The Bowdon City Council unanimously voted to renew the beer and wine licenses of four different retailers in the city at the monthly City Council meeting on Nov. 9. Police Chief Mark Brock reported that each store had sold alcohol without incident, but when Mayor Jim Watts opened the discussion to renewing Locomex Restaurant’s pouring license, Brock said he had concerns.

“We’ve made numerous arrests there for different problems,” Brock said.

Brock said his main concern was with fighting and public intoxication.

The mayor, however, said he had met with the new manager who seemed to be cooperative and Brock agreed that he believed the incidents could be controlled with the new leadership in place.

“He allows the police to come in the back and surprise the people there,” Brock said. “Since we have started doing random checks, the problems have slowed.”

Watts recommended that the council renew the pouring license on a probationary basis starting Jan. 1 with the issuance of the contract.

Councilwoman Betty Smith proposed Locomex be placed on a 90-day probation.

“If anything occurs within the 90 days, the license will be revoked,” Watts said.

The council voted unanimously to approve Locomex’s probationary license.

• As a service to Bowdon citizens, two separate individuals offered to collect bagged leaves from residences. The two collectors intend to use the leaves as fertilizer for their organic farms, according to City Manager Jimmy Meigs. The collection service will start Dec. 1 and will run in conjunction with the limb pick-up service that occurs during the first full week of each month. Residents need to rake, bag and put their leaves on the side of the street for pickup. Meigs said the city has not decided whether or not a paper or plastic bag will be required.

• Peggy Sikes, a Bowdon property owner, questioned council members about property upkeep ordinances. Sikes said she purchased her property in 1987 to be an office for her real estate business. For years, she said the site served as an appropriate office space, but that recently her neighbors’ negligence has made it difficult to host clientele.

“We need to make it so if someone rides through Bowdon, it is a nice place to be,” Sikes said. “You people are the ones that need to make Bowdon more available to people like me.”

In response, Watts informed Sikes that such ordinances did exist and were created within the past six months.

“People are cited and have 30 days or 60 days to deal with the issue, but the problem is after they have been cited they wait until the 59th day to fix it. And then the next week it is back to how it was before,” Watts said.

Currently, Meigs said he and other city leaders are working to draft amendments to make the ordinances more substantial.

“They don’t have enough teeth to them,” Meigs said of the ordinances. “We need to tweak them to give them more leverage.”

The amendments should be completed by Jan 1, Meigs said.

• The City Council approved a 40-year water contract with Ranburne, Ala., which has provided the utility service to Bowdon for 35 years. Ranburne is currently seeking financial assistance from the United States Department of Agriculture, which required they have a contract with Bowdon.