Tuesday's City Council meeting started with a bang... sort of.
Lengthy discussions about ambiguity between state and local laws concerning concealed weapons on public property and debate about traffic-calming devices were the main topics of the meeting.
Donald Sirois, an election volunteer coordinator for the NRA and resident of Auburn, made a complaint about signs stating that handguns were not allowed in particular buildings, which brings into question the conflict between what the sign says and state law.
City Manager Charles Duggan pointed out that if Alabama's law is taken literally, it suggests a person who has a permit and knowingly has intent to do bodily harm may even take a handgun onto the premises of public schools.
"The city has known this at least since June 2008 and has taken no action to resolve the matter," Sirois said in reference to the sign. "Nothing's been done. What I'd like to know is why no action was taken."
Councilwoman Sheila Eckman said she felt bad that he thought there was some ulterior motive in not responding to his concern the first time, but that she wasn't clear on what his current concern was.
"I'm not ready to change it if we only have one person complaining about it," said councilman Arthur Dowdell, explaining he feared he would open a Pandora's Box by reacting to a single complaint.
Since no final decision was made, Eckman said nothing will come of the discussion unless someone brings it up again.
Another hot topic at the meeting was traffic calming devices.
Although two men explained their concerns about how emergency vehicles would navigate a traffic circle, the Council approved making the traffic circle between South Cary Drive and North Donahue Drive.
A three-way stop sign was approved for the intersection of Kimberly Drive and Ferndale Drive in efforts to help the flow of traffic.
Aubie made an appearance at the end of the meeting to recognize four Lee County Special Olympics athletes and their coach, who represented Alabama in the 2010 Special Olympics USA National Games.
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