Discover St. Clair August and September 2018

Liberty Cemetery • Bicentennial Comes to Town • Hangar House Springville Boomtown • Pell City Senior Center • Jeff State President

August & September 2018

TIGERS TIGERS TIGERS Top MLB draft pic Springville’s Casey Mize

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Features and Articles Discover

The Essence of St. Clair

Casey Mize Springville’s very own 7.5 million-dollar man

Page 26 A home for people and aircraft Page 18 Pell City Senior Center Page 32

Traveling the Backroads Liberty Cemetery Page 8

Medical Community Enhancing Quality of Life Page 48 St. Vincent’s takes the lead Page 54 Northside continues to grow Page 62 Pell City Internal & Family Medicine Page 66 Pediatric care is key Page 72

Business Review

Bicentennial comes to St. Clair Page 44

Springville business boom, Trident Marine, Keith Brown at Jeff State, Fresh-Value Opens Page 74 Cover photo courtesy of Wade Rackley Auburn Athletics

August & September 2018

www.discoverstclair.com

A love of nature starts early.

Ours did too.

Did you know that frogs are an indicator of the health of water systems? At Alabama Power, we’ve been helping manage and protect Alabama’s natural resources for more than a hundred years, partnering with organizations across the state to preserve the health of our river ecosystems.

Plus, we work hard to care for wildlife habitats and give endangered species the chance for a future. Because we love nature – and frogs – as much as you do.

AlabamaPower.com/Environment

© 2018 Alabama Power Company

Carol Pappas

Writers AND Photographers

Carol Pappas is editor and publisher of Discover St. Clair Magazine. A retired newspaper executive, she served as editor and publisher of several newspapers and magazines during her career. She won dozens of writing awards in features, news and commentary and was named Distinguished Alabama Community Journalist at Auburn University. She serves as president/CEO of Partners by Design, the multimedia group that publishes Discover.

Elaine Hobson Miller Elaine Hobson Miller is a freelance writer with a B.A. in Journalism from Samford University.

She was the first female to cover Birmingham City Hall for the Birmingham Post-Herald, where she worked as reporter, food editor and features writer. A former editor of Birmingham Home & Garden magazine and staff writer for Birmingham magazine, she has written for a variety of local, regional and national publications.

Joe Whitten Joe Whitten was born in Bryant on Sand Mountain. When he arrived in Odenville in 1961 to teach at St. Clair County High School, he found a place to call home. He and his wife, Gail, taught across the hall from each other. He continues to live in Odenville in a 1904 house they called home for 36 years. Joe was active in the Alabama Writers’ Conclave and the Alabama State Poetry Society. The society named him Poet of the Year in 2000. Joe has also published a number of St. Clair County local history books.

Paul South Paul South, a native of Fairfield, is an Au¬burn graduate with a degree in journalism and a double minor in history. He also has a Juris Doctorate degree from the Birmingham School of Law. Although sports writing was always his first love, he had a versa¬tile career as reporter, columnist and first full-time sports information director at Samford University.

Susan Wall Susan Wall moved to Logan Martin Lake from Birmingham, where she worked as a critical care nurse. Alongside the nursing career, she owned Dreamscapes Photography, a portrait and wedding studio. Winner of the 2010 August Moore award at the Bluff Park Art Show, with numerous publications in magazines and the Kodak Instructional Magazine, her passion now is digital painting and portraits.

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Graham Hadley

Graham Hadley is the managing editor and designer for Discover The Essence of St. Clair Magazine and also manages the magazine website. Along with Carol Pappas, he left The Daily Home as managing editor to become vice president of the Creative Division of Partners by Design multimedia company. An Auburn journalism graduate, Hadley also served as the news editor for The Rome News Tribune in Rome,Ga.

Jackie Romine Walburn Jackie Romine Walburn, a Birmingham native and freelance writer, is an Auburn journalism graduate who has worked as a reporter, editor and corporate communications manager. She’s had recent writing published in the Birmingham Arts Journal and Alalitcom. Jackie is currently seeking an agent and publisher for her first novel, Mojo Jones and the Black Cat Bone.

Leigh Pritchett

Leigh Pritchett has been in the publishing field 30 years. Early in her career, she worked for a New York Times Regional Newspaper. Since the 1990s, she has been a freelance writer. Her work has appeared in local, state and national publications in print and digital form. Mrs. Pritchett received the Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Montevallo.

Wallace Bromberg Jr. Wally graduated from Auburn University where he graduated in 1976 with his BA in History and minors in German and Education.

Wally’s skills in photography blossomed during college.After a 30-year career, he decided to dust off his camera skills and pursue photography full time.

Mike Callahan Mike Callahan is a freelance photographer who resides on Logan Martin Lake in Pell City. He specializes in commercial, nature and family photography. Mike’s work has been published in Outdoor Alabama Magazine, Alabama Trucking Association and Alabama Concrete Industries magazines. Publishing his work to the internet frequently, he has won many honors for pictures of the day and week.

Scottie Vickery Scottie Vickery is a writer with a degree in journalism from the University of Alabama and was a reporter for The Birmingham News.

Her first assignment was covering St. Clair and Blount counties. She has more than 30 years of writing and editing experience and her work has appeared in a variety of publications. She also has worked in the nonprofit industry.

From the Editor

Help us Discover the best of St. Clair You might call it the seven-year itch – itching to do something a little differently.

But after seven years of Discover, The Essence of St. Clair Magazine, we discovered it’s really only building on what we have done all along since August 2011.

Since our inception, our goal has been to help our readers discover the best kept secrets of St. Clair County. We have taken our readers on journeys to meet interesting people, visited unusual places and helped them discover all kinds of roots that run deep in our history. In that time, we have traveled many a backroad to find the story behind the story that makes this place we call home a discovery coming to life every time you turn a page.

And in this, our seventh anniversary issue, we are launching a discovery in reverse – the Discover the Best of St. Clair County Awards. It’s our way of letting our readers tell us – and each other – who the best cooks are, where are the best places to visit, who does the best work in a particular field or what is the best venue for just about anything.

Check for your ballot inside this issue on page 29, fill it out and mail it to us. We also will have a companion online poll at discoverstclair.com, where your voting is only a few clicks away.

We will take the results of the fans’ favorites poll included in this issue and the votes you can cast online, and we’ll tally the numbers to announce the awards in the October issue. The October issue will be chocked full of those ‘discoveries’ our readers tell us are the best in these parts. We suspect you won’t want to miss it.

So, get ready to get discovered, St. Clair County! We’re looking for the best of St. Clair. Seven years of experience in bringing you so much of what St. Clair County, its people and its land have to offer tells us it won’t be an easy choice.

But we’re up for the challenge! How about you?

Carol Pappas Editor and Publisher

Discover The Essence of St. Clair

August & September 2018 • Vol. 43 • www.discoverstclair.com

Carol Pappas • Editor and Publisher Graham Hadley • Managing Editor and Designer Mike Callahan • Photography Wallace Bromberg Jr. • Photography Susan Wall • Photography Dale Halpin • Advertising Toni Franklin • Graphic Designer

A product of Partners by Design www.partnersmultimedia.com 1911 Cogswell Avenue Pell City, AL 35125 205-338-3466

Printed at Russell Printing, Alexander City, AL 7

Traveling the

BACKROADS

Liberty Cemetery Storied final resting place piques interest

The Richmond Steed Monument erected by The Woodmen of the World at Liberty Cemetery Oct 7, 1918

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

Story by Joe Whitten Submitted photos Just north of Odenville, in the sheltering earth of Liberty Cemetery, repose the remains of some of St. Clair County’s early settlers in Beaver Valley.

The cemetery rises in gentle slopes to the left, right and rear of the circa-1850 church building.

Frank Watson’s survey of the cemetery lists the names and dates for 22 people who were born more than 200 years ago. Of those 22, nine were born in the 18th Century.

Old newspaper articles record that early in the 1820s, worship services were held on the site where Liberty Church stands today. The first building, a log structure, served as a community church. In 1835, Rev. James Guthrie organized a Cumberland Presbyterian Church there. The church remained Liberty Cumberland Presbyterian Church until near the end of the 20th Century, when it once again became a community church. Local tradition states the present building was constructed around 1850, and the style of its architecture gives credence to that date. Frank Watson’s cemetery survey shows the first burial occurred in 1833.

The earliest Beaver Valley settlers buried in Liberty Cemetery are John Ash (1783-1872) and wife, Margaret Newton Ash (1795-1855). John, Margaret and her parents, Thomas and Ann Newton, had joined a westward bound caravan that had progressed into Alabama Territory in 1817. The caravan had camped in the vicinity that would later be south of Ashville on today’s US 411.

Betsy Ann Ash was in a horse-drawn wagon when one of the men shot at a turkey. The horse bolted at the shot, causing Betsy Ann to fall from the wagon, breaking her neck. The Ash and Newton families, feeling they could not leave the grave of Betsy Ann and continue west, scouted out the valley. Finding the area a commodious land, the families bid farewell to the westward caravan, and settled in what would become St. Clair County, Alabama.

John Ash and his father-in-law, Thomas Newton, constructed, within sight of Betsy Ann’s grave, a log cabin to live in as they settled in this land. That 1817 structure remains today as the oldest house in St. Clair County. The next year, John Ash built his own home.

Written accounts state that in 1818, not too far distant from the Newton cabin, John built a log home. As years went by, John added to the home, encasing the log home within the new. He planked over the inside log walls, making the home more fashionable. Although in need of restoration today, the home still stands and is on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage and the National Register of Historic Places.

John Ash helped establish St. Clair County and participated in both local and state affairs, serving as a county judge and member of the first Alabama State Senate. The town of Ashville honors John Ash by bearing his name.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

Hardwick Tunnel being dug

J. B. Stovall, Presbyterian minister

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Traveling the

BACKROADS Peter Harden House with Nell Harden Hodges in photo

John and Margaret Ash are buried side-by-side at Liberty, but they are memorialized with modern markers. The original ledger-style stones covering the entire grave were removed to Ashville. Though broken, they survived and lie in a place of honor at Ashville City Hall.

