@CityofAuburnAl Mayor @ronanders2020 joins @ONTHEDMARK1 recaping City council meeting May 17

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
And as we do every first andthird Wednesday, we get the mayor's reports
from Valley Opelika and Auburn. Allreports were brought to you by Four Seasons
Federal Kat Union. And right nowwe're going to the Hamilton's hotline. Hamilton's
with two locations to serve you onMagnolia and Ogletreet, both in Auburn.
And we're going to Auburn to bringin the Mayor of the City of Auburn
and his second term, our goodfriend, the honorable Mayor Ron And there's

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good morning Mayor, Good morning patches. Everything over there with you today,
man, It's all good in theneighborhood. How about with you, D
Mark. I'm just getting the cityhall. I've been at Auburn High School
this morning for a senior sunlight ceremony, which I believe is a new ceremony.
It's the vast day of school,last day of regular school for the

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seniors. And they came early andhad an FCA devotional time and then and
then myself and the superintendent spoke tothe to the to the students and just
really encouraging D Mark. Just whenyou you worry about everything you see on
social media, everything you see onTV. Being around those outstanding young people,

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it just reminds you there's some greatkids out there, they're part of
great families and that everything's gonna beokay. Um, it's just bad news
travels. Crazy news travels a lotfaster, and it's a lot more exciting
for people to consume than just solidrock solid kids and families doing the right
thing. But anyway, it wasgreat, great to be with them,
Great to be with the Tiger Moocasteam and support their their efforts with our

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students with special needs, and uh, I just was honored to be asked
to be a part of that thismorning. So we're encouraging start to the
day. It is good. Andyou know what, we do have some
wonderful young folks in our community.I work a bunch of them at the
park and get to get to knowthem and watch them grow up. So
you are right. That was agreat way of saying that there may be
some bad, but there's a wholelot more good that you don't hear about.

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And I heard them talking about Yeah, I hold on going on.
I think go ahead and go witha good nay. All right, First
off, you're gonna I won't beable to hear I won't be able to
make it next week. But butI know you've got another group of seniors
you're gonna be talking to at leastGOT, so you've got to make sure
you do that. So you're talkingto a lot of seniors, which is
good now, Jeff goed, That'swhy I was trying to figure out how

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many events he was going to bepart of in the next week. Well,
well, I'm very honored to bethe speak at the commencement of the
Least Got next Thursday evening. Anduh, what a responsibility. Yeah it
is, and as was this morning, to provide a charge, to provide
encouragement, to provide a message foryoung people, Um, when they're you

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know, out on their own reallyfor the first time. Someone might still
be within the umbrella of their parentsfinancially, but they're out on their own
making decisions to doing things. Thefreedoms are obediate and uh, it's just
important that we continue to pack theirsuitcase with good words and good good uh,
you know, just good encouragement.Um, because we've we've seen heartbreak,

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demark guys, you know, Imean people have there been awful things
that have happened on nights of graduationwhere kids just kind of get loose and
they get crazy and they forget aboutall the common sense that they haven't stored
up in their body, and theyum, you know, and then as
they go to college or go forthwherever they might go, you know,
being away from mom and dad andand having to make those hard decisions keeping

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up with your homework and washing yourclothes and not getting parking tickets down down
and all those things and getting upwithout somebody telling you too too, absolutely
going to class. It's you know, those things are just important and we
just we just send them out.And so I'm just I'm grateful that and
proud that somebody wants me to andI take it seriously. And I've spent

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a lot of time being with theleast got young people and their parents.
Next Thursday night and great, greathonor it will be. And I'm proud
for you. I know you'll doa good job. So there you go.
Art, So tell us about aboutthe way don't be an audience,
which I don't know if I needto have some kind of say that again
now here I heard I understand scratchesus to be an audience, so just

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uh, it gives me a calljust to work kind of protection. Now,
are you in the audience that Ican be? We both can be.
We wasn't, but we both canbetter half. Yeah, would you
like us to attend to I'd muchrather I'd want to rather missus Scratch be
there because what about Kujoe? Yourather him to be there too? No,

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because he might bark at all Right, you got it? All right,
I guess it's I mean, hedon't like me, so I can
ask him whatever I want. Right, Yeah, that's exactly right. I
gotta get on with the agenda rightnow. Roll right. We started off.
We've got a board announcement. Wehave a Planning Commission vacancy coming forth
with the council will be making thatappointment second meeting in July, but we're

