The City of Bainbridge’s Student Government Days gave the 32 students who participated—all juniors at Bainbridge High School—a two-day opportunity to learn about how the city’s government works to fulfill citizens’ needs and wants.

A majority of the students participated in a mock City Council meeting that dealt with actual issues considered by city leaders in the past and present, including actual Planning Commission business from the recent past.

At the council meeting, the students debated a baggy pants ordinance like the one currently in place in Bainbridge, voted against establishment of a curfew for youth and tabled consideration of a prohibition of an ordinance to control vicious dogs and limit the breeding of dogs within city limits.

Planning Commission business approved by the mock council included a request to allow the conditional use of property as a used car sales lot, a rezoning of a property to be included in the Central Business District and an amendment to the city’s sign ordinance to allow blade signs, which hang out perpendicularly from the front of a business, in the city’s downtown area.

All of the students were eligible to participate in Student Government Days based on good grades and voting by their peers.

Serving in their pseudo-official capacities for a day were: Mayor Alex Long; Council members Jesse Dodd, Hillary Barfield, Ivy Heard, Malori Maxwell, Raven Parris and Amber Johnson; City Manager Abby Davidson; Planning Commission members Marilyn Clark, Anna Jordan, Morgan Cook, Lucie Reynolds and Tyler Pollock; Finance Director Brittany Givens, Billing Clerk Lindsey Hatcher, Purchasing Director Gillian Andrews, Leisure Services Director Whitney Poppell; Parks and Recreation, Xavier Bell; Community Development Director Capria Miller, Main Street Director Ashley Johns, Code Enforcement Officer Adam Anderson, City Planner Scott Overman, Utilities Director Steven Crowell, City Shop Robbie Ames; Sewage Treatment, Staci Mackey; Water Department, Bryan Ordonez; Natural Gas Department, Tyrone Jacobs; Police Chief Thomas Timmons, Police Major Ellie Thomas, Fire Chief Jennifer Voyles; Computer Systems, Ericka Gordan, and Public Works Director Ansley Watts.