Henry Looney (1797-1876) and his father, John, came through what would be St. Clair County in 1813 as Tennessee volunteers with Andrew Jackson, who had come to subdue Native-American uprisings. Along with Jackson and his men, they helped construct Ft. Strother and fought with Jackson at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.

After the Indian Wars concluded, John Looney and wife, Rebecca, moved their family to Alabama in 1817. Originally intending to settle on the east side of the Coosa River, they changed plans after learning the Creeks still controlled lands east of the Coosa and chose to settle on the west side in today’s Beaver Valley. Old record books show that John recorded two forties (40 acres), and in 1818, he and sons Henry, Jack and Asa set to work building a log home.

In a brochure titled, “The Henry Looney House,” Mattie Lou Teague Crow described the process of building: “Trees were cut, squared, notched and hauled to the building site. Stones for the foundation were quarried from the mountainside and creek bed. Bricks for chimneys were molded and baked. Shingles were rived and stacked to dry. Late in the year, the family left their wagons and lean-tos and took up residency in their new home.”

Winter moved into spring, and the rains came, swelling the creek and flooding the home. After the flood, mosquitoes invaded and several family members suffered from chills and fever. John Looney realized he’d chosen the wrong location.

So, he and the boys dismantled the home and hauled the logs to higher ground and reconstructed it.

The house stands today, thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Creitz, who donated the home and plot of ground to the St.

10

John Ash House in disrepair Clair Historical Society, which supervised the restoration of the home and operates it today as a museum.

Crow described the restored structure in the brochure: “The bottom logs are a perfect rectangle eighteen inches deep and gradually diminish one-half inch to the top log which is twelve inches deep. They are put together with the perfect dovetail lock. … Each downstairs room has a fireplace for burning five-foot logs. The hand-pressed brick of the chimneys has weathered to rich jewel-like shades. The exposed beams are hand-planed. … The rafters, held together by eight-inch pegs, are of skinned pine poles.” She notes that several of the original “batten doors” and much of the original hardware survive and

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

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Traveling the

BACKROADS

Odenville Railroad machine

remain in use in the home.

After his father’s death in 1827, Henry became head of the family. In 1838, Henry married Jane Rutherford Ash, daughter of John Ash. They continued living in the home, and it became known as the “Henry Looney Home.” It stands today as a treasure for both Alabama and St. Clair County, for it is the only surviving double-dog trot pioneer home still standing in our state.

Henry Looney died in 1876 and is buried at Liberty. After his death, his wife moved to Texas, where she died in 1901.

Settling Odenville Methodist minister Christopher Vandegrift (1773-1844) and wife, Rebecca Amberson Vandegrift (1777-1852), left Chester County, South Carolina, in 1821 and migrated westward. While stopping for rest in Jasper County, Georgia, their daughter, Ellen (1800-1853), met a young man, Peter Hardin (18031887). They fell in love and wished to marry. Christopher agreed to the marriage if Peter would join their caravan. Love won, and the westward trek progressed into today’s Odenville, where the Vandegrifts and Hardins settled in December 1821.

Both Christopher and Peter constructed homes where they settled.

The Vandegrifts became leaders in community and church.

In 1835, Christopher served as an elder in the organization of Liberty Cumberland Presbyterian Church. In today’s Odenville Presbyterian Church, Christopher’s descendants worship and serve there, continuing the godly influence of their ancestors.

Peter Hardin constructed a log home in 1824, which was lived in by his descendants until 1975. Nell Hardin Hodges was the last Hardin to live there. The home, which had been added to over the years, remained standing until 1990. Today a church and a store now occupy the property where the cabin stood for

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166 years.

The area where Peter settled came to be called Hardin’s Shop.

He established two businesses, a blacksmithery and a cabinet shop. A few items from both remain in Odenville. In addition to the businesses, Peter was a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, having been ordained Jan. 3, 1850. He is on record as having preached the first sermon in the circa-1850 Liberty Church building still in use today.

Peter Hardin died in 1887. Myrtle Maddox Kinney, whose father would have known Peter, said in a 1990 interview that Peter had gone to the field to pull corn. When the wagon was loaded, he started back and “…somehow or another, the horses turned the wagon over and the load of corn fell on him and killed him. He was up there by himself.”

The Southern Aegis reported Peter’s death in the Nov. 30, 1887, issue. Then in the Aug. 9, 1888, issue it announced: “The funeral of Mr. Peter Hardin will be preached by Rev. A.B. Wilson of Branchville, assisted by Rev. G.F. Boyd, on the second Sabbath of August. ...” Often in those days, a body would be buried, but the funeral not be preached until the next Sunday the circuit-riding preacher came to town, usually no more than three weeks after the burial. This was eight months after Peter’s death. The puzzle was unknotted by a descendant living in Sunflower Mississippi, who recognized the Rev. G.F. Boyd as Peter’s cousin. The family had waited until Rev. Boyd could come from another state to preach the funeral.

The first brick house in St. Clair County was constructed by Obadiah Mize (1780-1852). Obadiah and wife, Sarah Frazier Mize (1789-1855), probably came into St. Clair County shortly after the Hardins and Vandegrifts, for he settled not too far from their homes.

According to a file in the Ashville Museum and Archives, the brick house is described in some 1932 notes. “Mr. Mize built

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

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Traveling the

BACKROADS Christopher Vandegrift House in Odenville

this two-story home, consisting of six rooms on the first floor and three on the second, of brick which were made there on the lot of the building.”

In a photograph belonging to Frank Watson, you can see the bricks were laid Flemish bond rather than the more ordinary American bond. In Teresa Morris’ notes from an interview conducted in the 1970s, she writes, “In 1830, Mr. Mize built a two-story brick home … on the property which fronted Old Montevallo Road, and this house, known as ‘The Old Brick’, remained a landmark until it was demolished in 1930.”

When The Old Brick was demolished, the owners constructed a wood-frame home on the stone foundation of the old house. That house remains occupied today. They used the bricks to construct a retaining wall near the highway.

The Fortson Museum in Odenville displays a brick from the house.

All in the family Israel Pickens Hardwick was born in 1813 in Jasper County, Georgia. Roland Holcomb wrote about Pickens in A Hardwick Family Tree that Pickens’ sisters, Lydia and Susan, married Vandegrift brothers, John and William. But the Vandegrift brothers had no sister for Pickens to wed. No problem – he just waited 30 years until the third brother, Jim Vandegrift, had a daughter who was old enough to marry. Therefore in 1863, at the age of 50, he married Jim’s daughter, Nancy Ellen Vandegrift, age 17. He came safely through the Civil War and outlived his wife and all his contemporaries. In 1923, at age 110, Israel Pickens Hardwick “was gathered to his fathers” and was laid to rest at Liberty.

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Ash Newton cabin 1817

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

The origin of Hardwick Tunnel Pickens served in Company C, 18th Infantry Regiment, Confederate States of America. Roland Holcomb recounts a Pickens’ story that happened when the railroad was being put through Odenville very early in the 20th Century. He had given the Seaboard Airline the land and rights to build a tunnel through the mountain as long as the tunnel be called Hardwick and that the train would stop there. Seaboard Airline agreed.

Holcomb writes, “He (Pickens) frequently dined with the tunnel construction crews who were billeted on the right-ofway near his home. One evening, a visiting railroad supervisor from the North made some remark about the South that angered the old man.

“While he said nothing, he got up and left the table. He returned a short time later with his rifle, prepared, as he said later, to demonstrate that the Army taught him well how to shoot Yankees. Fortunately, some of the local men on the crew, who knew the old man and recognized the signs, had spirited the visitor away.” Such was Israel Pickens Hardwick.

Lost at sea, but not forgotten One marked grave has no body buried there. The stone, for the son of Louis and Marze Forman, reads: “Forman Austen Mize / Feb 13, 1900 / Lost on USS Cyclops / March 1918 / Gone but not forgotten / Son.” The Cyclops was launched in 1910, and when the United States entered World War I, it was commissioned in 1917 for military use. In February 1918, loaded with manganese, she departed Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, bound for Baltimore. She stopped in Barbados, then sailed on.

Her last sighting, according to accounts, was March 9, 1918. Sailing into the area known as the Bermuda Triangle, the Cyclops vanished, and as author Jerry Smith records in Uniquely St. Clair “… no distress call or other message was heard on the wireless. Nor was a single body or piece of wreckage or artifact ever found.”

By some accounts, the ship had been overloaded in Brazil and when it encountered turbulent sea weather in the Triangle, it could not survive and sank. Others propose that a German submarine torpedoed it or that Germans captured the ship.

Or did the Bermuda Triangle swallow it? Some consider that theory outlandish, others not.

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Family tree yields university president The Rev. James Benjamin Stovall (1868-1917), a beloved Presbyterian minister, not only pastored churches in St. Clair County, but was also president of Spring Lake College in Springville.

In 1915, he accepted the call to pastor Brent Presbyterian Church. He died there in 1917 when, as recorded in the History of Brent Baptist Church, by Sybil McKinley, “He was standing in the back of the wagon holding on to a cabinet being moved, when the horse lurched forward throwing him off and pulling the cabinet down on top of him.” His wife, Effie Fowler Stovall (1873-1970), continued living in Brent, raising her children there and becoming a guiding light to the community.

James and Effie’s daughter, Chamintey “Mittie” Stovall, married Ralph Thomas, an educator. Their son, Joab Thomas, attended Harvard, earning undergraduate and graduate degrees in biological sciences. Well respected among colleges and universities, Dr. Joab Thomas served as chancellor of North Carolina State University and as president of the University of Alabama and of Pennsylvania State University.

