions/Deletions to the Agenda –
  • Removal of item C from the consent agenda and removal of the solo motion.
• Adoption of Agenda – Unanimously Approved 
• Public Hearing
  • To receive public comments regarding consideration of a resolution approving an amendment to that certain Development Agreement between Blackwater Development Company, LLC and the City in order to provide for, promote and incentivize the development of approximately 37.34 acres of commercial property belonging to the City
    • This is in relation to the Aldi Development. It is an attention of the contract for two years.
    • No comments
  • To receive public comments regarding consideration of a Lounge Retail Liquor – Class I alcohol license for The Lush Garden LLC d/b/a The Lush Garden located at 209 E 7th Street within the corporate city limits
    • Cotina and Courtney Stroud spoke about being extremely excited for and aprcaitvice of the city for supporting them in opening this business. They are excited to bring something new to Anniston. This will be an upscale, but approachable, wine bar with some limited cocktails and beers. There will be small plates served, but they stated they are not a restaurant. There will also be live music and a atmosphere to communicate and spend time with neighbors.
• Unfinished Business – None
• Consent Agenda – Unanimously Approved 
  • Resolution reappointing members to the McClellan Development Authority
  • Resolution appointing member to the Historic Preservation Commission
  • Motion to approve a Lounge Retail Liquor – Class I alcohol license for The Lush Garden LLC d/b/a The Lush Garden located at 209 E 7th Street within the corporate city limits
  • Motion to approve a Special Events Retail Alcohol License for City of Anniston d/b/a Noble Street Festival on Saturday, April 9, 2022 within the corporate limits on Noble Street
• Resolutions – Unanimously Approved 
  • Resolution authorizing First Amendment to Development Agreement between the City of Anniston, Alabama and Blackwater Development Company, LLC.
• Additional or Other Matters that May Come Before the Council – None
• Public Comments
  • Jim Pritchett – 2116 West ‘C’ Street, Anniston 36201
    • Mr. Pritchett wanted to see if the council had been able to review his information from last meeting about the towing ordnance and if they would still be willing to consider amending it. He was assured that council would review it and that it may be April or May before it makes it back to the agenda.
  • Lance Dyer – 207 Shipley Road, Anniston 36207
    • Mr. Dyer spoke about using his son to synthetic drugs and he has made it his life’s mission to educate people about this problem. He has partnered with a group called Partnership for a Drug Free World and they stand ready to provide information literature and DVDs to every resident of Anniston. They also are willing to provide Narcan to the Anniston Police and Fire Departments as much as they need. He also spoke about visiting the local Vape and CBD Shops in the area. In three out of four he found Spice, K2, and/or bath salts being sold on the counter. He has video evidence of this and will provide it that information to the local police. He would like the council to look at the businesses that are currently licensed and work toward ending this problem.
• Council Comments
  • Councilwoman Harris said “I want to say that this is a very exciting time for our city. It’s a scary time in the world, as we all know, but it’s great for our city. And there’s more to come, but tonight, you’re going to be very happy with what you’re going to hear about that we discussed in the work session. Thank you, everyone for being here. Appreciate it. I also want to tell the gentleman who has a concern about drugs that he’s right. As a former teacher many years ago so many grandparents are raising they’re grandchildren, and we are losing this battle and we have got to do something about it. I appreciate the fact that he came and shared this information with us. Thank you so much.”
  • Councilwoman Smith said “I too share the same sentiments as council-member Harris. To Mr. Dyer, I have family members who are recovering addicts and a lot of their drug abuse started when they were very, very young so I understand the importance in getting as much off the street as we can. If there’s anything that the council can do, as far as the suggestions that you may have, I am 100% willing to pursue some of those options, because I understand the effect that it puts on people that love them and the children that they create. I’m extremely sorry for your loss. And know that I’m in this fight with you 100%. I do want to add that we have so many amazing happening and I know it’s kind of in like a broken record, because we’ve been saying that so much in this seat, but we really do have some amazing things going on in this city and we’re going to talk about it today at the press conference. We’re even going talk about it at a town hall where we can really show these things to the community and the citizens that we serve so you know that we’re utilizing the monies that we have in the right way to make great impacts in every single area of the city and as we continue to go, we’ll listen to the what you think, what you guys have to say, and the suggestions that you make. Those things are important.I truly hope that after this press conference, if you guys have any questions, bring it to us, but also remember we will be having that townhill also I want to thank you all for coming to this council meeting. It’s good to see so many people here. Thank you.”
