BAY MINETTE — In an effort to better address residents’ concerns, attendees at the monthly Moran Street Community meeting Thursday at Potter’s House in Bay Minette decided to start inviting speakers from various city departments to the meetings.

In previous meetings, residents have noted flooding, dilapidated houses and junky yards as primary concerns. Bay Minette Police Lt. Ruffin Crook suggested inviting city department heads, such as Public Works Supervisor Lamar Hadley, Buildings and Maintenance Supervisor Oscar Waters and Parks and Grounds Supervisor Joseph Hall, as well as North Baldwin Utilities Director Jason Padgett.

“A lot of the issues you all have are not police issues,” Crook said. “By having these people here, they can help answer questions.”

Crook said he hopes having speakers would also encourage residents to attend the meetings.

The first program to speak at a Moran Street meeting, tentatively scheduled, will be Baldwin County Habitat for Humanity, to speak about the new Brush With Kindness program. While much of Habitat for Humanity focuses on new home construction, Brush With Kindness works to improve exterior features on existing homes.

Volunteers focus on one community at a time, normally on homes of the elderly or disabled. Work includes painting the exterior of homes, yard work and landscaping, repairing fences and building wheelchair ramps.

Rowdy neighbors

One resident said that Mount Olive Baptist Church in Mobile, which owns a set of apartments at Moran and Banyan, had reneged on a promise to recruit better tenants than had the previous owners.

The resident cited loud music and loitering “at all times of the night” at the complex.

Crook asked for the name and number of the church that owned the apartment complex and said he would get in touch with them, but suggested in the meantime the woman call the police anytime there is a problem.

Potter’s House Pastor Danny Stevens said he had no problem calling about illegal or obnoxious behavior, but said many of his constituents are afraid to do so because communications officers ask for a name and number.

“We don’t want them coming to our house because then they’ll know who called the police,” a resident said.

Crook said the department has an anonymous tip line that residents can call.

“They just call, leave the information on a message and that’s it. We take it from there,” Crook said. That tip line is (800) 580-1847.

Those gathered discussed ways of getting the number, which is also used for tips on underage drinking, to more residents. Currently, the numbers are displayed on a few billboards in the county.

District 3 Councilman Johnny Biggs, who owns Moore Printing, suggested having labels printed with the number that people could stick to their phone books, phones or wherever best worked for them. Another suggestion was to have business cards printed out with the number and attaching them to magnets.

Regardless of the presentation of the number, it would be passed out door to door, at meetings and made available around town.

See a full report in the June 30 edition of The Baldwin Times.