By Crystal McGough, copy editor
CLAY — The Clay City Council met Tuesday night, Nov. 26, 2019, for its regular meeting, where the council unanimously passed two proclamations in recognition of cheerleaders with Clay Youth Sports. Proclamation 2019-07 recognized the freshman competition cheerleaders, while Proclamation 2019-08 recognized the sophomore competition cheerleaders.
According to the proclamations, both squads competed in the United Youth Football of Alabama League and North Jefferson Area cheerleading competitions. The freshman squad won first place in the United Youth Football of Alabama League competition, while the sophomore squad won third place in the United Youth Football of Alabama League competition and second place in the North Jefferson Area competition.
Both squads “represented the City of Clay well in both competitions,” the proclamations state.
Proclamation 2019-07: “the 2019 Freshman Clay Youth Cheerleading Squad was under the outstanding leadership of Coach Brooke Haynes; and … was led by an outstanding group of ladies namely Kinley Archer, Emersyn Pearson, Ivy Haynes, Alexis Williams, and Lakenzi Horton.”
Proclamation 2019-08: “the 2019 Sophomore Clay Youth Cheerleading Squad was under the outstanding leadership of Coaches Amber Gore and Chysanthea Thomas; and … was led by an outstanding group of ladies namely Haven Billy, Layla Brown, Avery Gore, Charlae Pilot, LeAnna Thomas, Jaylen Willis, and Ayanna Wilson.”
“I just want to congratulate y’all again on the job well done,” Mayor Charles Webster said. “We really enjoy recognizing the athletes, and the girls and boys, that participate in the sports in Clay. So thank y’all for all the hard work. Parents and coaches and all the leaders and Andrea (assistant city clerk), we thank y’all again for all that y’all have done.”
A third proclamation, Proclamation 2019-09, recognizing the senior competition cheerleaders, was removed from Tuesday night’s agenda and will be added to the Dec. 10 council meeting agenda, when the senior cheerleaders will be able to be in attendance.
Center Point Fire District fire board President Jody Harris addressed the council on behalf of the fire district’s board of trustees.
“I’m here tonight on behalf of the board of trustees for the Center Point Fire District to say thank you for all the support that y’all have given us over the last two years,” Harris said. “Just quickly, off the top of my head, I want to reemphasize how much, you may not realize how much. You purchased generators for Station 5 and Station 4, to allow us to safely operate in inclement weather; you provided clean rooms for two of our stations to help us protect our own employees from cancer issues; and most importantly, you’ve just remodeled Station 4 to give our employees a great place to live. They actually live there a third of their life. And it gives us an opportunity to improve our service to the community.
“Many of you were at our dedication of the new fire engine. You’ll be able to spot it around town: it has the Clay logo on the side of it. That’s going to provide a service to our community for the next 15 years and it is just amazing that the support y’all have given us enabled us to purchase that engine. We are very grateful for what you have done, and hopefully you will continue to do going forward.”
Councilor Dennis Locke used his time during Mayor and Council Comments to announce the October 2019 $500 School Grant winners:
Clay Elementary – Leslie Hoffman plans to use her funds to purchase an educational reading program entitled “Making Connections,” which will include a combination of 25 level four and level five books.
Clay-Chalkville Middle School – Michelle McAliley plans to purchase new calculators for use in her eighth grade math classroom.
Clay-Chalkville High School – Chelsea Holmes will use her funds to furnish her students’ reading area with carpet and bean bags, as well as to purchase items for group activities, and a Wi-Fi adapter for their computer.
“Congratulations to our grant winners,” Locke said.
City Manager Ronnie Dixon, who was recently named president of the Jefferson County Board of Education, informed the council and those in attendance that the BOE is looking for older laptop power supplies for HP, Compaq, Chromebooks, and other types of laptops in that generation.
“Any of the companies that have upgraded or have extra power supplies, you can bring them here to (Clay) City Hall. I’ll get them to the board,” Dixon said. “We have a lot of computers that will serve a limited purpose for reading, but they don’t have power supplies. So anybody that’s got extra power supplies, we’ll take them.”
During pre-council, Dixon told the council that he had given them the final drawing of the new playground/splash pad complex that the city will be building at the ballpark.
“You’ll see it’s got yesterday’s date on it, at 10:09 a.m., when we made the final adjustments … so unless anybody’s got any issues, we will order equipment tomorrow,” Dixon said. The playground and splash pad will both be special needs accessible, he added.
The council took some time to discuss the final rendering, and Councilor Ben Thackerson asked about seating for parents around the splash pad.
“I just know at the (Birmingham) zoo, there’s a lot of tables and parents sit around the tables,” Thackerson said. “They’re there watching.”
Dixon said that there would be benches for the parents, but no tables.
“One of the things that we wanted to make sure of was that there was a dry walkway around the splash pad, so that parents can take care of the kids without having to get wet,” Dixon added.
The playground/splash pad complex is on schedule to open the first weekend in April 2020, which is also opening weekend for the ballpark.
The council wanted to remind the community that the Clay Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony will take place Sunday night, Dec. 1, at 5:30 p.m. at Cosby Lake. The Clay-Chalkville High School jazz band will perform, and there will be a visit from Santa.
Additionally, the Clay Christmas Parade will be on Saturday, Dec. 14, at 3:30 p.m. The parade will begin and end at Cougar Drive. The theme is Frozen, and Frozen characters Anna and Elsa will be riding on the City of Clay float.
The next meeting of the Clay City Council will be Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2019, at Clay City Hall. Pre-council begins at 6 p.m. and the regular council meeting begins at 6:30 p.m.
