FOLEY, Ala. — The thing about the past is it’s fixed — set. That’s a positive thing when the past involves innovation, cooperation and dedication, three qualities “The Forward City” remembered by proclamation on Friday. Indeed, two years ago, the City of Foley decided to invest in the past, and this week they proclaimed May 21, 2010, as “Police Chief B.D. Cobb’s Light History Day.”

To get a feel for the significance of the proclamation issued on Tuesday by the city council, go back to Foley as it was nearly 70 years ago. Foley Police Department wasn’t 60 sworn officers as it is today but two: Chief Benjamin DeWitt “B.D.” Cobb and one other.

Say “light” today and traffic light will likely come to mind, especially if you’re traveling through Foley just about any time of the year these days. In the 1940s “Cobb’s Light,” which sat atop what is now Wright’s Drugs at the intersection of U.S. Highway 98 and Alabama Highway 59, was all-important because of its role in public safety. It was a Foley of a more leisurely pace back then, when a police officer could sit on a park bench and wait for the next “dispatched” call. That call came by means of “Cobb’s Light.”

Therein was the “innovative technolgy” Mayor John Koniar referred to when he read the proclamation on Tuesday. The mayor also spoke of honoring “the memory of a man who believed in protecting and serving the citizens of Foley and the surrounding communities to the best of his ability.”

B.D. Cobb came to Foley from Red Level, Ala., in 1942. The new city police officer had to police the sometimes rowdy sailors at Barin Field, which was under construction at the time. The following year another police officer was hired and Cobb became the city’s first police chief.

During Cobb’s first years in Foley, calls to the police for service came about through a cooperative effort with what was then Gulf Telephone Co. A person needing the police would call Gulf Telephone’s operator and have them turn on “Cobb’s Light.” Chief Cobb, sitting on a park bench near what is today the South Baldwin Chamber of Commerce, would see the light come on, go to a nearby telephone, call the operator, and the operator would “dispatch” the call or complaint to him.

This system of dispatching calls to the police continued until Foley police teamed with Alabama State Troopers to install portable radios in patrol cars. In time, “Cobb’s Light” was taken down during a renovation project in the mid-1990s.

Two years ago, however, Foley City Council provided the funds to restore “Cobb’s Light” on Wright Drugs, appropriate since the area is in the city’s Historic District. The impetus to restore the light actually came from another police officer, Cpl. Chuck Sutherlin of FPD.

“There’s something about the history of Foley that really caught on with me,” Sutherlin said in 2008.

Sutherlin learned of the lore surrounding “Cobb’s Light” by talking with some of FPD’s senior officers who have since retired. Not only is the light back in its original position but a park bench has been placed near the chamber of commerce along with an historical marker that commemorates what might be considered a historical novelty today but was high tech in Foley of old.

Those on hand Friday afternoon to take part in “Police Chief B.D. Cobb’s Light History Day” were treated to a reception at the Depot Museum where historical items were on display from FPD. The dedication of the renovated light atop Wright’s took place at the park bench at 5 p.m.