The earliest Stovall date in the cemetery is that of Matriarch

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

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Traveling the

BACKROADS

Christopher & Rebecca Vandegrift

Sarah Stovall (1791-1858). She reposes with numerous other Stovalls in Liberty Cemetery. Sarah’s husband, Benjamin, died in Jefferson County and is buried there.

Three-shot suicide?

The marker at the grave of R.M. Steed (1828-1899) causes no one to pause and ponder. However, his reported death in The Southern Aegis, Feb. 8, 1899, brings the reader to a sudden stop. It reads: “Richard M. Stead [corrected the next week to ‘Richmond Steed’], residing near Odenville, St. Clair county, on Monday the 6th inst., committed suicide by shooting himself three times.

“The deceased was well known in the county, having been born and raised here. He was about 73 years of age, was a farmer of sturdy habits and had been in a depressed state of mind for some time. During the war he had been a soldier in the federal army, and the weapon used in his own death was an army revolver he brought home at the close of the war and had preserved ever since as a relic of the war.”

In 1994, someone with Steed connections read the above and commented that the family always doubted his death to be suicide. A three-shot suicide does stretch the imagination.

Final resting place indeed Some of those buried in Liberty Cemetery influenced the establishing of St. Clair County and have left names and influence well-etched into her history. Most lived unassuming lives, nurtured home and children, and left their names etched upon hearts and lives.

In the end, relentless Death gathers all to a final resting place—equality in mortality. Thomas Gray expressed it well in his “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.”

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power And all that beauty, all that wealth ever gave, Awaits alike the inevitable hour, The paths of glory lead only to the grave. l

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

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Hangar House ‘Cool Springs International Airport’

Story by Elaine Hobson Miller Photos by Susan Wall

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Paulette Stills wanted a larger house.

Jim Stills wanted a larger hangar. So, they compromised and built a house within a hangar.

“We originally lived in an apartment inside a hangar on the lake next door,” says Paulette. “I thought I wanted more space, and Jim wanted to get an airplane to go with his helicopter. So here we are.”

Where they are is, literally, in a house inside a hangar. The 60-foot-by-100-foot metal structure was erected on site, and the house sits inside of it. The interior walls are non-weight bearing, so the only physical connections between the hangar and the house are at the downstairs windows and doors. “The house could easily be moved or reconfigured,” says Paulette.

The Stillses bought their 40-acre property on County Road 31 about 30 years ago. In 2006, they started construction on their hangar-house, which they completed in 2008. She designed the 1.5-level house with its 22-foot tall ceiling, and Jim served as contractor. He did a lot of the work

himself, including staining and grouting the concrete floors throughout the lower level.

He designed and built the swimming pool and hot tub in the back corner of the 2,700-square-foot wrap-around screened porch. Pool and tub are made of stone and feature four waterfalls, including one flowing from the hot tub into the six-footdeep end of the sloped-bottom pool. “I said if I’m going to live in a metal building, I want a screened porch,” Paulette says. “I gave him the measurements, and he built it.”

Most of the 2,400 square-foot lower level of the house is one large room spanning the width of the metal building. Occupying one end of this Great Room is a fireplace made of Iranian copper that Jim had been saving since the mid-70s. At that time, he was teaching the Shah of Iran how to fly a helicopter, something Jim had been doing since his Army days in Vietnam. “I worked in the Bell Flight School’s secretarial office,” Paulette says. “He had intended to build a bar with that copper, but I wouldn’t let him.”

The house is a metal structure with no weight-bearing interior walls.

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Jim with his Bell 47G-2 helicopter

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

Hangar House

Paulette and Jim Stills

Their dining table sits near the center of the room, while the expansive kitchen takes up the other end. It features maple cabinets, granite countertops and Frigidaire appliances, including both gas and electric cooktops and a refrigerator almost big enough to walk in to. “All of our cabinets throughout the house are made of maple, all of the countertops are granite, and all of the trim work is made of clear pine,” says Jim. The kitchen opens into a small pantry that opens on another side into a 30-foot long, 10-foot wide “me” room that Jim claims as his own. The mechanical portions of the house’s HVAC system are there, but so are a desk at one end and a sewing machine and antique dress pattern table at the other.

The sewing end is where Jim puts together the handmade boots he’s known for. “That’s what I do in the winter months,” says Jim. Although he gives them away to friends and family, he has managed to retain three pair for himself. He has a red, white and black pair made of ostrich, a black pair made of leather and another black pair made of alligator skin. Each involved several hundred hours of work.

Jim flew helicopters for the Army in Vietnam, and for the former Carraway Hospital’s Life Saver Service for 15 years.

He retired in 1994, then purchased his light-weight Bell 47G2 helicopter from the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department a few years after that. The walls of his “me” room are lined with flight instructor certificates, photos, his framed service medals (Purple Heart, Bronze Star and Air Medal), the Easy-Release Fork Jim invented a few years ago, along with engravings of his patents for the two versions of that fork. The invention is a grilling fork that allows its user to spear meat, then slide it off with the flick of a thumb.

The master suite takes up most of the space on the other side of the kitchen-Great Room. It begins at the kitchen end with tray-ceilinged bedroom containing a handmade, oversized headboard and queen bed, plus built-in cabinets to house Jim’s closet and a television set. “That headboard is made like a mantel,” says Paulette. “My dad and I laid the pieces out on the

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

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Hangar House

The swimming pool and hot tub sit inside the 2,700-square-foot porch. floor at Lowe’s, my dad built it, and I painted it.”

The master bath flows out of one end of the bedroom in a long passageway that features a counter on one side and a 4 x 8-foot stone-tiled shower on the other.

“Three of our four bathrooms are 4 x 8 feet,” says Jim. His-and-hers glass sinks sit on top of the master bath’s counter. At the other end, the bath flows into a 10 x 12-foot walk-in closet. Around the corner to the right is the laundry room, which opens back into the Great Room near the elevator.

That elevator is another of Jim’s designs. “I wanted an elevator, but I wasn’t present when he installed it,” says Paulette. “I had pictured a small, enclosed one that blended with its surroundings.”

What she got was an open-air freight elevator made of gray metal with a wooden floor. A machine shop in Springville built the frame, and its owner, Mickey Dooley, helped Jim install it. Those who don’t like the loud whir of the motor or the open-air feeling while traveling upward can take the stairs, which start as a spiral staircase on one side of the elevator and end as steps on the other side.

To say Jim is a bit of a do-it-yourselfer would be an understatement. He decided the elevator’s motor was too noisy, so he set about to replace it — by himself.

He used a galvanized pipe to prop the elevator up, so it wouldn’t descend while he was working. After installing the new motor, he was trying to take the old one down when the pipe gave way. The elevator descended abruptly, and so did Jim. He broke his leg in the mishap, and the old, non-functional motor remains

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Overlooking the main living area from the second floor balcony

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

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Hangar House where it was, in the overhead framework.

On the upper level, the elevator opens onto an L-shaped balcony that overlooks the kitchen and Great Room. Off the long side of the balcony, two guest rooms and two full baths mirror each other.

The short end of the balcony is much narrower, and a storage area at that end runs across the width of the house. “That’s my storage area,” Paulette says. One of the guest rooms has an open cabinet Jim built to display her father’s telephone memorabilia, such as antique telephones and a toy version of a telephone company repair truck. “He was an engineer with the phone company when it was Southern Bell,” says Paulette, who retired from AT&T five years ago.

Jim’s mom’s pedal organ and an antique wooden wheelchair, which Jim used extensively while recuperating from his broken leg, occupy one corner of the long side of the balcony. A little farther down, near the narrow end of the balcony, stands a mill bin that has been in Paulette’s family for several generations. She uses it as a quilt box.

“Can you imagine the worms and bugs that must have got into the meal and flour stored in these bins?,” Paulette muses. On top of the bin is a small, 1,500 year-old spinning wheel from Iran.

On the opposite side of the house walls, Jim’s hangar opens with a giant, overhead door. The hangar is also accessible through the small sitting area at the back side of the wrap-around porch, and through Jim’s “me” room on the other side of the house.

It looks like most homeowners’ garages. In other words, it’s full. “There’s no way in hell I can get all my stuff in here and make it look organized,” Jim says. “Everything’s on wheels, so I just move something out of the way to get to something else.”

A motorhome, two mattresses, furniture, a basketball goal, two zero-turn lawn mowers and stacks and stacks of Easy-Off Fork raw materials take up so much of the space it’s as if the Bell were shoved in as an afterthought, rather than being the reason for the space. The helicopter, too, is on rollers, and Jim pulls it out with one of the lawn mowers, releases the wheels and heads skyward. It has a 150-mile range, plenty for the couple’s trips to the mountains or the beach.

The Stills’ hangar-house faces the 2,200-footlong grassy, east-west runway. As many as four or five airplanes might be on that strip any given Sunday afternoon, flown in by some of Jim’s aviation buddies. Paulette wishes she had a more formal entrance for them and other guests besides the hangar door or the one on the screened porch.

“This is the Cool Springs International Airport,” Jim quips. “Who needs a formal entrance?” l

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

Casey Mize

Springville’s $7.5 million man Story by Paul South Photos by Wade Rackley/Auburn Athletics Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr. Submitted photos

In more than 40 years of covering Auburn athletics, Mark Murphy has seen arguably the best pitchers in Tiger baseball history – former Los Angeles Dodger Joe Beckwith, former American League Rookie of the Year Gregg Olson, former Oakland and Atlanta star Tim Hudson.

And Springville’s Casey Mize may be the next on the list. The Detroit Tigers think he will be. As even those with a casual interest in baseball know, Mize was the first overall pick in the June baseball draft, signing a contract with the Tigers, which includes a $7.5-million signing bonus, the second-largest in the history of the game.

With apologies to Lionel Richie, Mize’s journey from Springville to Auburn to Detroit makes him once, twice, three times a Tiger.

Like Olson and Hudson, Mize is a fierce competitor with a wicked fastball and a command of pitches that makes great hitters swing, miss and return to the dugout with astonishing frequency.

