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LIFE Tech Dedication
The LIFE (Life Skills Influenced by Freedom and Education) Tech Center was opened in April as a transition center for male parolees. It is located in the old mental health facility on Bashi Road in Thomasville. A similar tech center in Wetumpka was opened for female parolees in 2004. The goal of the transition centers is to help parolees make the transition from prison to society after undergoing extensive substance abuse and mental health treatments, along with completing certain vocational training and job preparation skills. “My Task Force on Prison Crowding has come up with some great ideas, and this is one of them,” Riley said. “For the safety of our communities, it is imperative that we make sure those prisoners who are reentering society are drug-free and have the right skills to get a job.” The new administrative building was named in honor of Mayor Day whose leadership on the project was recognized but with a bit of gentle ribbing too. Alabama Southern Community College President John Johnson said, “We have a mayor who is as strong an advocate for his city as anyone can imagine…and sometimes tolerate.” But he added, in dedicating the building to Day, “His advocacy for this project is what made it possible.” Alabama Southern Community College provides all educational training for the stated. Regarding refinancing, Day said city officials have a duty to save money if possible, even if it is only $20,000 a year as one refinancing proposal is. “That’s $20,000 we can use for something else,” he said. Of the civic center project he said, “There are no smoking mirrors.” He said funding for the project is available outside of the general fund. When a vote was taken, Megginson, Herron, Gaines Smith and Day voted for the project and Allen and Alberta Dixon voted against. Dixon explained her vote, saying people she talked to wanted a “civic center building” and not a “theater and a new city hall.” The auditorium will have a slanted floor and Dixon’s comments referenced a flat floor for exhibits, dinners and other such events. The city hall reference was to a new and larger office for the mayor and city clerk that will be in the civic center, which will be connected to City Hall, which is a renovated wing of the old school.
Day said he respected those comments and said that he wanted McKee and Associates to look at the entire campus of the old high school to see if other buildings, perhaps the gymnasium, could be developed into a facility such as Dixon described.
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