Recently in Local Category

Mark your calendar now for the inaugural Leeds Downtown Folk Festival featuring John Henry Days from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 20, and 12 noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 21. Admission and parking are free to the public.
The two-day outdoor event in Leeds, Ala., celebrating the roots, richness and variety of American culture will feature folk music, craft exhibits and demonstrations, children’s activities, food, storytelling and Leeds’ second annual celebration of John Henry Days.

The two-day outdoor event in Leeds, Ala., celebrating the roots, richness and variety of American culture will feature folk music, craft exhibits and demonstrations, children’s activities, food, storytelling and Leeds’ second annual celebration of John Henry Days.

We need your help in letting judges in Jefferson County know that we need their “buy in” to implement the Assign-A-Highway Program in Jefferson County.  Members of the Jefferson County Helth Action Partnership will be scheduling a meeting with Judge Vowell to present the program for a second time as an option for litter abatement in our community.  Jefferson County Land Development and Roads & Transportation Department have agreed to perform the logistics.
 
Read on for a request that Kellie Johnston, Cawaco RC&D sent to the Health Action Partnership members and a suggested Letter of Support template. We need letters from your agencies as well as friends, relatives, etc.
 
Please, use agency or company letterhead if possible.  Send them by August 25, 2008.  An E-mail attachment is fine. You might also want to consider a program like this in your community!

On July 24, Jasper residents met at Maddox Middle School for an Alabama Water Watch certification workshop. Margaret Vandiver discovered there is always something new to learn about protecting the environment at the Alabama Water Watch certification workshop Thursday. Vandiver has been a soil conservation technician for 28 years. She has worked for the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and is currently employed with the Walker County Soil and Water Conservation District.

On Thursday, Vandiver, and fourteen other participants learned how to monitor water quality by measuring pH, temperature, total alkalinity, total hardness, dissolved oxygen and turbidity. “I’ve been working with ph tests for years, especially when I was with NRCS. This one was a little more sophisticated than what I’ve been used to, and I enjoyed that. It was more updated,” Vandiver said. Katherine Patton, district administrative coordinator for the Walker County Soil and Water Conservation District, said she will use what she learned in the workshop in outdoor classroom activities sponsored by her office. “My goal is to be very active with the school system,” Patton said.

The six-hour workshop was held at Maddox Middle School and conducted by Patti Hurley of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. Participants spent some time in the classroom, but they also took at field trip to nearby Town Creek to evaluate water quality and study some of the animals in the creek.   Town Creek underwent an extensive revitalization this summer.  Paul Kennedy, executive director of the Walker Area Community Foundation, said the Town Creek project provided an ideal setting for environmental workshops and outdoor classrooms.  

It also attracted outsiders who came in to work on the project and left praising the support they received from community members.  “It’s bringing people in,” Kennedy said. “People have a preconception of what Walker County is. We can’t dispel that unless we get them in the county. Once they get in here once, like those contractors, they want to come back.”

If you would like more information about the Warrior Clean Water Partnership or Alabama Water Watch, check out the websites at www.warriorcwp.com or https://aww.auburn.edu/
 

Florence is set to host its first ever Sweet Tea Challenge on Saturday, July 26 as an official event in the W. C. Handy Music Festival. The Sweet Tea Challenge is being sponsored by Florence/Lauderdale Tourism, Region Bank, and Y’all magazine. The “taste off” to judge the best sweet tea will be held at Regions bank across from the city’s Wilson Park. The bank building itself is a replica of the historic Forks of Cypress plantation, providing a great southern backdrop for the event. While the sweet tea is being judged there will be several games and activities taking place. Individuals, restaurants or groups interested in entering the Sweet Tea Challenge can go to the Florence/Lauderdale tourism website at www.visitflorenceal.com and download an application.