Auburn’s Plainsman Park teemed with big league scouts the past two seasons, armed with hand-held radar to clock Mize’s pitches. It looked like the baseball version of troopers on the interstate on a holiday weekend “There were more scouts than I’ve seen in a long time,” Murphy said. But as he put it, “Guys like Casey don’t come along very often.”

Baseball is a game steeped in numbers – miles per hour, earned run and batting averages, strikeout-to-walk ratios are a few. But to be the top draft pick – The Guy – how does that happen?

Talk to his parents, coaches, sportswriters and former major leaguers, three traits rise to the top when it comes to considering what makes Casey Mize tick.

Submitted for your approval, consider the three Cs of Casey: Commitment, Command. Character.

COMMITMENT

The stories of Casey Mize’s passion for the game of baseball come from every direction – from his family, from coaches, from family friends. Here are a few: When he was 7, Mize made an announcement to his Mom, Rhonda, that he was going to go to Auburn and play baseball when he grew up.

At 11, while most of his friends were engrossed in Xboxes and PlayStations,

27

Casey Mize Mize offered another word for his mother.

“He actually told his mother, ‘Mom, I’m gonna want one, but whatever you do, don’t ever buy me a PlayStation or Xbox. That’s going to take up too much of my time.’”

And in high school summers, he and his parents often made the six-hour roundtrip for him to play travel ball for Chris McRaney and Team Georgia Baseball Academy in Alpharetta. When a Springville friend’s Mom asked why he didn’t want to play with his friends locally, Mize was respectful, but matter-of fact.

“Miss Melissa, I have to look after my future,” he said.

“We’re thinking the other parents probably think we’re crazy, that we were putting this stuff into him,” Dad Jason Mize said. “But we never did. We were just the facilitators for his dreams and his goals. That’s the way we’ve looked at it. Both of our kids, whatever their dreams were, if they put in the work toward it, we provided them whatever they needed, just to make it happen.”

In fact, like other parents who had to get their kids to power down the gaming system, the Mizes had to coax their son to take a break from ball.

“There was never that burnout or anything like that.

Rhonda and I would discuss it, and we had to make him stop playing. We had to make sure he got that rest time that he needed,” Jason Mize said. “But he never wanted to stop.

He was passionate about it. He was always playing it. He loved even the camaraderie of it. He loved being around those likeminded kids.”

The desire carried on to Springville High, where he played for Coach Jonathan Ford. Mize was 19-2 in his Springville Tiger career. He was the first SHS player drafted since Brandon Moore (also an Auburn alum) was drafted in the early 1990s.

Like all his coaches, Ford could not have foreseen all that would transpire for his ace. But he saw something special, including the unquenchable blue flame, a drive to be great.

“He had some of the intangibles you look for in all your players. First, he had a head for the game. He really understood how to play the game. Then, the second thing he had was a desire. I mean he had a desire to be great. Third was the ability he had. When you put the three together, understanding, desire and ability, I had that expectation wherever he went, he was going to be successful.”

Casey played ball throughtout his youth, including high school and Team Georgia Baseball Academy.

COMMAND

ESPN college baseball analyst Ben McDonald is in a unique spot in relation to Casey Mize. Like him, McDonald was the first overall pick in the draft (1989 from LSU).

McDonald pitched with Olson in Baltimore and against Hudson. On a rainy day in May before Mize’s SEC Tournament start against Texas A&M, McDonald turned to some of Mize’s stats in strikeout to walk ratio. “[F]or the last two years, he has a 13-to-1 strikeout to walk ratio. He’s walked 19 guys in two years and punched out 242. For me, that’s what separates him from most. He’s going to be a fast climber in the big leagues.”

McDonald added, “He has command of four pitches he can throw for a strike whenever he wants to throw them.

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

Casey and his family react as the announcement is made. To watch the event, check out the Auburn video on You Tube: youtu.be/RXeRR95MIRw

Casey Mize

Fun in the Summer Sun That’s what separates the minor league pitchers from big league pitchers. Can you command the stuff you have? Not only can you throw a strike, but can you throw a quality strike? Casey . . . when you watch him pitch, and he’s on his game, he never throws anything in the center part of the plate. It’s a plus fastball up to 96 (mph). He’s got a good slider, a split finger fastball, and he’s got a cut fastball which is something new that he uses. That’s what I like about him, too. He keeps evolving.

Last year, he was a three-pitch pitcher and didn’t have the cut fastball. This year, he’s added a cut fastball to go with the other three pitches he has. That’s what separates him from the rest.

By far, he’s the best player in the country.”

Even a month before the draft, McDonald predicted Mize would be the top pick.

“He’s so advanced. What makes him advanced is that he commands his better than Olson did. I played with Olson in Baltimore and I played against Tim Hudson. This kid to me is even better. Olson had two pitches; Hudson had three. This kid has four quality pitches. And what I like about him, too, is that he calls his own game. He’s studying hitters already. He’s got a big-league approach already, and he has a big-league workout between starts, too.”

Scott Foxhall, now the pitching coach at North Carolina State, served in the same role at Auburn and recruited Mize to the Tigers. Mize’s strength as a pitcher – that earned him AllAmerican honors and made him a finalist for college baseball’s highest individual award, the Golden Spike – is part God-given, part blue collar work ethic.

“I think its nature and nurture. You can tell he’s born with a lot of athleticism, and he’s gifted in that sense,” Foxhall said.

“You can tell he’s spent an enormous amount of time paying attention to the right way to do things and just repeating them.”

The two reconnected when Auburn traveled to Raleigh for the NCAA Regionals.

“I watched him just for fun while he was here because they were here for four days. I watched him playing catch, even when it was a casual game of catch, you could tell that it was a sense of urgency with him that he was paying attention to every little thing that he was doing and paying attention to where the

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

31

Casey Mize

ball was going and going where he wanted it to go,” Foxhall said. “He was making adjustments with every throw, just when he was paying catch in the outfield. It’s all about attention to detail and God-given ability.”

Like every great ballplayer, Mize has also invested time in learning from others. Former Auburn teammate Keegan Thompson took the young hurler under his wing as workout partner and throwing partner. Baseball requires players to be human computers, processing a barrage of information and filtering what works for them. With every pitch, hurlers must process grasp of the ball, leg lift, arm motion, location, release point and on and on.

“Keegan helped him understand about pitching,” Foxhall said. “Every great pitcher is picking everyone’s brain and has to have the right filter to figure out what – of all that information – will help him. Casey’s got the right processor in his head to find out what will help him … That might be one of his strongest qualities.”

Auburn’s Butch Thompson has sent seven pitchers to the major leagues. From the first day he met Casey Mize, he saw something special.

“I knew he had talent. I knew he had a future. But I don’t think anybody would have expected this.”

As a freshman, Mize had a solid fastball and a good slider and worked out of the bullpen and as a spot starter for the Tigers. The next year, he added a split-finger changeup to his repertoire of pitches. There, the young hurler began to blossom.

“The biggest thing year two was his commitment to shove the ball into the strike zone. He was trying to end the at-bat on every pitch, so his command between his freshman and sophomore year grew like crazy, and he added a third pitch.

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Casey spent years developing his skills on the mound.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

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Casey Mize

The community turned out for a special day recognizing Casey and his accomplishments.

The third thing that helped was Keegan Thompson (the Tigers Friday night starter).” “(On Friday nights), Casey would sit, chart and watch the game that Keegan was pitching, and I think Keegan was such a professional, Casey watched, and they built an unbelievable relationship. I think Casey’s work ethic picked up, his command picked up, and he didn’t just pick up a split change, he picked up arguably the best pitch in college baseball,” Coach Thompson said.

“Keegan was a huge piece.”

The sophomore season was a turning point.

“He had the opportunity to represent our country and pitched seven innings of shutout ball. I think heading into year three, he said to himself, ‘I know my body, I know how to work. I need to galvanize my own routine. I’m going to really figure out how to take care of my body and get my arm in the best shape of its life.’ He did that.”

And in January of 2018, Mize unveiled a fourth pitch, the cut fastball, that he could throw 90-plus mph.

“When he came with that fourth pitch, it scared me to death. I wondered, ‘Why does he need a fourth pitch?’, Coach Thompson said. “He just cares about his craft. He started thinking, ‘I’ve got a future at this’. . .He’s just a lifelong learner.”

CHARACTER

Mize’s first start of the 2018 SEC Tournament was tough, a 4-2 loss to Texas A&M on a stickyhumid night in Hoover. After the game, he was asked if there was anything good he could take from the game.

“Nothing,” he said, “I didn’t pitch well.”

When asked about the Tigers’ struggle to produce runs, Mize again shouldered the blame.

“They did the best they could against a great pitcher,” Mize said. “I didn’t do my job.”

Those quick quotes speak volumes. In an ESPN age that has created the “Me” athlete, Mize puts team, family and friends first.

“That’s what attracted me the most to him when I met him and during the short recruiting process – that I didn’t think I was missing on character,” Foxhall said. “I knew I couldn’t miss on character.

When you have character, and you have talent, those are the guys who have a chance to be elite.

That’s what he is.”

Coach Thompson agrees. He has seen that high character time and time again. And as Keegan Thompson mentored him, Mize mentored young Tiger Tanner Burns, who in early July was named to the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team, following in his mentor’s footsteps.

“You can’t be the first overall pick unless you have a certain level of skill,” Coach Thompson said. “But (Casey’s) really learned how to work.

He learned how to focus on his craft. He’s a great teammate. He gives others credit. You know he told his Mom when he was seven years old he wanted to be an Auburn Tiger. And then he winds up doing everything he sought after. Casey, he’s only going

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

Casey Mize to be part of our team for three years. But he’ll always be part of Auburn, he’s going to give back to Auburn, and Auburn is going to have its doors open to him for the rest of his life.”

