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Spanish Fort honors first responders, swears in officer and recognizes students and volunteers
Summary
The council swore in Officer Timothy P. Abbo, promoted two officers to a new senior-officer rank, recognized firefighter Joe McLeish and officer Abby Tomaszek as quarter awardees, honored a state tennis champion and library volunteers, and heard a Rockwell Elementary teacher praise improved STEAM test scores.
The Spanish Fort City Council used its May meeting to honor several public servants and community volunteers, swear in a new police officer and recognize student and library achievements.
Judge Rose administered the oath of office for newly sworn Officer Timothy P. Abbo. After the ceremony Chief Harbor praised Abbo’s experience, saying the department was "lucky to have Tim. He has over 3 decades of law enforcement experience," and adding that the hire will strengthen the department’s ability to mentor younger officers.
The council also announced promotions to a newly created rank — senior officer — intended to recognize training and experience between the officer and corporal ranks. Chief Barber described the new rank and said two officers were promoted: Alan Ayre (six years with Spanish Fort, 16 years total) and Larry Davenport (five years with Spanish Fort, 18 years total).
The meeting included presentations of quarterly recognitions. Mayor read proclamations naming Joe McLeish firefighter of the quarter and Abby Tomaszek police officer of the quarter, highlighting McLeish’s long service and community actions and Tomaszek’s work organizing community programs and supervising communications.
In ceremonial and community items, the council recognized Spanish Fort High School tennis player Lanny Wang as the AHSAA Class 6A singles champion and presented certificates to six senior library volunteers. Library volunteer coordinator Wendy Griffith thanked the volunteers and noted gifts donated by PJ Coffee of New Orleans used to honor the students.
Education updates included Missy Harper of Rockwell Elementary describing the school’s STEAM program; she reported Rockwell’s science ACAP scores at about 68 percent compared with a cited state average near 39 percent and said the program helped raise student performance.
Why it matters: the swearing-in, promotions and recognitions underscore the city’s emphasis on public safety staffing and community engagement, while the school and library reports highlight investments in youth programs.
What comes next: the city will continue quarterly recognitions and implement the senior-officer rank as a retention tool; the new officer’s academy completion was reported to be forthcoming.
Quotes: "We started off with a very small problem, realized we had a bigger problem that was gonna require a lot of assets," Chief Harbor said of the successful weekend search. "We might not have had a positive outcome had it not been for everybody showing up."
