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VALLEY — On Monday, Police Chief Tommy Weldon advised local residents to be aware of Hike/Bike/Run-related activities that will be taking place on Saturday morning.

“Most of the running events will be taking place off the main roads and near the Lakeview Cabin,” he told members of the Valley City Council.

“The Jane Carmack walking group will be coming down from West Point and will have police escorts. There will be some participants on bicycles going down Judge Brown Road. We just want motorists to be aware of this and to be careful when they are out and about Saturday morning.”

Council Member Randall Maddux urged people to support the Hike/Bike/Run fundraiser this year.

“The school really needs our support this year,” he said. “Please help if you can. Valley Haven School is a great institution, and we want to keep it going in our community.”

The Hike/Bike/Run is the largest fundraising effort for school each year. Going into 2020, the Hike/Bike/Run had generated over $100,000 a year for more than 30 years in a row.

It was canceled last year because of the Covid-19 pandemic but still managed to generate around $35,000 due to participation in some virtual runs and the Walt Meadors Invitational Golf Tournament.

This year’s Hike/Bike/Run had a big setback when LaFayette Day was canceled due to rain on Saturday, April 10.

Valley Parks & Recreation Director Laurie Blount told the council members that the Valley Farmers Market will have its first session of 2021 on Friday, May 7.

“We will have some vendors selling strawberries, jams and jellies,” she said. “We are asking everyone to come out and support them. Some of our farmers were set back by storms. They had to do some replanting.”

Blount said that Valley Sportsplex would be hosting another tournament the weekend of May 7-8 and that swim season was getting underway at the Community Center.

“We are really busy,” she said.

Public Works Director Patrick Bolt said that a make-up day at the Farmers Market Pavilion allowed his department to collect enough electronic waste items to fill a tractor trailer. The items were sent for recycling to a business in Lawrenceville, Georgia.

“We were able to get eight pallets of items on that Saturday,” he said. “This allowed us to finish filling up the tractor trailer.”

Approximately five pallets of items went into the truck on the previous Friday. Some items came in from Chambers County as well and were gathered at the highway department.

Bolt said a few dead or dying trees were still left to cut but that most of the trees on this year’s list had already been taken down.

“We still have some trees that need to come down in Fairfax,” he said.

“Hopefully, the contractor will have them removed within the next two weeks.”

Weldon said Valley Police Department was getting close to having its full complement of 14 officers.

“We have hired four new officers, and they are at the police academy being trained,” he said. “We are looking at hiring one more new officer.”

Mayor Leonard Riley said the city had recently received $100,000 in capital improvement funds from the state. It’s normally in the $90,000-a-year range.

Riley said the next council meeting would be taking place at 6 p.m. EDT on Monday, May 10.

Prior to the meeting, a public hearing will be held to confirm the costs of dealing with nuisance properties at 7612 School Street and 2006 29th Boulevard.