What Makes Ronnie Roll

“Play It Well”

by Ali Elizabeth Turner

It was the day before the mayor’s birthday, so that was pretty much the first thing he had to endure when he bounded into his office -- me singin’ the blues version of “Happy Birthday.” It’s the only time I have ever told the mayor what to do, and the scope of my direc tive was, “You sit down, please, sir, and I’ll stand up.” I sang, and it was followed by a brief part of the chorus of “Seven ty-six Trombones” from the musical, The Music Man. That particular musical selection was chosen because it’s the only time he is going to be 76 years old. He cheerfully endured my well-inten tioned greeting and then we got down to business. First up was the ongoing “COVID Conundrum.” Mayor Ronnie has been in frequent contact with Montgomery and men tioned that there was going to be an announcement made by Governor Ivey, which, as of this writing, appears to be an exten sion of what is already in place through July 31. Basically, “proceed with caution.” I told him that I could not imagine what it would be like to be sit - ting in his chair, trying to be the mayor of folks who see “mask-less-ness” as a 1st Amendment right, as well as the ones who call his office daily and are on “mask patrol.” By that, I mean they want the may or to personally see to it that people who are out side without a mask are subject to legal and fiscal penalties. “And where,” he asked me rhetorically, “would we get the funds to hire enough police of ficers to arrest the ‘nonmasked offenders’? And, what about achieving herd immunity? Where does that fit in?” As I lis tened, I thought about the biblical injunction to pray for our leaders. Lots. We moved on to the runup to crafting a compre hensive master plan for the City of Athens that gets everyone and every thing on the same page. As Mayor Ronnie has often said, “Our greatest blessing is also our great est challenge: growth.” There are many aspects to building a solid in frastructure that can accommodate the kind of growth we are anticipat ing in Athens-Limestone County, but one of the newest is dealing with burial sites. There is a large “undisclosed re tail project” that is going to be made public very soon, and it will be locat ed at the bottom of Lindsay Lane South, where it intersects with the Huntsville-Brownsferry Road. These days, retail and residential develop ers often encounter burial sites that have no head or footstones or any type of marking at all. They have long been forgotten; nevertheless upon dis covery it is understandable that their families are not comfortable with the idea of having their loved ones covered over in asphalt or concrete. In this case, through the use of ground penetrating ra dar, three members of the Allen family were deter mined to be at the base of the hill, and the developer is going to carefully have them moved to a suitable resting place. For several years, Kelly’s Studio of Dance has pre sented an annual recital held at the Princess The atre in Decatur. It’s always a challenge to pull it off, and this year in many ways has been the tough est. How does anyone manage a performance during a pandemic? The mayor welcomed the au dience and thanked everyone—parents, grandparents, friends and family members-- who had sacrificed to give these kids a chance to work hard, work-togeth er-while-apart and “keep on dancin’.” More questions poured in: Will school still be vir tual in the fall? How will we pay for everything we need to do? Does the mayor court business and have any say as to who decides that Athens is a good candidate for a business investment? (The answer to that one is a resounding no.) As he often does, he teaches me what he learned in church the day before, and he took a piece of paper in order to quickly draw out a half-court diagram for a basketball game. He showed various strategies that players could implement which could be successful if they payed attention, and committed to “take care of where your feet are planted. You do that, and you will play it well.” We all now need to know where we stand and how to stand. “Good advice,” I said, and clearly we had lots about which to pray. So we did, and then it was time for Ronnie to roll.