It’s almost time for the annual poppy drive, to benefit disabled veterans.

Every year, American Legion posts and American Legion auxiliary groups distribute the hand-made paper memorial poppies. Donations are encouraged, but not required.

Monday, Sandra Nall, a member of American Legion Post 90 in Atmore, distributed poppies to Mayor Jim Staff and members of the Atmore City Council during the council’s regular meeting.

Nall said that American Legion and auxiliary members would be present at local stores on Saturday, Nov. 9, to distribute the poppies, which are made by veterans as a part of their therapeutic rehabilitation. Store locations will be announced soon, Nall said.

The poppy has been considered a symbolic flower for American war dead, since the years following World War I.

Veterans returning to their homes remembered the wild poppies that lined the devastated battlefields, and considered this flower as a living symbol of their dead comrades’ sacrifice. A Canadian officer, Col. John McCrae, further immortalized the flower in his famous poem, “In Flanders’ Fields.”

In other business, the council:

• Approved two tax abatement adjustments for Alto Products. Marshall Rogers, executive director of the Escambia County Industrial Development Authority, explained to the council that two recent expansion projects came in more than 10 percent over-budget and legally required the adjustment to the tax abatements. The projects were in 2006 and 2009.

The council unanimously approved both abatement adjustments.

• Moved its next meeting to Tuesday, Nov. 12, at 4 p.m., to avoid a conflict with Veterans Day.