  • Councilman Roberts said “First of all, it’s a good evening I’m overjoyed that the room is overflowing, but we’re overflowing with concerned citizens, business leaders, parents, grandparents, and people just concerned about the plight of our city. For a long time, as we sit here, we’ve talked about a lot of the positive things that are going, and we are happy to be moving in the positive direction, but then we’ll have someone that was come up and he basically just puts it in our face.This is not a colored problem. This is a problem that affects each and every citizen at some point in time. So I do work with Anniston Funeral Services. And one particular day we had three bodies. The first body I think I had picked up was a young man who I forget how many different types of drugs they said there were in his body. The third one, same thing happened. When you start to pick up people that you know, those types of things give us a different perspective. We’re willing to do whatever we can, within reason, to help, at least I am because I understand,  I have a family member and I go look for probably two or three times a week. Just because we need to make sure he’s okay, but at the same time, we have to move on. Thank you for bringing that to our attention. Also gas prices are rising and we have  a war on. So you never know you may be the only smiling face or the only peace somebody sees, so let’s try to get along because we were all created by God, God loves us. I love you all.”
  • Jay Jenkins said ” Thank you,I’m excited about all the progress that we’ve been made, but I’m more excited about this room and the concerned citizens that I see up here. Whether it’s Mr. Jackson, who has been coming to these meetings for as long as I’ve been sitting up here, thank you for your interest in our community and your efforts to make it a better place. Patty Taylor and Raymond over there that are regulars here as well, thank you for coming in, and Mr. Dyer, thank you for offering the sobering facts to us all on the difficulties that still exist in our world. While we a lot to get excited about all the good and positive things that are going on. It is important for us to recognize that there are other things. Mr. Pritchett and the Strouds thank y’all for coming in and for all that you’ve done, and for all the rest of you that didn’t mention by name, thank you for coming in here and taking time to make our city, the greatest city in the state of Alabama. We are proud to be your leaders we are proud to serve you as as citizens. We are proud to hear from you. Not always what we want to hear, but it is what we need to hear andwe are thankful for you all. So have a great evening.”
  • Mayor Draper said “I just want to thank everyone once again, for coming out here in person those watching online. As you know, we’ve all said multiple times that we really are all in this together, it takes a community to deal with the issues that we’re addressing now. So thank you all for coming. T0 the Strouds, congratulations on this new business. A lot of new businesses are coming to us now and we’re excited about that. We anticipate that that trend will continue. Thank you, Mr Pritchett we will look at the towing ordinance. I commit to look at this again, you know, we recognize that legislative process can and should be a process, quite frankly, because sometimes you need to see how things happen. Mr. Dyer I’m so sorry for your son, I’ll tell you truly by the grace of God, I’m in recovery myself and so it is impacted me horribly, my family horribly and this is a scourge and I certainly recognize that this is something we’ve got to deal with. It’s tough to get your arms around. There’s no question about that from my perspective. It is quite literally killing, it is killing our community, we’ve got to figure something out. Like I said about what we’re talking about in this press conference, folks, we got some capital projects we talked about in the work session that we’ll continue to be working on. This group is working so well together. We’re also so thankful that we’ve got a great team staff, led by Mr. Folks, our city manager. We’re working very closely together and we will continue to do so, frankly, these capital improvement projects, we’re going to talk and some other issues that we’re talking about. They’re all as a result of partnerships.Within our own building and also out we’re working with nonprofit agencies working with the faith based community, we’re obviously working with private entities as well. And so I just I just want you to stay tuned, stay engaged. We all want to make Aniston the very best that it can be. And I believe that we’re on the path to doing so. So they’ll just stick with us. With that. I will move that we stand in adjournment.”
• Adjournment – Unanimously Approved

Press Conference