The Heart of Alabama Rural Planning Organization will hold a meeting to discuss the update of the Coordinated Human Services Transportation Plan.  New federal regulations require a coordinated transit plan be in place prior to the use of certain federal transit funds.  Any agency that intends to pursue a Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Section 5310 - Elderly and Disabled Program, Section 5316 - Job Access and Reverse Commute Program or Section 5317 - New Freedom Program grant must participate in the plan development / update.  Otherwise, their grant will not be eligible for funding under these programs.  For additional information contact Darrell Howard, (205) 264-8441, dhoward@rpcgb.org
Chilton County
July 17, 2008, Clanton City Hall, Clanton, Alabama, 9-11am
Blount County
July 22, 2008, Frank Green Building, Oneonta, Alabama, 9-11am
St. Clair County
July 22, 2008, Administration Building, Commission Chambers, Ashville, Alabama,
1-3pm
Walker County
July 24, 2008, Community Health Services Building, Jasper, Alabama, 9-11am

This Old House magazine (a spin-off of the popular PBS television show) highlights Selma in the article “Best Places in the South to Buy an Old House.” Selma is one of only 14 cities across the south chosen for the magazine’s list. In choosing the cities for the list This Old House factored in architecture, housing prices, and the livability of the city itself. The article begins by mentioning Selma’s place in history as the starting point for theRev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s voting-rights marches and its more than 1,250 historic structures and four National Historic Districts. Selma is described in the article as a community on the Alabama River “where you can walk to the grocery and the summer sun is distilled through a canopy of live oaks.”   http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/photos/0,,20208091,00.html 

You are invited to spend the day with us at Black Belt Treasures on Saturday, June 28, 2008, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

We will host this year’s Folk Life Festival which will feature potters Sam Williams of Monroe County and Robin Rogers of Dallas County; bird carver John Sheffey of Dallas County; vine basket maker Ronald “Buster” Scruggs of Butler County: white oak basket maker Walter Brooks of Monroe County; decorative birdhouse builder Sam Cheek of Macon County; That’s Sew Gee’s Bend quilters Tinnie and Minnie Pettway of Wilcox County; stained glass artist Tyree McCloud of Wilcox County; monogram seamstress Jan Autrey of Dallas County; painters Catherine Watson of Monroe County, Mary Croley of Butler County, and Lynda Ray of Marengo County; and the Martin-Hicks Bluegrass/Gospel Band.

Cowboy Bruce Brannen, an artist from Montgomery County, will entertain through stories, poems, and rope tricks.  He will also exhibit his paintings of Wild West scenes. Enjoy delicious catfish and fixings’ prepared by Little Ezell's Catfish, of Choctaw County. 

More than 500 people participated in the first of the June Saturday Walking Tours being offered in 30 cities across Alabama. Each tour attracted an average of 17 participants. Tops in attendance were the Birmingham Civil Rights district tour with 46, Athens with 43, Tuscumbia with 41, Guntersville with 40, and Huntsville and Fairhope both with 35. For a complete list of the cities participating in the Saturday Walking Tours see http://www.alabama.travel/things-to-do/tours-trails/saturday-walking/.
 

The Tuskegee Airmen will be the focus of George Lucas' next film. Lucas has talked about such a movie since 2005, but he's now hired a screenwriter and told USA TODAY that he hopes to shoot it later this year. The name of the film will be "Red Tails." It's a nod to the candy apple color pilots painted the tails of their fighter planes. The Tuskegee Airmen were the nation's premier black combat aviators who flew largely in North Africa and Italy during World War II.

Partnerships do make a difference. The cooperative efforts of key players have led to a ground- breaking Stream Restoration Construction project in Jasper, Alabama. In January, The City of Jasper received a $500,000 grant to improve eleven-hundred linear feet of Town Creek that runs from the 18th Street bridge to beyond the 1939 historical footbridge.

The Alabama Department of Environmental Management provided the grant that funded the project. The grant was awarded to the city and Cawaco Resource Conservation & Development Council, Inc.  Improvements included more pools and swift-flowing areas in the urban stream, an enhanced floodplain and the addition of a stormwater wetland to be used as a learning environment for Maddox Middle School students. 

Some 100 people braved the heat in downtown Montgomery on Saturday, May 24th to witness the unveiling of the first in a series of exhibits about the 1961 Freedom Rides. The exhibit, located on the outer structure of the former Greyhound Bus Station at 210 South Court Street, honors the many who stood up for justice by taking a ride for freedom during the turbulent Civil Rights Movement.

Among those in attendance were Attorney Fred Gray of Tuskegee, who represented Rosa Parks and many others during the struggle for voting and civil rights in America, and some 11 original members of the group that became known as the Freedom Riders. "The exhibit is a great addition to the historical and cultural attractions that already so richly define Alabama's River Heritage region," says Alabama Tourism's Publications Manager Marilyn Jones Stamps.