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going in and advertising that here thelast meeting may that that term begins August
the first. It's a six yearterm. So planning commissions a heavy lift
in our community, d Mark.It's a lot of work. There's a
lot of pressure from time to timeand very serious decisions. They are an
advisory board to the city council.There are some things when it comes to
subdivisions that they are the final arbiterof. But it's important there is an

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incumbent for that position who has serveda partial term and we will see if
the income and wants to serve again. If they don't want to serve again,
this will obviously be an open opportunityif the incumbent wants to serve again,
and certainly the Council will seriously considerreappointing them. So anyway, that's
that's out there. If you're ifyou're shouldn't planning commissions. As I said

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before, this is not for thefaint of heart the mark and it's not
for you know, an easy oncea month meeting. There's work and investment
in time and research who goes withthis. So if you think that's something
you want to do, which weneed great citizens who love that to be
involved because it's critical, critical partof how we work as a community.
But I started the city Council alsoapproved an amended Articles of Incorporation for Indian

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Pines Rick Authority d MARK and thisreally speaks to just mode ern that authority
as we move into really a brandnew golf course. And it's also technically
gonna clears up and gives them theability to borrow the money that they will
be barring to complete the construction ofthe golf course. We got kind of
a report last night from their boardChaircliff Night. Appreciate everything Cliff does.

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He is a associate minister Late toBe Baptist Church by by Day, and
he signed up to be wanting tobe a part of the Indian Pines board.
He had no idea what he wassigning up for a many years ago,
and he is taken on this hugeresponsibility of overseeing this golf project and
this golf course project, and Ithink him for that. We proved a
common device on the Andrew's Court hasnothing to do with my family, just

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as shares the saved name. Wealso approved the reimbursements as we go forward
with the Late Wildmore project. Thiswill allow us, once we receive our
money from from the from the debtthat we will borrow over this that we
can repay ourselves back. We areoccurring some expenses as we always do would
be projects like this. To getthem started, we proved our annual contract
with Aubering Game Day Law Enforcement.This is where all the extra police officers

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share for deputies that come into townon football weekends. It's the it's the
corporation that works with the university toset all that up and make sure that
all those people are paid for theirefforts. We've talked about this before,
d Mark. It's just such ahumongous effort when that many people show up
in your community over forty hour periodof time. We have to have the

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support and help from surrounding areas,and plus it's a good opportunity for some
of these men and women to getsome overtime to come here and work.
So anyway that we approved that lastnight with us approved a contract would be
be cable construction to move around fromfiber related to the future boy Can project.
We approved our fireworks expend the urewith Chambley's Display Fireworks where our Fourth
of July show. That's twenty thousanddollars. We also approved a contract for

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some support, maintenance or software inthe IT department. We approved the contract
this. I'm really excited for demarkt. This has kind of been an
undervalued project. But Margie Piper BaileyPark is a basically a rectangul over field
next to Wrightsmill Road Elementary School,and it's been there for a long time
and it's worn out and it doesn'tdrain worth a flip, and it just

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needs to be redone. And sowe approved the contract to redo that.
We're going to spend over one hundredthousand dollars. We're gonna scrape all that
grass up and bringing in new newsand and dirt and replanning it and give
us some time to grow in overthe summer and hopefully we can put young
people back on it in the fall. I'm asking everybody to be patient with
that. It's going to upprove someactivities in the summertime, but in the

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long term it'll be great for ourcommunity. And then we proved a contract
with the water works Forard the Cityof Auburn for access fees for the Lake
Wilmore Community Center. We're just likecitizens, we're just like businesses. We
have to pay the water workspart andaccess fee for the use of that.
And that is for the community centersuse all the typical things you'd see a
competent or whether it's the water fountain, whether it's the showers and the restrooms,

(09:05):
whether it's the pool, whether it'sthe irrigation will be used in water
and we'll pay the water Works Boardand access fee for that. In ordinances,
last night we approved the back toschool sales tax holiday, which is
due twenty first through twenty third.Please go to the city's website and see
that exactly is very specific the itemsthat you could purchase and save city sales
tax on for that weekend. Asyou get your children ready as we end