When Coach Thompson assumed the reigns of Auburn baseball, the program was in shambles. By 2018, the Tigers were nationally ranked, within an eyelash of the College World Series “You can have a good team when your best players have your best character, your best work ethic. That goes a long way,” he said. “You know, we have a rule: You’re not allowed to pass the buck, and when your best players have that kind of character and when your best player has an off night and doesn’t pass the buck, that resonates with the entire organization. When it comes from your best player, it means more.

“Whatever we were trying to teach, (Casey) put it into practice. That molded everybody else to be wired the same.”

Talk to those who know Casey Mize, and they talk about how he has friends from all walks of life, jocks and computer wizards, folks who eat, sleep and breathe baseball to those who don’t know how many innings are in a game. It’s been that way since Springville.

“Some people have the gift to be really likeable,” Coach Thompson said. “And when you value everybody, it doesn’t matter whether they’re at the top of the food chain or at the bottom or in the middle.

“When you respect everybody from every walk of life,” he explained, “that allows you to connect with many. Casey’s got that tool, where he values every single person he comes in contact with. That makes you pretty likeable, and that allows you to connect with a lot of people. And that means when you do something really special, that means that a lot of people are going to give you a lot of respect and are going to pull for you.”

Mark Murphy recounted a story that proves the coach’s point. In right field at Plainsman Park, there is a spot known as ‘the K-Corner.” For years, diehard Auburn baseball fans mark each Tiger pitcher’s strikeout with a bright, bold, orange “K,” scorebook language for a strikeout.

At the end of each senior pitcher’s Auburn career, he’s awarded one of the “K”s, a simple honor, but a powerful symbol of gratitude.

On a warm spring day when Casey Mize fanned school record 15 Vanderbilt hitters, the K-Corner broke with tradition.

“They gave Casey a “K”, even though he was only a junior,” Murphy said. “That was pretty cool.”

Mize’s caring for others runs deep, Coach Thompson said.

“He cares about others a ton. That’s his greatest strength and his greatest weakness. He’s going to be an unbelievable leader. He’s going to be an unbelievable teammate. I believe that’s going to make him an unbelievable husband and father, because he cares about others so much. But he takes so much on himself because he doesn’t want to disappoint his family, his coaches, teammates and friends.”

Jason Mize summed up his son’s approach to life.

“It’s simple. He’s not one of those kids who wants to be in the spotlight, or put himself out there. He loves baseball and wants to do his job. But he’s not one seeking attention. He’s a

36

Casey’s Springville High School uniform on display at his recognition day

good guy, very, very humble. He’s unbelievably driven. I’ve never seen that kind of drive in a kid his age. I’ve never seen that kind of focus in a kid his age, and I know they’re out there who are right there with him at that level. It’s a rarity for me to see the kind of person he is. I don’t think we can take all credit for that as parents, a lot of that is in him.”

Murphy, the reporter who watched Tiger baseball superstars Olson, Hudson, Frank Thomas and Bo Jackson, called Mize “a superstar who doesn’t expect superstar treatment.”

At the heart of all this, beyond statistics and signing bonuses, people sometimes forget that Casey Mize is a kid, who still hangs out with his Springville pals like Nick Rayburn and likes to play “Fortnight” on the gaming system he finally got this year, as a birthday gift from his roommates. While top pro draftees in other sports may celebrate with black limousines and bottles of champagne, Mize celebrated with family, friends, teammates and coaches over burgers and pizza at Baumhower’s Victory Grille in Auburn.

Maybe a single piece of paper written in Springville years ago gives a clue to Casey Mize’s ultimate ambition.

Coach Jonathan Ford asked his players to write down their goals for the season. Some wrote they wanted to make it to the big leagues. Others wrote they wanted to hit .350.

Then, only a freshman, Mize wrote one sentence.

“I want to be a leader.” l

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

In these golden years Life is good at the Pell City Senior Center Story and photos

by Jerry C. Smith

Senior picnic at Lakeside pavilion

Billie Golden holds court in the puzzle lounge.

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It’s rumored that Pell City Senior Center is full of nothing but old folks. Technically, that may be true, but for the hundreds of vintage citizens who call it their second home, the Center is a place where they can revel in their youthfulness without waking the grandkids.

The headline of the Center’s monthly newsletter, The Senior Scene, says it all: GET UP, GET OUT, GET ACTIVE. It’s a place which often teems with life, offering a monthly calendar of activities and events that provide healthful entertainment, relaxation and a unique camaraderie created by the members themselves.

Practically every weekday is filled with activities such as line dancing, chair exercise, live music, low-stakes Bingo, movies, riverboat rides, guided excursions to out of town restaurants and tourist sites, pancake breakfasts and catered lunches at only two bucks a plate. Local businesses sponsor lots of extras, such as brunches, free facials and heavily attended health fairs for all the area centers.

Every member is a unique and interesting individual, with myriad stories to tell from a lifetime of experiences. Many were born before World War II, or even earlier. They’re living chronicles of 20th Century history. Rosie Posey, for instance Mrs. Rosie was born in Helena, moving with her family to the Pell City area in 1937, when she was 12. Born in 1925, much of her childhood was during the Great Depression. Now, aged 93, she’s a long-time favorite at the Center and well-known to scores of St. Clair’s older citizens. If it

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

Cecil Blount lines up a crucial shot

Golden Years

Members get free facials

happened in Pell City during the mid-20th Century, she can tell you something about it.

One entire room at the Pell City Center is devoted to working jigsaw puzzles, whereas another provides several large round tables for card games. Both rooms were created by closing in parts of the front porch and are in constant use when scheduled activities aren’t in progress. There’s also a fine billiards room with two tables.

A walking track and horseshoe pit await more active members outdoors, as well as a large front porch complete with rocking chairs for others who just want to sit and enjoy the weather while chatting or watching traffic.

The Center has a fine minibus, driven by administrative assistant Tonya Walker for those with transportation issues.

Tonya also uses her bus to deliver as many as 60 catered meals a day to qualified local recipients.

The Center itself began in 1993 at another location near Duran Middle School before moving to its current venue on Comer Avenue, between Arbor Baptist and Friendship Freewill Baptist churches. The City of Pell City built, owns and maintains the building on land provided by Avondale Mills.

Currently there are two regular city employees, plus one parttime assistant. The facility manager, Kristin Copeland, has been there for almost two years. Tonya’s been on board for a little more than six years, and Kayla Martin recently joined the staff as a part-time assistant.

Kristin says, “Our job is to enrich the lives of our people. The center gives so many good folks a place to go instead of being

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

Mrs. Rosie Posey, age 93, a Center favorite

confined to their homes all day,” Tonya adds, “If it weren’t for us, a lot of them wouldn’t see anybody all day long.” All three ladies are well-placed in their work and adored by center members.

Most of the senior centers in St. Clair and other central Alabama counties operate under the aegis of M4A (Middle Alabama Area Agency on Aging), a state funded outreach organization whose mission statement reads: “...to help individuals access information, assistance and resources that will empower them to self-advocate, live independently, and enjoy the highest quality of life. We specialize in serving older adults and individuals with disabilities.”

Founded in 1989, M4A provides a broad catalog of services that are best understood by visiting their website. St. Clair’s senior centers dovetail nicely with those services, providing a place where elders in need of help can be reached in a group setting.

Anyone 60 or older can become a member, simply by filling out a few forms that outline basic demographic info as well as any special mobility and/or medical needs. Attendees must sign in at every visit to the center. Once in the system, a member can visit or transfer to any other official St. Clair Senior Center since their file can be sent electronically to other locations.

It’s definitely not a nursing home or daycare operation, but rather a safe, clean, convenient establishment purposely designed to encourage seniors to benefit from each other’s company and participate in group activities and benefits.

Members with special needs normally provided by a caretaker must bring their caretaker with them. It’s a level playing field for all to enjoy. Kristin and Tonya are trained in Heartsaver First Aid CPR AED, sponsored by the American Heart Association and are competent to render limited emergency assistance.

Noon meals at the center are provided by Valley Services, Inc., a firm in Attalla that caters meals for a number of different institutions over a wide area. Because of Valley’s daily volume, members can enjoy a full plate of nourishing food from a daily pre-set menu, for a nominal $2 each.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

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Golden Years However, it is necessary to request these meals in advance, and you must sign up on a separate sheet at the center. It’s one of the finest benefits of M4A’s program, enjoyed by dozens of members every day. Additional meals for home-bound folks are packaged each morning in serving cartons, and delivered by Tonya. For some, it’s the only nutritious meal they have all day.

Member Billie Golden has been attending regularly for the last nine years. She’s usually found at the front round table during Friday Bingo games, or in the puzzle room with Callie Harris and others. For the past eight years, Callie and Billie have spent several pleasant hours a day together, working puzzles.

Billie, who was born in Birmingham and has also lived in Colorado and Texas, has resided in the Pell City area for more than 31 years. She says, “This center gives me a place to go. If we didn’t have it, I would probably never leave home, and be bored all day long. It’s literally a lifesaver for me.”

In May, M4A sponsored a large, catered picnic for all local centers at Cropwell Baptist Church, offering everyone a chance to meet and party with their peers from Steele, Ashville, Moody, Ragland, Springville and other centers in our area. Besides complimentary box lunches, the event offered long rows of tables vending information, free products and services.

When asked about future plans for the Center, both Kristin and Tonya agree that services should be greatly expanded to outreach and include more members. They would like to see a larger facility, a better bus with wheelchair lift and more staff. Volunteers who are willing to lend a hand at monthly events and meal service would be greatly appreciated at any time.

Kristin says, “We would love to have caring people who are willing to visit or simply phone a large number of home-bound seniors and just talk with each of them for about a half hour, like visiting angels. That would be so useful and so comforting to them. It would make a great church ministry. If anyone seriously wants to help make life better for our elders, we welcome their efforts.”

