Rainsville City Council Dismisses Tornado Memorial Committee

RAINSVILLE, Ala (WAAY)-A group in Dekalb County is crying foul after being told its services are no longer needed. The city council dismissed the committee responsible for the construction of the tornado memorial in Rainsville, and replaced it with another group. The entire situation is causing some drama.

Luanne Bowman is upset with Rainsville Mayor Nick Jones. Bowman is the former chairperson of the Dekalb County tornado memorial committee. "Shocked, initially shocked, And hurt very very hurt" Bowman said.

On January 7th Bowman and many of her fellow committee members were dismissed from their duties and replaced.

Bowman says the way it was done was wrong. "We read in the paper last wednesday that we had been relieved of our duties. The paper stated that we requested to be relived of our duties which is incorrect. Not any of the members that were voted off the committee requested to be relieved" Bowman said.

The tornado memorial was unveiled last April in Rainsville. It pays tribute to the 35 people who perished in Dekalb County April 27 2011. The project cost 63 thousand dollars. When the work was done, 27 thousand was left over. The committee was forced to turn those funds over to the city.

Nick Jones the mayor of Rainsville did not want to go on camera. Instead he chose to send WAAY 31 a written statement to tell his side of the story. According to the mayor the money was moved because state law only permits incorporated city boards to spend and manage funds separately from city funds.?

?Jones claims the former committee did not want to comply with state law. Former committee member Linda Samples was also upset how the situation turned out. "I was upset and hurt and disappointed. We worked hard on that monument and we are proud of the work that we did" Samples said.

As to why this group was replaced, the mayor says they were dysfunctional and needed to be replaced with a more positive group. The former committee members will take their grievance before the Rainsville city council meeting Monday.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Waay-WaayNewsAndHome/~3/dvAst_mZ3-A/article_39ffbe62-6061-11e2-9223-0019bb30f31a.html

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