Malia Riggs
Elmore Autauga News
The town of Pine Level held their first regular organizational meeting as a town last Thursday, Jan 11, where many first step resolutions on the agenda were passed to lay the groundwork for the freshly incorporated town of Pine Level.
Unfortunately, the first meeting was without James (Micky) Cothran who passed unexpectedly last week and held a position on the Pine Level City Council. Cothran played an inaugural role in the incorporation of Pine Level, and even after with his short time on the council.
The council held a moment of silence for Cothran at the start of the meeting and in his honor had his seat empty as a part of the meeting where he would have sat as councilman.
“He put so much effort and time into the town being incorporated and then even after that as a council member in seeing this get off the ground and organized. It was such an unexpected thing, so out of honor for him we had his seat as a part of our meeting,” Mayor Zachary Bigley said.
In passing their first ordinance, the council also passed and adopted numerous resolutions on the first agenda for the council within the historical meeting. One historical moment was appointing Theresa Cook as the first town clerk.
“It was a good meeting. Now that we have some things established we can move forward. We finally passed our first ordinance! So this is basically the rules and procedures, which gave us and any future town council an outline of how meetings are conducted,” Bigley said.
In another historical few moments, the council passed a resolution for Mayor Bigley to move forward with opening a bank account, getting insurance for the town and hiring a town lawyer. A resolution was also adopted to join the Alabama League of Municipalities and to join CARPDC (pronounced carp-deck), the Central Alabama Regional Planning and Development Commission.
During the meeting, like most city council meetings go, there was a portion of the meeting for public comment, where individuals of the Pine Level community had three minutes to speak. Members of the community made public comments regarding if the council would allow individuals outside the proper city limits to participate and speak at town meetings.
“Our community is so unique, we have our town limits, but we also have people that live outside the actual town limits but are still connected to Pine Level in some way. So obviously, we are allowing that,” Mayor Bigley said.
Bigley also stated the council has declared a vacancy for Cothran’s seat. The council has 60 days to fill the vacancy where the council will vote on someone to fill the position.
“Our biggest next step is to fill the vacancy of Mr. Cothran, and that has to be our top priority. Unfortunately, we have to navigate this aspect so early in our infancy stages of incorporation,” Bigley said.
Bigley also stated that until Pine Level gets a website, the best way to follow along for updates for the town of Pine Level and for future city council meetings is to follow the Town of Pine Level, Alabama Facebook page.