The center already gets lots of community support from various firms, organizations and citizens, such as Northside Medical Home and Northside Apothecary, Pell City Pharmacy, former city councilor Dot Wood, Main Street Drugs, Publix, and practically every county civic leader, as well as various special interests whose agents drop in to share pertinent products and services.

Besides the usual scheduled monthly activities, folks from Pell City Center are eligible to compete in the annual Masters Games of Alabama, a quasi-Olympic event with adjudicated games of golf, basketball free throw, swimming, table tennis, billiards, Nerf and Frisbee throw, horseshoes and shuffleboard. For the less agile, there are table competitions in checkers, dominos and Rook.

Kristin, Tonya & Kayla cordially invite all adults to tour the Center, on behalf of themselves or an elder they love who needs a safe, warm-hearted place to go instead of staying home all day.

“We want our members to have fun and enjoy life,” adds Kristin. “That’s why we’re here.” l

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

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Taking center stage in St. Clair County

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Story by Katie Beth Buckner Photos by Carol Pappas Submitted photos To celebrate the bicentennial of a county older than the state, officials in St. Clair knew the series of events they planned en route to November 2018, marking the county’s 200th year, had to be special.

At the heart of the county’s celebration was the state’s own bicentennial event – Making Alabama: A Bicentennial Traveling Exhibit presented by Alabama Humanities Foundation in partnership with Alabama Department of Archives and History and Alabama Bicentennial Commission. After all, a year later, on Dec. 14, 2019, Alabama would follow St. Clair’s move and

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become a state.

To commemorate, Alabama Humanities Foundation led a movement to assemble a traveling collection of interactive displays to retrace Alabama’s footsteps through eight periods of defining history. The exhibit features key events, people and cultures that played vital roles in shaping Alabama and is traveling to all 67 counties.

St. Clair County was one of the first stops on the exhibit’s journey through the state and was on display at Moody Civic Center April 9-22. Open to the public free of charge, it was an ideal time and venue to display historic moments, people and places in St. Clair County’s own history.

“That’s what makes these exhibit stops so amazing,” said AHF Executive Director Armand DeKeyser. “They each put their own one-of-a-kind signature on the state’s history and how

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

State exhibit combines artistic panels, interactive tablets full of history. their county fits into that larger story of Alabama becoming a state. St. Clair was no exception.”

“Hosting the bicentennial exhibit gave St. Clair County, the city of Moody and its civic center statewide recognition,” said Linda Crowe, a bicentennial committee member who serves as Moody’s mayor pro-tem. The St. Clair County Bicentennial Committee, a group of 34 appointed individuals, worked tirelessly to make the event successful. They devoted several hours of their time to plan, promote, set up and work this event.

“Putting on something like this takes the efforts of several folks. Fortunately, we had a wonderful committee that volunteered a lot of hours to put this event together and be a part of it while it was exhibited,” said St. Clair County District Judge Alan Furr, who chaired the committee.

The end result was an impressive display of the county’s history told through storyboards and artifacts from not only the county’s overall vantage point but from the angle of every community in St. Clair.

The county exhibit combined iconic photographs and brief overviews of historically significant events and people to create informative storyboards for each of the county’s 10 municipalities. Two additional storyboards were dedicated to the history of the county’s early modes of transportation and settlements that no longer exist.

Several of the locals were intrigued by the storyboards. According to Furr, they enjoyed the storyboard’s visual elements and easy to read descriptions.

“A lot of people were appreciative of the state exhibit, but they responded really well to what we did locally,” Furr said. “We saw people spend a lot more time looking at the storyboards.”

The St. Clair County storyboards sparked great conversation. A few locals recognized individuals and places pictured on the boards and were able to share memorable stories with others in attendance. For others, the storyboards served as educational tools, enabling them to learn about monumental pieces of their town’s history.

“Getting to meet and hear stories from folks who love and appreciate the history of the county was exciting,” Furr said. “We had several folks come through and share information about some of the photographs – how they came to be and the people in them.”

The traveling exhibit’s various displays kept visitors engaged while showcasing important pieces of Alabama’s history. A combination of artistic collages, an audio sound wall and interactive computer tablets that delved deeper into the history of each period provided them a rare learning experience.

Moody Civic Center proved to be a great location to host the exhibit. The newly built building offered adequate square footage for the exhibit’s vast layout and ample parking for guests. Its central location made it easily accessible as well.

“The civic center’s layout kept the flow of people moving, especially when we had large attendance from schools,” Crowe said.

“Despite all our efforts to promote and advertise it, the exhibit came and went with a relatively small part of our population getting a chance to see it,” Furr said.

But they now have an opportunity to see portions of it in their own communities.

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

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A student tests one of the displays.

Storyboards tell history 46

Volunteers set up Making Alabama exhibit before opening.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

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Judge Alan Furr puts together frames for local storyboards.

After the exhibit’s time in Moody ended, Furr distributed the storyboards to each respective municipality. They are currently on display at city halls, museums, community centers and libraries throughout the county for locals to view. Also, each courthouse has a storyboard on display highlighting its historical significance.

In addition to hosting Making Alabama: A Bicentennial Traveling Exhibit, St. Clair County has already held or will hold more celebratory events leading up to its bicentennial.

The St. Clair County bicentennial hymn sing held in Ashville earlier this year had an impressive turnout. Since it was a success, a second hymn sing will be held Aug. 18 at 6 p.m. First Baptist Church in Moody. It’s a great opportunity for locals to fellowship and sing old-fashioned hymns with one another.

A St. Clair County Bicentennial calendar, full of historic anecdotes and old photographs, was published by the committee, and this keepsake is available at libraries throughout the county.

The crowning event will occur on November 20, the county’s 200th anniversary of statehood. A birthday type celebration will be held at each courthouse, complete with the unveiling of a commemorative plaque. Festivities will kick off at the Ashville courthouse at 10 a.m. and move to the Pell City courthouse at 2 p.m. l

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Collective Effort Building St. Clair’s

MEDICAL COMMUNITY Enhancing county’s quality of life Story by Carol Pappas Discover Archive photos St. Clair Economic Development Council Executive Director Don Smith looks at the medical community landscape, and he can’t help but see it as a burgeoning medical center for the region.

“It has definitely become a medical hub from east and south of St. Clair County because of the number and quality of services provided,” he said.

Sitting in his office on the third floor of Jefferson State Community College, he doesn’t have far to look in any direction to see signs of that. Just down the hallway from his office, a new nursing and allied health wing has become part of the college’s offerings in St. Clair County, drawing nursing and medical career students to its classrooms from multiple counties.

From his office vantage point, he can see St. Vincent’s St. Clair Hospital, Physicians Plaza and the Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home. Across the interstate lies a sprawling – and growing – Northside Medical Home.

“I don’t see it stopping,” Smith said.

And that makes his job a little easier with growth not only in the medical arena but in industry and business as well because of it.

“With the number of medical-related companies and when you have that kind of synergy taking place on I-20 and US 231, it is very attractive to those investing in the medical sector.

The community took a very proactive approach toward health care at a time when many rural hospitals were going out of business,” he said, noting that various entities worked together to build a replacement for its aging,

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

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ST. CLAIR MEDICAL COMMUNITY The new St. Vincent’s St. Clair Hospital

outdated facility.

When St. Vincent’s St. Clair, a state-of-the-art hospital, opened seven years ago, it “refocused health care in the area, plus quality doctors like those at Northside and Pell City Internal and Family Medicine with their private practices accelerated the progress,” Smith said.

On the business side, Smith sees more pluses.

“A company’s largest expenses are labor and payroll. With having so many services here to help with physical therapy and access to emergency care, it helps offset their potential medical-related expenses in their payroll costs.”

And the medical community itself takes a proactive approach, going into companies and helping improve procedures to help offset long term labor costs. “It’s a real asset,” Smith said. “It speaks volumes. I don’t know of any companies going outside for health care.”

Over the past decade, Smith has seen at least a $100 million investment in the county’s medical sector, much of it shouldered by St. Vincent’s and the VA home. Couple it with multiple, major expansions at Northside and key moves by PCIFM to expand its services and reach, and the medical community in St. Clair County shows no signs of slowing.

Their investment are well spent in laying a strong foundation on which to build, Smith said. “It will continue to be more important as demographics continue to shift with more folks getting older and needing quality health care. I believe that sector will continue to grow.”

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

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ST. CLAIR MEDICAL COMMUNITY Northside Medical Home ribbon cutting

And the quality of life has definitely benefitted. People looking to retire and settle into an area look at the quality of medical services available.

Job opportunities and expanded medical care for citizens are also among quality of life factors trending positively. “Jefferson State has been wonderful to respond to the growing needs in our community. Before there was a replacement hospital, the VA and Northside, there was no significant medical presence. Now, Jeff State offers a complete Registered Nursing program with 100 percent passage and placement rates.”

Citing the $.5 million investment in the nursing program, Smith said officials are hopeful the volume of graduates continues to grow.”

And as St. Clair County’s population continues to grow, Smith predicted that the medical sector will have a strong future for at least the next 20 to 30 years.

And that opens up even more opportunities. “We want to make sure our brightest young people have the opportunity to remain in the community so they can become pillars of the community. It is always good if you can retain the next generation of leaders instead of exporting them to other areas.” l

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Pell City Internal and Family Medicine’s location next to Publix in Pell City

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

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St. Vincent’s St. Clair continues to lead & grow

This sculputure stands outside the new St. Vincent’s St. Clair Hospital

Story by Leigh Pritchett Photos courtesy Beth Bourg/St. Vincent’s St. Clair Not so long ago, the land right next to Interstate 20 at Wolf Creek Road North in Pell City was simply wooded acreage.

The desire to replace Pell City’s aging hospital with a modern facility was simply a dream and some architectural drawings.

Fast forward to the summer of 2018. The state-of-the-art St. Vincent’s St. Clair sits on a knoll overlooking I-20. The hospital teems with activity and “is growing like a weed,” as we say here in the South. In December, St. Vincent’s St. Clair celebrates its seventh birthday.

