City of LaFayette

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Honeybee Festival postponed until 2022 The Honeybee Festival Planning team has been closely monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic since it began. We are excited and look forward to holding the next Honeybee Festival as much as anyone. Due to this, we have wrestled with the decision of whether or not to hold a festival this large in 2021. This festival takes months of work from a 20+ member team, of City Staff and dedicated Citizens and over 100 people on the day of the event to create a successful Honey Bee Festival. Covid has significantly impacted several of our sponsors, so we had to make a decision early enough to avoid unnecessary spending and unnecessary time investment. This festival is very expensive to operate and we cannot put it on without tens of thousands of dollars of sponsorship to support the quality event and we did not want to be insensitive to our business sponsors recovering from this past year’s economic constraints. We have built a very positive Festival that has grown larger and more successful each year. Given the uncertainty with the pandemic, vaccine delivery, variants of the virus, and also economic uncertainty, we feel it to be wise to wait until 2022 to hold the next Honeybee Festival, despite our wishes. We instead plan to focus our efforts this year on new, smaller community-based events, throughout the rest of 2021, which will provide multiple opportunities to come together, have fun safely, and be accomplished with a far less financial burden to the community. We look forward to planning the 2022 Honeybee Festival and we already have some great ideas to bring it back on June 4, 2022.

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Public Works

The City of LaFayette takes P.R.I.D.E. in providing quality public service to its residence in a variety of ways such as keeping city streets and sidewalks clean with safe roadways, a well maintained cemetery and consistent brush removal.

Public Works breaks down into four operations: streets and rights-of-way, solid waste, cemetery and city-wide vehicle maintenance. The department consists of around 17 employees who cover around 58 miles of roads.

How is this accomplished?

A committed crew dedicated in a team effort within the city to provide a clean and well maintained living experience for its residents.

Whether it’s keeping ditches clean, filling up potholes, sanitation and garbage removal, or debris pickup; you’ll find the City of LaFayette Public Works leading the charge.

It’s a team effort, Public Works Director Rodney Parker said.

Solid Waste and Sanitation

The solid waste operation is responsible for the collection of residential and commercial garbage—once per week—including yard trimmings and leaf pickup from November through February each year. The city also operates a recycling program consisting of unmanned recycling dumpsters for paper and glass. The recycling area is located on Napier Street across from the Walker County Jail facilities.

Sanitation uses one-armed trucks to handle trash pickup. The cans are required to be placed a certain way or the arm will not be able to pick it up. Also, there must be a 4 foot clearance in all directions around the can—including a residence with two cans—which must be sat 4 feet apart. The metal bar along the front of the can must be facing the road with the lid closed.

Streets

The street operation is responsible for maintaining all city streets, including drainage, street sweeping, sidewalk repair and improvement, asphalt paving and patching, as well as roadside mowing and sign maintenance.

Vehicle Maintenance

The vehicle maintenance operation handles the maintenance and repair of city equipment, including lawn mowing equipment, automobiles, trucks and heavy equipment.

Cemetery

Public Works also maintains the city cemetery. The department digs the grave lots, cleans up after a burial service and maintains the grounds. Lots are also sold through the department.

Inclement weather

If inclement weather strikes the city, Public Works is there to provide the residents with safe roadways, which includes the salting of roads during icy conditions, snow plowing and the cutting of downed trees along city streets. Public Works team up with the City of LaFayette Electrical Department during this time as the two are on the scene maintaining safe travel for the city’s residents.

“In inclement weather, I would say that’s where Public Works really steps up, because we are out there—even if it takes all night—keeping the roads safe from trees in the road or snow and ice. It’s our job to make sure you can get up the next morning and make it to work,” Parker said.

Team Effort in a community

“Public Works is also here to help every other department in the city,” Parker said. “We are here to do a public service to the City of LaFayette.”

Parker said Public Works strives to make life easier for the community.

“We do what we need to do for the residents of the City of LaFayette,” Parker said.

“To me, it’s an honor and a privilege to work for the City of LaFayette knowing I grew up here. I take it to heart. I feel like the city is going in a dynamic direction,” Parker said. “I am proud to be part of a team where the outlook for the City of LaFayette is bright and—with it being my hometown—it makes it worth my while, because I am a part of something that’s going to be great.” 

Here are a couple of videos about Public Works.

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Presented by LaFayette Fire Department