The Brundidge City Council worked from a short agenda Tuesday but managed to give its approval to a resolution allowing draft beer sales in Pike County.

Brundidge Mayor Jimmy Ramage said the sale of draft beer has to be approved by the state Legislature.

The City of Troy and the Pike County Commission are on record as seeking approval of the resolution to allow municipalities to decie to sell draft beer and are seeking countywide support of the resolution. Once that support is in place, state Rep. Alan Boothe and Sen. Bryan Taylor will ask legislators to allow draft been service throughout the county.

“The City of Brundidge is not being asked to approve or disapprove the resolution, only to say that we are not against it,” Ramage said. “If the bill passes, we will be allowed to make the decision for our community. We would have the option of drafting a referendum for Brundidge to vote on or passing a resolution to permit draft service.”

Councilman Steven Coleman made a motion to support the resolution. The motioned was seconded by Councilman Arthur Lee Griffin. Council members Cynthia Pearson and Betty Baxter voted in favor of the resolution, Council Member Margaret Ross did not vote.

“I only heard about this today and don’t know enough to vote on it,” Ross said.

Camille Downing, director of the Pike Regional Child Advocacy Center, addressed the council and asked for the council’s support of the CAC’s efforts to bring greater awareness to child abuse in Pike County during April, which is Child Abuse Awareness Month.

“In the year 2013, the CAC in Troy conducted 175 interviews where there was possible child abuse,” Downing said. “And, those were just the reported incidents. Many incidents of child abuse are not reported because people are afraid to speak up.”
Downing asked the City Council to hold a special day, in April if possible, to bring the issue of child abuse to the forefront in a visible and public way.

Troy will host a Child Abuse Awareness Day April 4 and Downing asked if Brundidge could host a similar event.

Ramage said Brundidge would participate.

“We might involve some of the school children,” he said. “We’ll work on doing something to heighten the awareness child abuse, which continues to be a growing problem.”

A PowerPoint presentation reviewed the city’s completed demolition project. The council was able to see the before and after photographs of the 27 abandoned and/or dilapidated structures throughout the city that had been taken down through the demolition project and at not cost to the property owners. The property at each site had been cleaned and cleared as part of the project.