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school. This will get them readyfor the next school year. We had
a couple of items under annexations andrezoning last night. D Mark, I'll
try to put all this together.Be High Park annexation located at Lee Rode
ten eighteen point nine acres was broughtinto the city last night and was rezoned

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to industrial. The McAllister property Okayat twenty four seventy seven, which is
approximately seventy eight acres, was anextended the city and rezoned industrial. The
Week's annexation located at twenty two twentyfive Lee Road ten thirteen acres brought into
the city and next into the cityrezoned industrial. All of these the McAllister

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in the Weeks is owned by theIndustrial Development Board of the City of Auburn.
The Bee High Park Annistation is ownedby a private group, so all
of these will have some type ofindustrial use on those game questions pleased on
his tape, CLTI smet We reasoneda piece of small piece of property almost
four acres, which is the AlabamaPower headquarters on Pumphrey Avenue from CDD to

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industrial basically is just a rezoning,is all we did. City council turned
down the Farmville Lakes PDD amendment,which was to take a planned development district
that was slated to have commercial andexchange put multi family apartments. After listening
to a resident and listening to MayorProtein Whitman who serves that area, City

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Council unanimously turned down that request,so they will have to stay with their
current PDD. The same action happenedwith the Madison Park PDD. There was
a piece of property there that wasslated for commercial. The owner wanted to
exchange that PDD setting and put residentialthere. It's right on wire Road in

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the Council ultimately unanimously denied that aswell. Last night, the city Council
did approve a new zoning criteria forInterstate Commercial District. This will be focused
on Exit fifty where BUCkies is asthat develops in the future, we did
not have the right zoning in placefor those properties out there to get the

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kind of things you expected the InterstateExchange d mark, which is you know,
some fast food or some types offast casual restaurants. Obviously hotels,
there could be other things contemplated there, but it was not in zonn for
that, and we need to cleanthis up and create a new zoning for
this area. And that's what thecity council did last night. City Council
reapproved a conditional use for a performanceresidential development in ten twenty seven East Glenn

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Avenue, as well as a newcommercial support building located at nineteen twenty six
Maul Boulevard. Both of these dmark were approved during the pandemic, and
after eighteen months, if you're not, if you haven't started your project,
your allowance runs out and you haveto come back front of the city and

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ask for reapprovals and those so thosewere just re up in things that just
got caught up in the times wewere living with and that just wasn't the
opportunity to provide itself with these projectsto move forward. City Council proved to
do coffee drive through scooters. Coffeedrive through we'll probably located in nineteen forty
five East Glynn Avenue. That's areal strange piece of property d Mark at
Stanford Avenue comes into Glenn Avenue.It's a small kind of triangular shape property.

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This really very limited as to what'sfit on there. And this drive
through coffee is probably as good aswe're gonna hope for. And we appreciate
the investment in our community and asI think it'll be great use and should
should be successful. City council alsoapproved the latest expansion of Shenwa, which
is this is phase five. Theyare adding two hundred thousand square feet over

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twenty five acres and as I said, this is phase five. So you
get a company that has expanded fivetimes in your community. It's important because
there are other communities that would taketheir expansion and they have chosen to do
that in our community and were gratefulfor that. And finally last night,
one of the primary things we didis we amended the contract for the city

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manager. The City Council voted eightthe eight members of the seven members who
were there last night, there wasone member, Miss Taylor was not able
to be with us last night.So we had eight members of the council
there last night, and that includesthe mayor, but seven members of the
council approved the city managers contracted Denham. One council member supports the city city

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manager, but did not approve ofthe pay raise that we gave the city
manager, and so we raised thepay. We raised the salary of the
city manager. We thank her forher hard work. She's not received a
pay raise. Then she's been thecity manager, which she started in February
of twenty twenty one, so shehas worked twenty seven months for the citizens
volver and she's done an outstanding job. We have done a number of great

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things in this community, whether it'sprojects, whether it's financial, whether it's
communication, whether it's industrial recruitment,commercial recruitment, the list goes on and
on. She's done an outstanding job. Isn't only going to get better,
and it was time for the CityCouncil to do a performance review and consider
a pay raise for her, andthat's what we did last night. And

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the game questions on that please letus know, but we raised her,
raised her pay and that got usthrough the meeting last night. Dean Mark,
I just want to say a coupleof things. You mentioned it while
ago. I want to say I'mproud of our girls soccer team, our
girls golf team, and our boysgolf team plus the boys golf team hard.
They were lost by one stroke.They all finished second in the state.

