Piedmont, AL – In a brief meeting Tuesday evening, the Piedmont City Council heard from Sandra Wood Goodwin during its work session. She spoke to the council about this year’s Wreaths Across America program.
Piedmont participated in the program honoring local veterans’ grave memorials last December at Highland Cemetery. This year’s program is set for Dec. 17 at 10 a.m.
“Last year, more than 2.4 million wreaths were laid at more than 2,500 locations around the U.S., at sea and abroad,” Goodwin said. “Our honor guard and volunteers we had laid 108 wreaths at Highland Cemetery. We did a little ceremony, and we had a fairly good turnout. I hope we can get more this year.”
Goodwin said the wreaths are $15 apiece, with $5 of those proceeds going to the organization’s honor guard. More information on the program can be found at www.wreathsacrossamerica.org.
“Our goal is to sell enough wreaths that we can cover all of those graves, then proceed over to the next cemetery at Memory Gardens,” she said. “If we can get both of those filled up, then we can go to others in the community that have veterans in them and place a wreath on those.”
Goodwin was introduced to the council by local veteran Rick Freeman, who is also in charge of organizing the Piedmont Christmas parade.
Freeman said this year’s parade is scheduled for Dec. 5 at 6 p.m.
“We’re looking for this year to be bigger than last year,” Freeman said. “We’ve already got people who are obligated to be here. Probably at the next meeting I’ll have forms and everything for you (the council).”
The council also heard from Piedmont wrestling club coach Matt Stambaugh concerning the raising of funds for girls wrestling. Stambaugh said he’s trying to organize a costume 5K fundraising run on Oct. 29 beginning at 9 a.m. in the downtown area, similar to the CRAP run last Saturday.
During its regular meeting, the council heard from local citizen Ms. Brenda McMinn during the visitors’ comments portion of the meeting, informing them of a city block grant she recently learned about.
She also brought a scam concern to the council’s attention.
“I hired a man to work on my house and I lost $2,000,” she said. “I worry about people older than me, where these people are going in and saying ‘I can make your house look good.’ There’s got to be a way than just saying you’ve got to go to Anniston to file a complaint. There’s got to be something the town can do to prevent that.”
Mayor Bill Baker addressed McMinn’s concern.
“I know anybody that’s doing business in the City of Piedmont is supposed to have a business license. If we catch people in the neighborhood working, we do have people that stop and ask them if they do have a business license. If they don’t, they can’t continue working until they come into the office and purchase a business license,” Baker said.
“We do try to capture people like this. We miss some because they come at different hours of the day and night, but we do have a gentleman who is an employee of the city who works with us. Some of us have actually stopped and asked people if they have a business license. We have told them they need to come and get one. If they don’t, then they can’t continue. They have to get a work permit too. These are things we do try to enforce.”
Baker encouraged anyone who is suspicious of those types of individuals to contact the city.
“We’ll ride out there and we’ll ask them. We don’t mind doing that,” he said.
During council reports, District 4 councilman Caleb Pope and Baker reminded everyone of the Chief Ladiga marching band competition this Saturday at the high school. Price of admission is $10 at the gate.
Bills for payment in the amount of $522,380.66 were approved by the council, as were the minutes from the previous meeting.
The next council meeting is scheduled for Oct. 18.
Mr. Fagan is a reporter for WEIS Radio. (Information Provided by WEIS RADIO)
