Moody Council Creates Historical Society
Published 8:12 am Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Recently, the Moody City Council adopted a resolution to form an historic commission advisory board for the city.
The resolution reads that it is in the opinion of the mayor and city council of Moody that it is in the best interest of the citizens to establish a Historic Commission Advisory Board for the purpose of acting in an advisory capacity to the city council with regard to matters of historic significance within the city including historical land, structures, etc.
The advisory board will include six residents of Moody and will be known as the Moody Historical Commission Board and shall remain in existence until abolished by the municipal governing body.
Members of the five city council seats appointed the board, with one recommendation made by the mayor. Members were chosen by city council seat numbers and will complete the term in as many years of the council’s seat.
After that time, members will be selected for terms of five years. The members will serve without compensation and will advise the mayor and council on the adoption of rules and regulations that best affect the use of land, buildings, etc., that hold historical significance with the city.
District 1 Councilperson Linda Crowe appointed Jane Barker to serve one year, District 2 Lynn Taylor appointed Vernon Barker to serve two years, District 3 Phillip Deason appointed Helen Gable to serve three years, District 4 Bobby Clements appointed Fred Moody to serve four years and District 5 Paul Johnson appointed Gaye Austin to serve five years. Mayor Joe Lee appointed Moody Librarian Patsy Spradley.
Members of the committee will now begin meeting, most likely, on a monthly basis to start recording history and following out duties of the board.
Spradley said that she has stacks of historical information that have been saved over the years and she thought the forming a historical commission board would be away to organize and document the items.
She added that one of her patrons had come in the library and had started discussing the way Moody used to be. She said he was full of information. At that point, Spradley and others started bringing people to the library to tell their stories of Moody. “I thought to myself all this needs to be written down,” said Spradley. “We need to have a formal book about Moody’s history. In the library, we have history books on every town except ours and I feel like it’s important we do the same.”
Spradley said that they are hoping one day to have a location, such as the Moody House that can be turned into a museum in order to house years of history.
She added that people have already began approaching her about donations they would like to make to a possible museum.
“We’ve had some older folks, who known the history, pass away recently and all their information went with them,” Spradley said. “This is a start to get that information written down. We would also like to go throughout the city and take pictures, so that 20 years from now we can look back on today and say this is the way it was.”
The city council also recently approved a proclamation for the City of Moody declaring May 1 as Silver Star Day. Silver Star Day is a day to honor the nation’s military heroes from all wars who were wounded or became ill as the result of service in a war zone.
Moody now joins other Alabama cities that support Silver Star Day including Athens, Auburn, Birmingham, Calera, Childersburg, Cullman, Foley, Guntersville, Hokes Bluff, Homewood, Irondale, Mobile, Montgomery, Mountain Brook, Odenville, Opelika, Oxford, Prattville, Roanoke, Tuscumbia and Wetumpka. The goal is to have 100 cities across Alabama recognize the day.