The exhibit, a project of the Alabama Historical Commission, will remain on display at the site until a permanent Freedom Riders museum is established. Long-range plans, which organizers anticipate may take up to five years to complete, include the establishment of a permanent museum to be housed in the old Moore building, directly across from where the exhibit is now currently being displayed. To learn more, visit www.montgomerybusstation.org

A historic Alabama-built rocket that led to man's first moon steps has landed on a list of the "7 Wonders of America." The historic Saturn V rocket on display at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville is being dubbed by the "Good Morning America" television show as the sixth Wonder of America, museum spokesman Al Whitaker said Wednesday.  The designation will be announced during the ABC television network show's Monday broadcast from the museum, he said. Museum officials also are planning a celebration Monday. "This is long-overdue recognition for Alabama's role in the space program," said state tourism director Lee Sentell.

“We came to Alabama to serve, and found ourselves being served,” said JacQuetta Clayton, president of the national MOM Squad organization. “When I found out we were going to Alabama, I didn't know what to expect" said Clayton, whose son is Baltimore Raven player Mark Clayton. "I am glad I came. Gadsden is a wonderful city and has really shown their love for us,” she added.
 
The MOM Squad, an organization formed to benefit at-risk youth, was in Gadsden May 2nd & 3rd to further their mission and to celebrate the Year of Alabama Sports. While all of the M.O.M (Mothers on a Mission) Squad members are mothers of national celebrities, many of them are mothers of athletes. The Mary G. Hardin Center for Cultural Arts, directed by Bobby Welch, partnered with the Alabama Tourism Department, the City of Gadsden schools, the Mayor’s Office and local businesses, restaurants and organizations to promote the Year of Alabama Sports through the “Art of Competition” exhibit and to help further the mission of the MOM Squad. Year of Sports Coordinator Marilyn Jones Stamps attended the event and welcomed the group to Alabama.
          
While in Gadsden, the MOM Squad visited elementary and middle schools, as part of their literacy campaign, to read with children and to provide encouragement. On Saturday, the youth and parents who participate in Gadsden City School’s 21st Century after school program had a fun day at Imagination Place Children’s Museum and met Carnell “Cadillac” Williams, whose mother Sherry was the host MOM for the event. Williams, a native of Gadsden, is an NFL running back for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and former Auburn Tigers running back.
          
In addition to visiting the local schools, the MOM Squad was honored at Downtown Gadsden's First Friday events. On Saturday afternoon, Imagination Place offered special activities for visitors based the NCAA's "Stay In Bounds" character building program. Many of the activities were led by the MOM Squad. Also, in celebration of the Year of Alabama Sports, Cadillac Williams signed autographs. A total of 21 MOMs attended the event, including Carolyn Smith, mother of actor and Oscar nominee Will Smith. The Center for Cultural Arts will host the “Art of Competition-Year of Alabama Sports” exhibit through 2008. Find out more at www.culturalarts.org
 

Town of Thorsby Historical Preservation Committee update
The Thorsby Historical Preservation Committee is working with the Chilton County Soil & Water Conservation District and NRCS to begin the first steps in restoring the historic Thorsby Elementary School Building. Larry McRay of the NRCS will be providing technical expertise for the project. Committee members met with Butch Grimes of Grimes Architects on April 8, to discuss the process of restoring the historical structure. The school will be restored according to Alabama Historical Committee guidelines.   A work day was held at the school on April 27, and donated yard sale items that were not sold were taken to a senior center for resale.  Volunteers removed particle board from the detached lunchroom building, and secured the windows. The Thorsby Historical Preservation Committee meets on the third Monday of each month at 6:30pm at Thorsby United Methodist Church on Iowa Avenue. The public is invited to attend.
 
City of Pinson update
The City of Pinson kicked off their Community Planning Assistance Grant project on April 24, 2008, at its monthly Planning Commission meeting.  Steve Ostaseski and Yvonne Murray of the RPC met with the Planning Commission and Mayor Hoyt Sanders to discuss the process of creating the City's Master Plan (also known as "comprehensive plan"), Zoning Ordinance, and Subdivision Regulations.  A project website will be linked to the RPC and City of Pinson websites soon.  RPC's community planning team expects to hold a public meeting in order to conduct a visual preference survey for the City at the end of May or beginning of June.  For more information, please contact Yvonne Murray, YMurray@RPCGB.org or (205) 251-8139.

