At the November 10^th town council meeting, Mayor Bill Warren gave his State of the Town Address. The follow is the transcript of his speech.

We have created a finance committee that reviews the financials every month before the meeting. Then the financials are sent to the full council for review and approval. We also adopted financial policies and procedures that we follow daily that have given us more accountability than ever. We approved the ’25-‘26 budget in our first meeting and then approved the ’26-‘27 budget on time. We hired a new auditor, the MDA group, and they have completed our ’24-‘25 audit. They are now working on our ’25-‘26 audit that will be completed soon.

We appointed a new planning commission and elected Bill Holland chairman. We have updated our zoning ordinance and several other ordinances, and we are continuing that process. We have worked very hard not only on the zoning ordinance but on the nuisance ordinance, sign ordinance, subdivision ordinance, and several others. This has done an outstanding job in serving the town of Cedar Bluff.

We appointed Jenny Dutton as our town clerk. We have created a new webpage and a new Facebook page. We have also created new job descriptions and new policies and procedures.

We appointed a new prosecutor, Cade Gossett, and renewed our judge, Brent Morrison, and our public defender, Richard Couch’s contracts. We also reappointed Jennifer Dutton as our court clerk, and they are all doing a great job. Our court heard 877 cases from November 1^st through October 31^st, and our court is operating efficiently.

We purchased a new building for the police department that they are almost ready to move into. We have received two different grants for two new police vehicles through the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant and the Federal ICE 287(g) Grant. They are both new Ford Explorers that are now in service. We also received a federal Iris Biometric Recognition Grant for a new laptop and facial recognition software. Police sergeant Jamie Chatman has done a great job writing and applying for these grants. We purchased a new K-9 from Alabama K-9 and sent Jamie and Oro to Tuscaloosa for training. Our police department attended a total of 125.5 certified training hours.

Police department yearly totals for October 1, 2025 through October 1, 2026 include a total of 120 drug cases, 173 warrants served, 182 misdemeanor arrests, 145 felony arrests, 483 incident/offense reports taken, 41 ICE/immigration arrests, 506 hours of traffic overtime worked, 1,618 traffic warnings issued, 796 traffic citations issued and 8 non-traffic citations issued and 134,272 miles patrolled. During the year, officer’s seized a total of $48,095 in US currency and a 2026 Kawasaki Street and Trail Motorcycle. We have gone through a couple of difficult situations with our police department. With Jeremy [Stepps] and Jamie [Chatman]’s leadership, we have worked through those situations. We now have a great department that is serving our town in a great way to keep us safe.

Our fire department consists of 13 volunteers, and they ran 294 calls from November 1^st through October 31^st. Our fire department attended 840 hours of training through the Alabama Fire College. We made it mandatory that our firefighters obtain EMR certification or higher and as a result our fire department now has a total of 35 certifications through the Alabama Fire College. We are very proud of our fire department.

We created an enforcement department and hired Mark Perry as our enforcement officer. We adopted the International Building Code. Mark has worked very hard to enforce the building code, our zoning ordinance, the business license ordinance, camper permit ordinance, animal control ordinance and nuisance ordinance. From January 1^st Mark has issued four citations, 98 building permits, 57 moving permits, eight demo permits, and three sign permits. Two dilapidated buildings have been demolished, and many more properties have been cleaned up because of Mark’s efforts. Mark will continue to enforce our ordinances and get Cedar Bluff cleaned up. He also volunteers and steps up with anything that is needed. He has done a great job.

We promoted Tim Miller to maintenance supervisor and hired Brain Abernathy as a new addition in maintenance, so we now have a great crew. We also have Randall Stafford in our garbage truck, and he does a great job. We purchased a new garbage truck, a new dump truck and a new excavator that are all in service. Our maintenance department is working hard to clear right of ways, clean out ditches, and keep roads patched along with their other duties. We also created a new maintenance plan for all of our equipment. The maintenance department is working with Master Gardeners on a new landscape plan for town hall, the new police station and our park. Our maintenance department is doing a great job, and we are very proud of them.

We had a chili cookoff that raised $5,000 for the police department and $5,000 for the fire department, a Trunk-or-Treat event, Christmas Parade, Easter in the Park, and Liberty Day. We received four grants for Liberty Day, totaling $19,000. We just had our second Trunk-or-Treat that was very successful and we are about to have our second Christmas parade. All these events have been very successful because of the great staff that we have here in Cedar Bluff.

We have approved nine annexations into the town, and we have three more in the process. These annexations include four new businesses. Overall, we have a total of eight new businesses: Little River Marina, Three Rivers Resort, Lookout Mountain Pest Control, Woody’s Restaurant, Jefferson’s Restaurant, Bubba’s Bar-B-Q, Mathews Lighting and Electric, and The Sharon Hensley Agency. We are working on more.

We have received a grant to rebuild and repave three streets: Sewell Ferry Road, Cove Lane, and Hidden Cove Circle. The contractors are currently working on this project, and completion date is estimated to be mid-November. We have also received a grant for a new sidewalk that will run from the school to the park. They are completing the engineering for this project and work should begin in a few months. We have applied for a grant to repave four more streets, and we should receive an answer on that grant within 60 days. Offices and an evidence room in the new police building have been constructed, and fiber optics and cameras have been installed. Furniture has been ordered, and it will be completed and ready to move into by the end of this month. We adopted a resolution to support a plan for a new Cherokee County Regional Trail System.

We also have received approval for a new water tower grant and approval to rebuild all our sewer pump stations and a grant to rebuild our main sewer treatment plant for our utility board. These projects are essential not only to maintain our system but for the future growth of Cedar Bluff.

Warren has served as Cedar Bluff’s mayor since November of 2025.