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On Monday, the Valley Grande City Council met at its city hall to discuss the city’s business and one topic within the conversation stemmed around the possibility of storm shelters.

“We need to maybe consider getting some of those,” said Councilwoman Jane Harris. “Maybe putting one at the park or somewhere in the city where the fire department is, including Summerfield.”

Like Harris, other members of the council were in agreement with the idea, and Mayor Wayne Labbe said he knows of a city that can lead them in the right track — the City of Selma.

“I know the City of Selma is looking at them too because County Commissioner Vivian Rogers and members of the commission went to a meeting about it,” Labbe said.

Labbe then suggested to another city official during the meeting to reach out to Rogers to see what the City of Selma’s decision was regarding the shelters and know more about where they would access them from. 

Labbe told the council that whether the City of Selma is looking at getting them and putting them in the ground or building them. He added that it’s going to take a process either way, and to get the ball rolling on the idea, that they would have to start somewhere. 

Labbe said exclusively to the Selma Times-Journal that the idea behind getting or expanding their storm shelters came from the array of storms the city has had over the years.

“And when you get involved in a situation like this, you don’t want to have to start from scratch,” Labbe said. “So, if they have done some ground work on it already, then let’s see what they have dug up and implement it in our city.”

Labbe said he is sure that if the county commissioners are looking into the matter of storm shelters that they probably are going to put them in the county as well, not just in the city. Overall, he said he is willing to work with the city and county on the matter so plans regarding the storm shelters can be done through partnered effort.