May is National Bike Month!  The League of American Bicyclists is promoting Bike-to-Work Week from May 12-16 and Bike-to-Work Day on Friday, May 16.  On Friday, May 16 at 7:00 a.m., a bicycle commuter convoy will depart from the fountain at Five Points South (Birmingham’s Southside). The group will ride a 7-mile route throughout Birmingham’s City Center to tour ongoing and future downtown revitalization projects and to raise cycling awareness. The ride will terminate between 7:45 and 8:00 a.m. at the Center for Regional Planning and Design, 1735 1st Avenue North, where there will be a photo opportunity, news media, cold drinks, and distribution of giveaway items for all participants.  For complete route information visit the Birmingham Metropolitan Planning Organization’s website: www.bhammpo.org  The event is sponsored by the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham with the support of the Birmingham Metropolitan Planning Organization, the Birmingham Bicycle Club, GC Cycling, Vulcan Triatheletes, Jefferson County Department of Health, and CommuteSmart.  Citizens throughout many American cities and towns participate in this annual initiative by conducting “group rides” to highlight the benefits of cycling as a viable mode of transportation and means of regular exercise.  Bicycling is one of the most popular activities in the United States, and it’s healthy too! Bicycling can help in weight loss, reduce stress and improves cardio-vascular function. Taking your bike to work instead of the car also improves regional air quality by reducing vehicular emissions. Biking to work can be an efficient, safe and fun way to get the exercise you need while also providing a broader public health benefit. For many bicycle commuters across the country, biking to work makes for good use of commute time and reduces costly fuel consumption. For metro Birmingham it makes more sense than ever! The League has set up an event website providing information on events all across the nation at www.bikemonth.com.

Across the United States, heritage tourism is on the rise.  To promote Alabama’s unique blend of Civil Rights history and cultural traditions, Auburn University and the Alabama Department of Tourism are teaming up to develop a Civil Rights Heritage Trail in Alabama.  The project aims to provide tourists with a rich travel experience by allowing access to Alabama’s Civil Rights sites through easy-to-follow routes and the inclusion of unique local restaurants, lodging and cultural amenities.  

The guide will go beyond well-known Civil Rights museums to include many additional sites significant in the struggle for racial equality.  Auburn University staff will work closely with the Alabama Department of Tourism to build on the Department’s current Civil Rights publication.  

Hemmed in by the Chattahoochee River and Georgia on the west and bisected vertically across the middle by truck-heavy U.S. Highway 431, Eufaula is now revising its 20-year-old land-use policy as required under the Eufaula 2020 Plan. 

Mayor Jay Jaxon and city planner Tim Milner consider it "very fortunate" to have expert help from the Audubon Partnership for Sustainability in the process, especially since the toughest issues include development along the proposed seven-mile alternate route through the city's western outskirts.
www.smartgrowth.org/news/

from the Smart Growth Network. www.smartgrowth.org

Alabama’s Lake Guntersville State Park was spotlighted last week in the USA TODAY feature travel article “Companies looking for meeting spots just park it.” The lodge completed a $25 million renovation in January and has 14,000 square feet of meeting space.

From the article in USA TODAY by Gary Stoller:

"States are trying to boost revenue by upgrading and expanding their meeting facilities, and corporate meeting planners say they're savings thousands of dollars by booking them instead of hotels or conference centers. Facilities range from a one-room schoolhouse at Utah's Camp Floyd/Stagecoach Inn State Park to mansions and full-service lodges like the one at Alabama's Lake Guntersville State Park.

Tim Wishum, the operations director for Alabama State Parks, says state parks are "not Las Vegas or the Miami beachfront." But "you can rent space for a fraction of the cost" of a big city, and their setting helps companies focus on the reason for the meeting — building business, learning more about their jobs and solving issues. A convention at Lake Guntersville costs about $15,000, compared with $40,000 at a big-city hotel or convention facility, he says.

Many meeting planners "probably haven't considered state parks as areas for conventions, because they still see them as isolated places where people only hike and fish," Wishum says. But that's changing, he says, now that state parks have amenities such as large meeting rooms, wireless Internet access and small rooms for breakout sessions.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2008-04-14-business-meetings-state-parks_N.htm

A series of CNBC segments by Mike Hegedus featuring different aspects of Alabama business continued this week with a story titled “Sweet Home Alabama.” The story focuses on how the Alabama economy has held up well, despite the nationwide downturn and features an interview with Gov. Bob Riley.

