Current and former Colbert firefighters will be honored on Independence Day, while an old truck will be called out of retirement for the occasion.
In its 40th year of service, the Colbert Volunteer Fire Department will celebrate the milestone by serving as Grand Marshal of the city’s renowned Fourth of July parade.
To commemorate four decades of firefighting, the city will invite past Colbert firemen to join the current firemen in being recognized. There’s also talk of including an old truck, currently on display next to city hall, in this year’s event.
Of course, that means the fire department will have to get the venerable antique truck cranked for the parade.
“They seem to think they can,” councilman Jeff Roberts told the rest of the council Monday amongst laughs.
“The only request I would make is to please put it back where you got it,” mayor John Waggoner joked.
The parade is July 4 at 9 a.m.
The Colbert City Council introduced the idea in May. Councilman Bert Robinson said Monday night that the fire department “definitely wants to be the grand marshal.”
MAYOR SAYS TO KEEP POLITICAL SIGNS OFF COLBERT RIGHTS OF WAY
Don’t place campaigns signs on the rights-of-way on Colbert Roads, mayor John Waggoner said.
They won’t last long.
“We’ll instruct our maintenance man to remove any political signs from the street right of ways,” Waggoner said. “On private property, that’s fine. We need to keep them there.”
The mayor said this will hopefully protect Colbert’s roads from campaign-sign congestion during the political season.
“If we don’t do something about it now, by the Fourth of July, they’ll be lined all the way up and down the road,” he said.
In other news discussed Monday, the council agreed to coordinate the wiring of the city’s new well house itself rather than bid the job out. The city plans to open an account with a supply house and hire an electrician to do the work.
In other projects, Waggoner said he’d like to hire Dennis Moon to draft specifications for covering the over-hang at city hall and redoing the building’s siding. The mayor said he wanted to see some numbers for these projects before the council makes any decisions.
The mayor also noted that an anonymous donor is willing to contribute to the depot restoration project.
“I don’t know how much money we’re talking about,” he said. “I think it will be a fairly decent amount. But I can’t divulge, right now, who it is.”
Colbert leaders also signed off on an update of the city’s comprehensive plan Monday. The paperwork is required by the state government and coordinated by the Regional Development Center (RDC).
The plan is a continuation of previous updates, which say that the city will continue with renovations of both the city’s depot building (which houses city hall) and old school house, and will construct more sidewalks in town.
The council also used a rare closed session to discuss real estate, but took no action.
As they have in year’s past, the council also agreed to cancel its July meeting.