“We are growing year after year,” said hospital administrator Lisa Nichols, RN, MSHN. The growth is evident not only in the number of individuals using the hospital’s services, but also in the number of services,

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specialties and programs St. Vincent’s St. Clair makes available to the community.

In addition to inpatient, outpatient and urgent care, the hospital provides surgical and lab services, outpatient therapy, diagnostic imaging, wound care, home health and hospice. Many clinics of primary care physicians and specialty physicians are housed in the hospital’s Physicians Plaza.

Some of the specialties and services the hospital offers normally would be provided only in larger cities, said Nichols. The local availability of these services is drawing people from Talladega, Calhoun and Etowah counties to St. Vincent’s St. Clair, Nichols said.

Like the hospital’s volume of use, the facility’s “star” rating has been rising, too.

The rating is awarded through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Hospital Quality Initiative and is based on a number of factors.

Nichols said the hospital’s ratings for

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

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ST. CLAIR MEDICAL COMMUNITY The Physicians Plaza sits conveniently next to the hospital.

surgical, emergency department, ancillary and inpatient care are “exceeding our goals, and we are thrilled.”

Here are some of the latest additions to the hospital’s array of services: Telehealth programs Telehealth services help to provide “the right care at the right place and time,” Nichols said.

• On Demand Care – Using a phone, computer or tablet, individuals may get • medical attention at stvondemand.com for minor illnesses, such as sore throat, earache or sinus infection. Medical professionals are available 24 hours. The fee is $35, with no insurance. If the medical professional believes a referral is necessary, no fee is charged.

• On Demand Care joins the health system’s already established Dial-A-Nurse (205-9397878) program for finding specialty care.

• Telestroke Services – Telestroke services in the emergency department use a secure video line to connect patients to specialists. With this capability, “emergency room physicians have real-time access to a neurologist who can assist in diagnosing patients with strokes,” explained Nichols.

Through the video connection, the remote physician speaks directly to the emergency

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•

• • • •

• •

physician, interviews the patient, hears heart and lung sounds, and accesses imaging.

Behavioral Health – This service is expected to become available in the near future, said Shiloh Swiney, RN, MSN, director of nursing. It will aid in making a prompt determination as to which intervention – in-patient or out-patient – is needed. Nichols said this will also be a 24hour service.

Orthopedic Services Nichols said the hospital’s orthopedic services have increased markedly.

Joint Replacement - Kara Chandler, RN, MSN, director of surgical services and Wound Care Center, noted that total knee replacements and hip replacements are being done at St. Vincent’s St. Clair. Also, hip fractures can be treated there.

Joint Navigation Program – This is a multidisciplinary approach to joint surgery care for patients. Chandler and Nichols said nurses, physical therapists and case managers team with patients to offer resources and pre-surgery education.

The team continues with post-surgical support, such as assessing equipment needs and potential barriers in the home setting.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

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ST. CLAIR MEDICAL COMMUNITY Hyperbaric oxygen therapy, Jonathan Caffee CHT

Speech Therapy Recently, a full-time speech therapy program was added to the hospital’s outpatient therapy services, which also include physical therapy and occupation therapy.

The speech therapists work with adults and children. Nichols said the pediatric component is new to the community.

Even if individuals are under the care of a physician elsewhere, they can still have physical, occupational or speech therapy at St. Vincent’s St. Clair, Nichols said.

Therapy sessions are available 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. (A physician’s referral is necessary. To make an appointment, call 205-338-2939.)

Surgery and Pain Management The scope and number of surgeries performed at St. Vincent’s St. Clair is expanding as well.

This past May saw the highest volume of surgical cases – 438 in a month - since the hospital’s opening, Chandler said.

In addition to general surgery and gastrointestinal procedures, cataract surgeries

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and podiatric surgeries can be done there.

In fact, Chandler said three physicians now perform cataract surgeries at St. Vincent’s St. Clair. Since January, the hospital has averaged about 40 cataract surgeries a month.

St. Vincent’s St. Clair has a physician in its Physicians Plaza who offers pain management for chronic pain sufferers, and provides pain blocks in the hospital’s operating room, Nichols said.

Lab Tests and Diagnostic Imaging The outpatient lab testing and diagnostic imaging resources at St. Vincent’s St. Clair are available to anyone, regardless of where the individual’s physician practices. People under the care of a physician outside St. Clair County may find it more convenient to have lab testing and diagnostic imaging done at St. Vincent’s St. Clair, Nichols said.

Mammograms, MRIs, CTs and ultrasounds are some of the diagnostic imaging resources offered at St. Vincent’s St. Clair. (A physician’s order is required. Call 205-814-2136 to schedule.)

Lab tests are done by appointment and walk-

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

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in basis Monday through Friday between 6:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. (Written orders from a physician are required.)

Transitional Care In August 2017, St. Vincent’s St. Clair received accreditation for skilled nursing rehabilitation, Swiney said.

This allows patients who are scheduled for hospital inpatient discharge but are not well enough to go home to remain at St. Vincent’s St. Clair for sub-acute care and physical rehabilitation.

The patients even get to keep the same room; they do not have to relocate to a different area of the hospital, Nichols said.

According to Swiney, the general length of stay in transitional care is two to three weeks.

Sleep Center and Wound Care In December 2017, the hospital’s Sleep Disorders Center doubled in size.

Nichols said the center now has four beds, an expansion resulting from very high demand for sleep studies. (A physician referral is needed. Call 205-814-2333 to schedule a study.)

The Wound Care Center also is an example not only of increasing need in the community, but also of the hospital’s commitment to address needs.

Chandler said six physicians work through the Wound Care Center, which promotes healing following injury or surgery. The center has two hyperbaric chambers where patients are surrounded by super-oxygenated air that hastens healing. This treatment is particularly beneficial in certain medical conditions, such as diabetes, which prolong the healing process.

Hyperbaric treatment also facilitates healing after surgical

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

Lisa, Kara, and Shiloh - SVSC nursing managers

procedures. In fact, Chandler has noticed a rise in the number of patients getting hyperbaric treatment before surgery to promote healing after surgery.

(A physician’s referral may not be necessary for treatment. Call 205-814-2342.)

Medical Education St. Vincent’s St. Clair is helping to prepare the next generation of medical staff members.

The hospital is a clinical site not only for student nurses of Jefferson State Community College’s Pell City campus, but also for radiology, pharmacy, physical therapy and dietary students, Nichols said.

In addition, St. Vincent’s St. Clair established a clinical rotation project in which the student nurses work for a time in other areas of the hospital – such as radiology, dietary, physical therapy, nurse management and pharmacy. Nichols said this immersion gives students insight into the procedures, requirements and time necessary for those departments to complete each task. Such an approach gives students a greater understanding of the responsibilities other departments have.

Another endeavor is Jeremiah’s Hope Academy (jhacademy. org), an effort of St. Vincent’s Health System, which is part of Ascension, the largest non-profit health system in the US and the world’s largest Catholic health system, said Beth Bourg, St. Vincent’s marketing specialist. This academy is a jobtraining track preparing individuals for future employment in phlebotomy, medical records, patient care and other areas of health care.

Community Service Serving the community is part of the mission of St. Vincent’s St. Clair, said Nichols.

One of its outreach efforts is Project Homeless Connect.

Through it, hospital staff members provide foot care to people at a homeless mission in Birmingham.

Other service projects raise funds for heart, leukemia and lymphoma groups, support local first responders and sponsor ARC clients at Christmas.

Additionally, as a service to the community, St. Vincent’s St. Clair hosts diabetes screenings and classes – both at the hospital and at off-campus events – and conducts athletic screenings.

“I think it’s important for us to stay connected to the community and meet the needs we can,” Nichols said. l

Michael S. Bailey, MD C. Andrew Brian, MD

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NORTHSIDE Medical Home

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

ST. CLAIR MEDICAL COMMUNITY Story by Carol Pappas Discover Archive photos Submitted renderings No sooner had Dr. Rock Helms cut the ribbon on the state-of-theart, 50,000 square-foot Northside Medical Home earlier this year than he was envisioning Northside’s next phase. After all, in an ever-changing medical landscape, Helms usually blazes a trail right through the middle of it.

Helms and his partners, Drs. Michael Dupre’, Steve Fortson, Scott Boykin, Tom Perkins and Hunter Russell are united in the vision that patient-centered health care means putting the patient’s needs at the center of everything they do. That’s why you see expansion after expansion, improvement after improvement.

Beginning from a 3,000 square foot, small town doctor’s office, Northside Medical Home now encompasses three building phases, a cutting-edge imaging suite, access to more than a dozen specialties all under one roof, infusion center, laboratory and diagnostic center.

So, what’s next? A wellness center, he said, complete with indoor pool, workout facilities, classrooms for activities like aerobics or spinner biking, racquetball, physical, occupational and massage therapy and a walking track. He even envisions day care for ill children and after-hours daycare.

Helms and the partners at Northside are in the early stages of planning a wellness center through a partnership among community members, government and private entities to help further its development. When it comes to fruition, it would top a longtime wish list for the region.

“I’d love to see the senior center move there as well as a daycare for children,” he said. Both would fill a niche needed. Seniors would have access to many more activities through a wellness center and staying active is vital to their

Wellness center, more expansion in planning

Artchitectural renderings of the new wellness center

by Birchfield-Penuel Architects

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

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ST. CLAIR MEDICAL COMMUNITY everyday lives.

On the daycare issue, he noted that after hours care is essentially not available, yet parents’ jobs may not fit the usual 8 to 5 work day or a Monday through Friday schedule. This would give them an option.

And where do children go when they are sick, and the parent must work?

Helms sees the wellness center daycare for children when they are ill as a natural fit. “We have the ability to take care of them with RNs,” he said.

The daycare could even be used on an hourly basis for parents who want to work out in the wellness center.

Having an indoor pool would fill a variety of quality of life needs. The high school could have a swim team. Water therapy and swimming for exercise could be an integral component of programming there.

