A motion for Sunday Alcohol Sales in the City of Centre passed by a majority vote during Tuesday’s Centre City Council meeting. Councilman Cedric Williams and Councilman Harry Moon voted against the measure while Councilmen Phillip Roberts, Frankie Kelly, Don Cochran and Bess Yarbrough voted in favor. The first official day for Sunday sales to begin will be Sunday, October 20 following a five day public notice will be published on October 16.

We spoke to Centre Mayor Tony Wilkie about the issue –

The Council also voted to enact an additional one cent sales tax for the purpose of offsetting the costs for upgrades and other projects throughout the city. Despite some misconception, Mayor Wilkie stressed that this was NOT passed as a way to fund school resource officers for the schools located within the city limits.

There was some discussion at the previous meeting regarding the possibility of portions of the one cent sales tax going to toward bringing four school resource officers on board to patrol each of the schools located within the city limits including Cherokee County High School, Centre Middle School, Centre Elementary School and the Cherokee County Career & Technology Centre.

Centre Mayor Tony Wilkie said that the discussion was simply a way to extend an ‘olive branch’ to the Cherokee County Board of Education, the Cherokee County Commission and the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department in helping to get an SRO program up and running. There was no vote or decision regarding that matter.

In other business, the council voted to renew contracts with AVENU for the collection of the city’s Alcohol/Beer/Wine tax and Business License tax. A motion to construct fencing around the city’s cleanup lot was also approved. Councilwoman Kay Davis introduced a motion to purchase new Christmas Lights for the Downtown District in the amount of $13,325.

Councilwoman Davis also reminds citizens that the annual City Cleanup Week is scheduled for October 21 – 25, City residents can get rid of household items that are no longer needed by putting them out on the curbside. Keep in mind this does not include anything that cannot go into the landfill such as wet paint, tires and anything with Freon in it. Centre Mayor Tony Wilkie is asking residents to take some things into consideration when piling up items for the city to collect and dispose of. Make sure you keep everything far away from power lines, cable lines and phone lines or other overhead lines; also take care to keep discarded items away from gas meters, pedestals and so on. This will allow for ease of pick-up by city workers and, in turn, will result in your property being cleared faster.

Items can be put out before the garbage trucks run for sanitation workers to see. They will then call in another vehicle that is equipped to pick up the items. You can also call the city for pickup. In addition to the pickup, volunteers are expected to be out cleaning up around town during the week.

The council also heard quarterly reports from each of the city’s department heads.