For video see: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=719096575.   Previous stories on the Alabama economy focused on David Bronner and the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail and Wellborn Cabinet makers in Ashland. 

The New York Times article “Amid the Ghosts of Alabama” on April 18 profiled three ghost towns that are within two hours’ drive of Mobile and Birmingham. The first town featured was Claiborne that was one of the last areas occupied by Union soldiers after the Civil War. Claiborne is in Monroe County 14 miles east of Monroeville- the setting for “To Kill a Mockingbird”. The second city featured is St. Stephens an hour’s drive northwest from Claiborne. St. Stephens served as the first capital of territorial Alabama. The abandoned town now lies within the Old St. Stephens Historical Park. Cahaba, the third city featured, was the first permanent state capital of Alabama from 1820 to 1825. Today Cahaba is an important archaeological site. For the complete article.

WhistleStop Festival & Rocket City BBQ
Huntsville; May 2-3
Come on down for a toe-tappin', barbecue-eatin' good time. The festival is a KCBS-sanctioned event with a professional and amateur barbecue competition, entertainment, children's activities and great music.

Sunny King Criterium
Anniston; May 3
Watch as hundreds of professional and amateur bicycle racers zoom around the 0.6-mile downtown race course in NASCAR fashion at speeds reaching 40 mph! Dine outdoors at the Red Diamond Restaurant Tour, featuring more than 15 eateries. Also children's races, artists' market and live music.

King Kat Invitational
Sheffield; May 3
Anglers converge on Pickwick and Wilson Lake, also known as the Catfish Capital of the World. Weigh-in, 3 p.m.

Alabama Coastal Triathlon
Gulf Shores; May 3
The triathlon consists of a 1,000-yard swim in the Gulf of Mexico, a 20-mile bike ride down the main beach road in Orange Beach and through the Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores and finishes with a five-mile run.

The Florida Bureau of Historic Preservation has identified a series of reinforced concrete block billboards that were constructed in 1953 along Florida’s major tourist routes (pre-interstate).  The billboards were designed and patented in 1952 by Cecil Hayden Davis of Springfield Illinois who had also purchased De Leon Springs, a historic tourist attraction here in Florida, that same year.  Sixty of these were built and at least 12 are still extant.  These “outdoor signboards” were designed to be permanent and withstand hurricane force winds. We are trying to find out if anything similar exists in other states.

Sherry Anderson, Architectural Historian
Transportation Compliance Review Program
Bureau of Historic Preservation, Division of Historical Resources
 
sanderson@dos.state.fl.us. (800) 847-7278   Toll Free. (850) 245-6437   Fax

As an online presence becomes ever more important to business success, groups supporting downtown businesses  need to make getting information on the Web as simple as  possible. For instance the Narragansett, RI, Chamber  of Commerce has stepped in to help members increase  their online presence.

Noting that many members hesitate to create websites because they feel it is too costly, complicated or time  consuming, the Chamber hosts Member Spotlight pages to make the process easy (just five simple steps) and  free to members.
From Downtown Idea Exchange

Hopefully, all of you have heard by now that some of the staff from our office is working with a larger steering committee working to get 19 counties in Alabama known as the Black Belt region designated as a National Heritage Area. The steering committee of 60 members consists of local citizens and leaders representing all 19 counties and a partnership panel that includes representatives from historical, conservation, and economic development groups across the state and region.

A National Heritage Area is a place designated by Congress where natural, cultural, historic, and recreational resources combine to form a cohesive and distinct area. National Heritage Areas tell important stories about our nation and represent key pieces of our history and identity.  There are currently 37 National Heritage Areas in the United States and none designated so far in Alabama. We strongly believe that Alabama's Black Belt contains historical, natural and cultural resources that are nationally distinct and worthy of this designation.

As part of this project, we are undergoing a planning process to develop an area brand in order to market the Black Belt’s unique blend of history, culture, and traditions to visitors inside and outside of Alabama. To help us in developing this brand, we would like know what others think about the Black Belt.

Miss Fonnie Strang will be on hand to cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony of this year’s Eufaula Pilgrimage. Miss Strang, who turned 100 years old in January, was one of the original founders of the Eufaula Heritage Association and the Eufaula Pilgrimage in 1965. The Eufaula Pilgrimage taking place this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (April 4, 5 and 6) is the oldest tour of historic homes in the state.  http://www.eufaulapilgrimage.com/