Courtesy of Shelinka Cunningham
Mayor Andrew Gillum and the Tallahassee City Commissioners awarded the Tallahassee chapter of American Red Cross with a proclamation at the city commission meeting.
Curtis Richardson, Tallahassee city commissioner, said the Red Cross services are essential.
“The Red Cross provides invaluable services to those who are in need of services when their homes are destroyed by fire,” Curtis stated.
Sharon Tyler, executive director of the American Red Cross Tallahassee chapter, said the city commissioners recognized the Red Cross for all of their services.
“We received a proclamation; March is Red Cross month, so the city commission recognized Red Cross and all of their efforts and services that we give here in the Leon County area,” Tyler said.
According to Tyler, the Red Cross Red Fire Campaign captured the attention of the city commissioners.
“One of the things they were recognizing is our home fire campaign,” Tyler said. “In the last 15 months we’ve installed over 1,400 smoke free alarms into families’ homes and we’ve also provided those same families with lifesaving information helping them develop a fire escape plan.”
Tyler also stated that the main purpose of Red Cross is to help alleviate and prevent disasters from happening.
“Our response is to always help people respond to and recover from disasters. Our other biggest push is to prepare for disasters, because when you’re more prepared ahead of time then you’re better able to respond and it helps make our community more resilient,” Tyler said.
Commissioner Richardson stated that the meeting was brief.
“This was a very brief meeting. Of course at the end of the meeting we discussed the concept of a community school and one of our commissioners has taken up a leadership role in trying to make that happen,” Richardson said.
Richardson also added that ultimately the school board will have to make that decision due to the fact that they have ownership of the property.
During the meeting, commissioners allowed citizens to take the stand and state any information, new ideas or concerns they felt the community needed to be informed about.
William Hanes, director of corporate communications, came in representation for southern light.
“Southern Light is based out of Mobile, Ala., and we build in upright fiber optic networks. We’re in the Tallahassee network and we are committing a lot of capital to this market,” Hanes said. “We came to make sure our presence is known and that we are talking and connecting to the right people.”
The next city commisssion meeting will be held Feb. 29 at 4 p.m.