LINDEN &8212; At Tuesday&8217;s meeting of the Linden City Council, Police Chief Jeff Laduron officially announced his retirement from the force. He said he plans to spend his time doing some of things he loves best: fishing and golfing.

The city council members all expressed their congratulations to Laduron for his years of service and wished him the best.

Chief Laduron will have his last day on June 29 after more than 20 years with the department.

Other issues discussed at the council meeting were the purchasing of new two-way radios for Linden City police cruisers. Some of the radios that they currently use are more than 20 years old, and are not doing the job.

As per the city&8217;s policy, they sought out multiple bids to replace the radios. Upon the request of councilman Neal Jackson, the council voted to go with the $3,150 bid for Cook&8217;s Electronics of Demopolis.

The bid will replace seven of the radios and also include inspections of all antennas and coaxial cables, in addition to replacement of those parts at no additional charge. The new radios will be 50-watt units that are up to date with the latest technology.

Another bid that was voted on was a $2,500 bid for Rain Away to replace the gutters in the city hall building. Other outside work on the building should be completed shortly.

Councilwoman Gates discussed a resolution involving the &8220;Grow Linden&8221; effort, which is a project designed to seek out and assist in assessing the economic and educational needs of the city. After finalizing some of their reports, they hope to hold another town hall meeting in July to discuss more prospects.

The resolution was tabled until a later meeting, but Gates discussed briefly the situation of Linden schools, both public and private.

One thing that the &8220;Grow Linden&8221; effort hopes to do, according to Gates, is to create a youth advisory board that will help the council discover what needs civic-minded young people in the school want to see addressed.

The council also discussed the success of the clean-up days, held on May 18 and 19. City administrator Terry Hall said that the program was a success.

In addition to those clean-up days, the city has been implementing another clean-up program involving limbs and leaves. They have provided a dumping area for citizens to leave their limbs and leaves to be properly disposed of. They currently have a city worker that monitors the station so that no other trash gets left there.

An issue that council took up for consideration involving the limbs and leaves dumping area is the possibility of charging companies who have been leaving large amounts of limbs and leaves $1 for each cubic yard of debris that they leave at the site. The council agreed that this would help to offset the cost of the program.

The council also voted on renewing an ordinance that would allow citizens to apply for flood insurance in certain areas considered to be on a flood plane. They unanimously voted in favor or renewing the ordinance.

The council&8217;s next meeting will be on June 19 at 6 p.m. All are welcome to attend.