By mayoral proclamation, April and May will be City Beautification months in Columbiana.

With the warmer temperatures, more and more people will be out and about and we want them to see that Columbiana is more than a city of history and pleasant people.

So, please do what you can to help. If it&8217;s nothing more than just making an effort to pick up a piece or two of litter as you walk around Columbiana, then that&8217;s certainly worth the extra few seconds you&8217;ll have to take out of your day&8217;s schedule. Hopefully, we&8217;ll all give a little more effort than that. The county landfill will have a Free Dump Day during the first week of April, when all household rubbish and unwanted items can be taken to the landfill free of charge. Please take advantage of it.

If you are reading this article and you work at a business in Columbiana, please make your employer aware and ask him or her to support our beautification efforts through some type of incentive to encourage everyone to pitch in during these two months.

The city is certainly going to do its part. We will begin to place greater emphasis on enforcing city ordinances designed to make our city cleaner, safer, and more appealing.

Several of our ordinances deal with the undesirable presence of rubbish, litter, abandoned vehicles and structures, illegal signs and overgrown yards. Please accept this article as my commitment to all residents that I will personally direct all city department heads to take an even more aggressive role toward tidying up our little town.

Speaking of making our city safer, I&8217;ve chosen Thursday, March 30, to officially begin our project to repair, replace and add sidewalks throughout the city. On that day, the South Shelby Chamber of Commerce, under the fine leadership of its executive director, Stacy Walkup, is hosting &8220;Coffee With The Mayor&8221; at the Columbiana City Hall at 7:30am.

Please join us that morning and meet other Chamber of Commerce members who are key leaders in our city and others around us.

Also at this meeting, I will present the results of our sewer system report. From this report, we will begin a methodical approach to rehabilitating our sewer system, much of which was installed more than 60 years ago. This will be an expensive project, but one which is worth every penny.

Lastly, I want to compliment the Columbiana Fire Department and Southeast Shelby Rescue volunteers. This past weekend, my neighbor across the street suddenly noticed smoke filling their house from what was later determined to be the refrigerator&8217;s compressor that overheated.

Within two minutes, fire and rescue vehicles were at the house and ready to act in whatever manner needed.

They are vital to our community, and please bear that in mind when you see them around, and when you receive Southeast Shelby Rescue&8217;s annual donation requests that were mailed earlier this year.

Already thrown yours away? Do the right thing and go by their station in Columbiana and help them continue to help us. See you around town.

Allan Lowe serves as mayor of the City of Columbiana