By Morgan Bryce
Editor
This afternoon, Christopher Tate contacted Opelika Observer staff to inform them of his decision to decline the director’s position with the Lee County Emergency Management Agency.
In his email, Tate attached a copy of the letter he sent to Lee County commissioners explaining of his decision to them, which is copied and pasted in its entirety below:
“I am truly humbled by the outpouring of support for not only myself coming back to Lee County, but for my family as well. We have been overwhelmed with calls, texts, and messages congratulating us on this news. It is a wonderful feeling to know you have this type of support and trust of not only the Lee County Commission, but of many of the department heads, public safety officials, and citizens. However, I am sorry to say that over the course of 24 hours, we had additional, but beneficial news come to our family, taking us from the excitement of making plans for a relocation to Lee County, to having to decline the position of director of Lee County EMA. This decision was not easy for myself and my family to make, however those who know us understands we do everything as a team and with much thought and prayer. We are extremely fortunate that so many of you were looking forward to us coming back, and we are equally fortunate that we have jobs that will do what they can to retain us. With this new information, we were forced to quickly reevaluate the current situation and made the determination that staying in Jefferson County was the best for our family right now.
Thank you again for all your support, and we are sorry we can’t join the Lee County EMA team at this time. They have such incredible potential for doing amazing things for the public safety community there, and for the citizens of Lee County. I wish them all the best.”
No other information is available at this time. Follow the Observer for updates on this story.