Louisa recognizes city attorney with Bud Adams Day
Louisa City Attorney Bud Adams (center) was recognized by the city council for his four decades of service. Pictured with Adams, left to right, are former Mayors Mike Armstrong and Teddy Preston, current Mayor Harold Slone and former Mayor Mike Sullivan. BSN photo/Brenda Hardwick
By TONY FYFFE
BSN Editor
LOUISA — Most citizens probably don’t know it, but last Thursday was Bud Adams Day in Louisa to commemorate the beginning of the city attorney’s 41st year of service to the community.
Adams was recognized by city officials past and present during the Louisa City Council’s regular meeting Jan. 12, which was planned without his knowledge after Mayor Harold Slone recently went through minutes of past council meetings, including those for the Jan. 13, 1981, session in which Adams was sworn-in to the non-elective office.
Calling the minutes “interesting reading,” Slone read parts of the record at last Tuesday’s session and noted how much prices have changed over the last 41 years.
During the 1981 meeting, in addition to Adams becoming city attorney, council members approved a $23,508 bid for a new garbage truck.
“We just purchased one for a hundred and fifty-fix thousand and eighty dollars,” Slone said.
Slone then proceeded with “a little celebration” of Adams’ anniversary that included gifts from and remembrances by several current officials, including Police Chief Greg Fugitt and Fire Chief Eddie Preston, and three former mayors.
Another honor was a proclamation by Slone and the ex-mayors declaring last Thursday as Bud Adams Day in the city. Slone also presented Adams with the first Gem of the Big Sandy award, which the mayor said he planned to give to “people of Louisa for when they do things that need to be recognized.”
“We can sign an executive order and declare them a Gem of the Big Sandy,” he said. “So, Bud Adams is going to be the first.”
Lawrence County Clerk Chris Jobe was on hand to present a certificate from his office and read a letter from Secretary of State Mike Adams making the city attorney a Commonwealth Ambassador. The award is the “highest honor this office can bestow” and is given to individuals who “demonstrate exceptional character and citizenship through the contributions of the communities of our commonwealth,” the secretary of state’s letter said.
Throughout the presentations, Adams joked that it felt like he was “coming to my funeral and this is the eulogy.”
Former Mayors Mike Sullivan, Mike Armstrong and Teddy Preston also attended the meeting and spoke briefly about their experiences with the city attorney.
“Unfortunately, I was the mayor when we received a package of information one day from the Sierra Club . . . which, at first, I thought was a complete joke, because I had never heard of the American Canoe Association,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan was referring to a federal lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club and the American Canoe Association against the city and the city’s water and sewer commission alleging violations of the federal Clean Water Act. The suit claimed the city failed to comply with the terms of a permit that authorized the discharge of a specified level of effluents into the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River.
Sullivan said he took the packet of information to Adams, even though his “gut instinct” was to “write ‘nuts’ on it and send it back,” but Adams talked him out of it.
Sullivan thanked Adams for “all the time I rushed into his office unannounced and kind of interrupted him, and he was always receptive of that.”
“My biggest thing, I think, when I was mayor, I wanted to stay off the front page of the Lexington Herald-Leader newspaper,” Sullivan said. “Because if you’re an elected official or politician and end up on the front page of the Lexington newspaper, it usually was not good, and I thank Bud for keeping me off that paper.”
“The Sierra Club got you pretty close, though,” Slone joked.
Armstrong, who served as mayor prior to Sullivan, also said Adams was very accessible as city attorney.
“I lost track of the number of times I would tear out and go heading to Bud’s office, and he never said, ‘I’m too busy.’ He never said, ‘I don’t have time.’ He never said, ‘Come back later.’ He always said, ‘Come in sit down, take a deep breath. Let’s think about this before you make this phone call or you write that letter.’”
Like Sullivan, Preston mentioned the Seirra Club litigation says, saying Adams “worked night and day to get us out of that thing.”
“I appreciate Bud very much for what he did for us all,” Preston said. “Bud, you’re a good man and a good city attorney, the best I ever saw in my life.”