Auburn City Schools adding an eighth school resource officer to the mix was just one of the many budget related votes the City Council took Tuesday night. The Council approved all of the items but discussed three in detail before voting unanimously to approve them.
The first vote discussed in detail was for an additional student resource officer.
The officer will be assigned to Auburn High School and will work alongside another SRO already in place, said Bill James, Auburn Public Safety director.
“Auburn High School has a very large campus, so we are providing another officer over there to be able to provide a presence of security for the school,” he said.
Currently, there are six full-time officers and two part-time officers permanently assigned one school in the Auburn City School district. Another officer rotates among the schools. No officers are permanently assigned to any of Auburn’s elementary schools.
When school is not in session, the additional officer will join the other SROs on normal patrol duty with the Auburn Police Division.
Since the new officer will be doing work for both the school system and the city, the two entities will split the cost of the new position. Auburn City Schools will provide the officer's salary while the City of Auburn will pay for the position’s benefits.
Mayor Ron Anders was supportive of the agreement and the efforts taken to protect Auburn students.
“There is no corner to cut when it involves providing safety for our children,” Anders said.
The agreement calls for the new SRO to serve the school district from April 1, 2019, through July 31, 2021, according to documents presented with the Council's agenda.
Moore's Mill Bridge
The City Council also approved the last planned leg of the Moore's Mill Bridge project, which included $23,960 in landscaping along Moore's Mill Road and East University Drive near Interstate 85, according to documents presented with the Council's agenda.
This is the last major amount of money to be spent on this project, which has been going for an extended period of time, City Manager Jim Buston said.
During the Council's discussion of the project, Ward 8 Councilman Tommy Dawson expressed his frustration about the absence of streetlights on Cox Road, which he has been urging the city to add since the start of his time on the Council in 2014.
“You’ve got to admit, it’s hard to explain to my citizens in Ward 8, why [the Moore's Mill Bridge area] gets all that, and we can’t even get lights,” Dawson said.
The project would likely reduce the amount of dangerous situations, Dawson said.
“I’m not asking for a brick facade,” he said. “I’m just simply asking for lights that will keep somebody from losing their life.”
The intersection is controlled by the Alabama Department of Transportation, meaning it will take cooperation between the state and the city for a change to be made to the intersection.
Moore's Mill Sidewalk Project
The City Council also approved construction of a sidewalk on Moore’s Mill Road that will stretch between the existing sidewalks near Samford Avenue to University Drive and Dean Road. This is the final segment of sidewalk on Moore’s Mill Road to be made.
While no plans have a set start date, Assistant City Manager Kevin Cowper predicts work to begin this year.
“If we get started in the May time frame, construction will go through the summer,” Cowper said. “It will probably take about six months.”
Once completed, pedestrians will be able to walk from Ogletree Road to downtown Auburn along a sidewalk. The sidewalk will be on one side of the road and 5 feet wide. The project has a budget of $626,590.
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Evan Mealins, senior in philosophy and economics, is the editor-in-chief of The Auburn Plainsman.