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All of them fought hard, allof them were right there with a
chance to win the championship, andwe're very proud of them for finishing second.
And congratulations to all of them.On remind everybody the Mayor's Memorial Day
breakfast is a week for Monday.We'd love to have you there if you'd
be interested in spending an hour orso with us. There'll be a replay
in in the Veterans Memorial afterwards pics. Call City Hall and reserve your tickets.

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And a couple of things, dMark. I was yes. Two
days ago we rededicated We dedicated afield that Duck Stanford. It was actually
the field. It was the championshipfield to the Dixie Youth World Series for
John Olanik, who passed away lastyear suddenly. John had coached children in
our in our nine and ten yearold triple A division for a long long

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time never had a sun play.He did it because he loved it,
and he was very enthusiastic and verypositive about kids and learning the game of
baseball and using that obviously as atool for other lessons of life. And
so we renamed Field nine John OlinickField and had a great dedication. Also
last week I went I was invitedto go to Fort Benny which is now
called Fort Moore, for the redesignationceremony to honor how and Julie Moore,

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who were residents of Alburn and retirement, and it was remindful d mark of
everything that our military does for us, being on that base that day and
seeing the honor that they work withand how proud they are of what they
do and how they serve their country. Just being on the base and seeing
how it works and watching people goto work and operate and all the different

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pieces of infrastructure and the buildings theyhave on base, it's just really impressive
to to think about what goes intoprotecting our country, and certainly we're proud.
In general. Moore spent all ofhis retirement here. He's got children
that live here today, and youknow, I'm not speaking to the politics
of changing the names in these basins, I'm certain, simply saying that they

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made a decision to change the nameof the base in Columbus, and we're
proud that it his name for FortMoore, Fort Moore, for Moore and
Julie Moore and we look forward toso continue to celebrate with a family.
And then yesterday we attended the funeralof mister Dewey Northcut who was an Auburn
City councilman in the seventies. Hisfamily has been a very prominent family and

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the student housing business in Auburn sincethen, and they have all added their
peace to our community and made ita special place. And in fact,
Dewey's granddaughter's husband now serves on thecity council with Met Tyler Adams. Mister
northcutt passed away last week and thoughtsand prayers for his family, and just
want to think thank them for bywymister dow to be such a great part

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of our community. To thank allthe north Cuts for everything they do for
Auburn. And that got us throughour meeting. Deal man, that's a
that's a good night, and whata good man Northcut. Mister northcut great
family did a lot for Auburn,no doubt the community. So yeah,
well said there. So it soundslike you had a busy time last night.
It was busy meeting last night wentgone, got us almost of two

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hours. We had a number ofpublic hereas, but good to do the
community's business. We made some greatdecisions, some big decisions last night.
There were some disappointments with some peoplewho wanted things to happen that the city
council ultimately turned down. But that'spart of our responsibilities to make those considerations
and do what we think's best forour community. And that's why we're all

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that cod officials is to make thosedecisions. So anyway, just be thankful
for the tension of the council aswe worked towards this city manager's contract and
her performance review. That took alot of extra time on everybody's behalf to
get that done, and it's important. City managers a very important role in
our community team. We're proud torecognize her, honor her and move forward,

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and certainly proud for some of thesenew annexations and tenialities with these developments,
and all the best to all ofour young people who graduate, and
I think we mentioned all of Ohioand mentioned Lea Sky the other young people
from other schools or other educational situationsthat are graduating and getting ready to move
on. We wish them all thebest they as they transition into the next

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stage of life and thank them forwhat being a part of our community and
want all of them to know thatthis is always their hometown. They're always
welcome back und percent of our future, right there, no doubt about it,
got it? Yeah? You knowwhat's uh? That's good. Mayor
Fuller want us to check on you, and of course we've done that you
publicly. You want you. Butyou're feeling okay, you're doing better,
getting your strength back. Yes we'renot all back, but we were better.

(19:26):
We were last time I thought toyou. But you got a little
ways together. I know you dodo me a favor. Hang on the
line of Scratch wants to talk toyou, all right, off the mark?
Okay, all right, so hangon, you're on the mark.
From the Orthopedic Clemming Studio on FoxSports nineteen thirteen.