Sand Mountain Reporter

Sandy Elkins will join the Albertville Board of Education in June.

The city council chose Elkins for the seat on a 3-2 vote Monday night in a one hour, five minute meeting.

Council President Pro Tem Randy Amos and Councilmen Kerry NeSmith and Doug Wood voted for Elkins. Council President Diane McClendon and Councilman Chuck Ellis voted for Jill Oakley.

In an informal discussion before the meeting, all five council members said they would give full support to whoever was chosen. However, Amos said he’d decided recently to support Elkins.

There was discussion of how to conduct the vote so that no council member would cast a vote against anybody, but rules required a nomination first.

Council members took extra time to discuss the issue. They decided to meet an hour before their Monday night meeting to discuss their options in filling the seat.

McClendon said before the meeting that she and her colleagues faced a difficult decision.

“We’ve been talking back and forth all week, and it’s been a tough choice,” she said.

“Whoever the majority wants, that’s who we’re going to recommend, but we’re going to try to get that settled before we go out there (for the meeting).”

Council members interviewed Elkins and Oakley on March 24. Both women said they would be willing to fill the seat being vacated by Laura Casey at the end of May.

The woman chosen for the seat will receive a five-year appointment. This is the first school board appointment by the current council, which took office in November.

Both Elkins and Oakley are graduates of Albertville High School, and both have children in the city school system.

Oakley ran for city council in 2008 and made a public referendum on having an elected school board a key part of her campaign. She made the runoff in a four-person field but lost to Wood six weeks later.

Elkins is making her first try for a school board seat.

The city’s school superintendent, Ric Ayer, said Monday afternoon that a tough choice faced council members.

“I felt basically that there were two very well qualified candidates that applied, and certainly there’s going to be a difficult choice for the (council),” he said.

“I certainly think either one would be a tremendous board member.”

The council also voted to approve Jonathan and Michelle Sanders’ request to deannex their home at 364 E. Henderson Road.

The property was one of four that council members voted 4-1 last month against deannexing. The land was on East Henderson Road and Fuller Road, and property owners said they were closer to Boaz.

Jonathan Sanders told Mayor Lindsey Lyons and council members in February that he had been under the impression that his property wasn’t in the city limits until he tried to sell his house.

He said surrounding properties were in Boaz.

Only Ellis voted on March 3 for the deannexation, saying he wants to square up the city limits.

He said the limits now look on a map “as jagged as a serrated knife.”

Webb said the other properties discussed last month weren’t to be on the agenda Monday.

Council members approved alcohol permit requests for Sebastien’s, at 330 Alabama 75 N., and Jefferson’s, at 8146 U.S. 431 N.

Webb said there was no problem with either permit request when the city’s alcohol review committee considered them.

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Serving Albertville and the Sand Mountain region

Publisher: Ben Shurett

1603 Progress Drive
Albertville, Alabama 35950

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