Cardwell

Coffee County Food Bank Director BJ Cardwell speaks to the Coffee County Commission.

The Coffee County Commission unanimously approved the use of the barn behind the Coffee County Extension office for use by the Coffee County Community Church Mobile Food Bank.

The food bank has been using the building each month to give out food to members of the community for more than a year and the commission approved the building for use by the food bank for another year.

“We just want to say thank you to the Coffee County Commission for allowing us to come and present what we’ve done to this year and for allowing us to use the facility,” Coffee County Food Bank Director BJ Cardwell said. “As a result of this county commission giving us the ability to use the facility here to create the Coffee County Food Bank, we’ve been able to extend it to Geneva County. It takes a lot of people to do it but it is all very rewarding.”

Cardwell said that COVID-19 has changed the way things are done but people are still being fed.

“COVID-19 has been running rampant and it has changed a lot of things but so far we have been able to help the less fortunate each month by distributing food still,” Cardwell said.

Pastor Bob Michaels – who helped extend the food bank to Geneva County – also spoke to the commission and thanked them for their support as well as passing a along a story on the need for helping residents in need.

“It’s very important to understand what we do. I went to a man’s house and he said that he was starving,” Michaels remembered. “I said, ‘You can’t be starving, we’re in America!’ I opened up his refrigerator and he had just one bottle of water in there. It broke my heart. So, I took him and got him some food and God has asked me to do this and to help people.”

The commission also approved a lease purchase agreement for a landfill compactor that had previously been approved for purchase, and also approved the purchase of a budgeted Caterpillar D3 dozer for the landfill at the cost of $170,572.45.

The commission approved plans for a proposed subdivision – called Pearson Farms – on 47 acres of land southeast of Enterprise off Alabama Highway 92. The proposed subdivision will consist of 53 lots.

County Engineer Marty Lentz also said that the county is receiving pipe this week that it has been waiting on to complete repairs on County Roads 308, 377, 205, 107 and 315. Those repairs are expected to begin this week.

Coffee County EMA Director James Brown discussed the impending Tropical Storm Zeta, which he said will become a hurricane before making landfall. Brown said that it is expected to make landfall between Louisiana and Mobile Bay, and if it stays on course the main impact in Coffee County will be wind.

Brown said that less than two inches of rain is expected in the area as a result of the storm.

“The further west it goes the better off we are,” Brown said. “We have a 2-in-10 chance of getting tropical force winds and the earliest impact we expect is Wednesday afternoon but think more than likely it will be Wednesday evening into Thursday.”

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