“We’re in the early stages working with community partners to develop it,” Helms said. “We don’t want to own it, but we are willing to take the lead on it to make it happen.”

That is evident in the architectural drawings already done by Russ Realmutto of Birchfield-Penuel Architects for the proposed 50,000 square foot center on property targeted next to Northside Medical Home on a ridge overlooking Interstate 20.

Drawings indicate it will be two stories with plenty of glass to give a bird’s eye view high above the heavily traveled highway.

It all centers around the question Helms continues to ask – ‘What if…?’

It’s a question he asks all too often.

And he generally answers it with a well thought out plan that benefits the entire community.

That’s why you see innovative programs like Northside’s CARE Team, which sees about 200 people, providing services inside and outside the office to keep them healthier and out of the hospital. It was the first of its kind in the state.

‘What if?’ is why you see a patientcentered medical home with specialties ranging from vision to cardiology, from gastroenterology to general and oral surgery and an in-house pharmacy.

And it’s why the dedicated staff has grown from a few in those early years to more than 150 today. Or Northside clinics are found in Moody, Springville,

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Vision First

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What drives the planning for more, Helms said, is how much Northside and its partners are able to improve the quality of care here at home. “They get better care, and patients love it.

It is rewarding to see patients come and thank us because they can see a doctor here and have their testing done” in their own hometown.

But the drive doesn’t stop there. Helms hopes to develop an urgent care center within the main operation at Northside, a vision of Dr. Dupre’s, expanding hours to seven days a week and giving patients the ability to have better continuity because they will be cared for at their own medical providers’ offices.

Stressing that it, too, is in the “early works,” a feasibility study is being done for an outpatient surgery center at Northside.

And initial discussions are being held for partners on senior living and patient rehabilitation facilities.

Northside has added the latest in CT scanners for its growing, cutting edge diagnostics, and 3-D Mammography is on the horizon.

“We are always looking for ways to improve upon things,” Helms said. “I’m a builder by nature. I like to build things. I guess it could be selfish. I get a charge out of seeing good things happen.” l

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

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Going beyond your everyday practice

Dr. Rick Jotani

Story by Jackie Romine Walburn Photos by Michael Callahan Twelve years after choosing Pell City as home base for his work as a physician with specialties in family care, sports medicine and aesthetic medicine, Dr. Rick Jotani says he’s glad he chose St. Clair County.

A partner with internist Dr. Barry Collins at Pell City Internal and Family Medicine since the two physicians formed the practice in 2012, Dr. Jotani came to Pell City in 2006 after completing his residency in family practice and a fellowship in sports medicine. A native of Talladega, Jotani grew up down the road, and his parents have lived in Pell City since 2010.

A growing medical practice with multiple loca-

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tions, Pell City Internal and Family Medicine is located at St. Vincent’s St. Clair Physicians’ Plaza with two satellite offices, one with extended hours on Martin Street next to Publix in Pell City, and the other in the Margaret community. “Our goal is to serve all of St. Clair County,” says Jotani.

In addition to the satellite offices and bringing new physicians into the practice, Pell City Internal and Family Medicine has expanded to offer aesthetic medical services through Jotani Aesthetics. Board certified in family medicine and sports medicine, Dr. Jotani’s aesthetics training came through his residency. Since being in private practice, the physician gradually added aesthetic services, paving the way for Jotani Aesthetics and some of the newest services at PCIFM. Aesthetic services at PCIFM include traditional

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ST. CLAIR MEDICAL COMMUNITY dermal fillers that reduce the appearance of wrinkles as well as Botox injections. Botox is also used for medical treatments including for migraine headaches and excessive sweating, procedures which Jotani handles.

Another popular Jotani Aesthetics offering is Coolsculpting, a non-surgical treatment to contour and eliminate diet and exercise-resistant fat. Coolsculpting is the only FDA-cleared procedure to use controlled cooling to target fat in problem areas. The abdomen, love handles, thighs and upper arms – even that double chin as part of the submentum – are areas where Coolsculpting has noticeable and lasting results, Dr. Jotani says.

CoolSculpting works by delivering previse controlled cooling to target the fat cells underneath the skin. Fat cells freeze at higher temperatures than surrounding tissues. Once treated cells are crystallized, or frozen, they die. The body naturally processes the fat and eliminates the dead fat cells, leaving a more sculpted body. “Once the treated fat cells are gone, they’re gone for good,” says Dr. Jotani.

The aesthetic and related services are just part of the care at Pell City Internal and Family Medicine. Describing family practice and internal medicine physicians as “the gatekeepers of individuals’ health and wellbeing,” Jotani says the family doctor, with knowledge of most disease processes, helps coordinate care with specialists, referring patients to trusted specialists and coordinating and following up on those referrals.

Wellness care services include the all-important annual physical exam, immunizations, sports physicals, women’s health and wellness and pediatric care. With on-site X-ray, EKG and laboratory, PCIFM can handle routine tests. Physicians at the different locations can help patients with preventive medicine, including orders for routine procedures such as mammograms and colonoscopies. For chronic and acute care, the internists and family physicians help patients manage long-term conditions, including diabetes, high blood pressure and autoimmune diseases. And, when accidents happen or sickness strikes, the practice’s three locations and extended hours help patients get immediate help.

Sports medicine, which includes muscle, ligament, tendon and bone problems, chronic illnesses that affect physical performance and advice on managing and preventing injuries, has a special place with the physicians at PCIFM. Jotani, a graduate of the University of Alabama School of Medicine who completed

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Misty Fincher

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

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ST. CLAIR MEDICAL COMMUNITY a sports medicine fellowship at Halifax Sports Medicine at Daytona Beach, Fla., and a family medicine residency at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center in South Carolina, has served as team physician for Pell City High School for 12 years.

“We are working to foster relationships with other local schools and their sports teams,” he says.

As team physician with PCHS, Jotani works with team trainers and takes care of any injuries. A football fan, he’s tried to attend all PCHS football games and would like to attend basketball games, too, when his schedule allows. A married father of two daughters whose wife Yogi is a pharmacist, Jotani says time management ends up being part of the challenge as he follows his interests in sports medicine and community with a young family.

General sports medicine care offered to all PCIFM patients include individualized sports training regiments, consulting in sports injury prevention and providing non-surgical medical care when a sports injury occurs.

Jotani’s partner is internist Dr. Barry Collins. The two worked together in the Pell City area before they founded Pell City Internal Family Medicine six years ago.

Dr. Collins earned his bachelor and medical degrees and completed his internship and residency in internal medicine all at UAB. Dr. Collins, who serves as chief of medicine and advisory board member at St. Vincent’s St. Clair Hospital, is an adjunct faculty member at UAB and is involved in clinical research and serves as medical director for clinical trials. He serves on the board of the Police Foundation of Pell City.

An internal medicine physician, the doctors explain, handles adult care, while a family medicine physician treats adults and pediatric patients. Both provide overall primary care for patients and deal with the challenges that come with meeting patients needs in today’s changing health care landscape.

“A small medical practice like ours is always striving to keep up with new Medicaid, Medicare and insurance requirements,” Jotani says. “It’s a balancing act, seeking the best patient outcomes and quality of care in cost-effective ways.

“Some diagnostic tests we need to order tend to be expensive. As physicians, we weren’t trained to pay attention to the cost, and it becomes a tug between providing medical care to the best of our ability and being challenged by payers to decrease costs,” Jotani says. He notes that health care cost concerns and increased regulations and limits on prescribed medications are on-going challenges in health care today that go with serving a community as physicians and owners of a medical practice business.

Being involved with local communities is important to the physicians and the 32 health professionals that work for Pell City Family Medicine,

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Nikki Jones

Jotani says. “We’re heavily invested in Pell City and committed to finding ways to serve all of the county.” Part of that commitment has been the opening of satellite offices over the last several years and adding physicians to the practice to serve at those locations.

Dr. Ilinca Prisacaru, a family medicine physician and native of Romania who trained in geriatrics and family medicine at the University Carol Davila Bucharest in Romania and completed her residency at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, staffs the practice’s extended hours clinic next to Publix in Pell City. Dr. Prisacaru has been a medical volunteer with Red Cross Romania, with a national institute for protection of mothers and children in Bucharest and with health education for the Hispanic population in New Jersey.

At the satellite clinic which offers walk-in and urgent care services, Dr. Prisacaru and nurse practitioner Adrienne Shambro see patients from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays and from 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

PCIFM is located at 7067 Veterans Parkway Suite 200 at the St. Vincent’s Physician Plaza.

The growing city of Margaret, with the nearest medical provider in Pell City or Birmingham, needed a medical facility. It is one of the fastest growing areas of the county, and PCIFM decided to fill that need.

It operates the Margaret Medical Clinic at 125 Jeffrey Wilson Drive, Monday-Thursday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Fridays from 9 a.m. to noon. l

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

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PEDIATRIC CARE IS KEY

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Springville Pediatrics 72

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

ST. CLAIR MEDICAL COMMUNITY Story by Scottie Vickery Submitted photos Jessica Cambron already knew the importance of having first-class pediatric care in the community long before she became a mother.

After all, Dr. Rubina Siddiqui of Pell City Pediatrics helped Jessica manage her own asthma when she was a child.

Now mom to 20-month-old Avery, who was born with a hole in her heart and is a secondgeneration patient of Dr. Siddiqui’s, Jessica is even more grateful to have a pediatrician who is close by, thorough and dedicated to her patients. “Dr. Siddiqui found the heart murmur during our first visit with her,” she said. “The hospital missed it, but she could tell the hole was very large and that Avery’s heart was pumping twice as fast as it was supposed to be.”

Though they were referred to a cardiologist in Birmingham, Avery had to see Dr. Siddiqui once or twice a week for three months to make sure she was gaining weight. “It made things a lot easier having someone close to home,” Jessica said. “I’m glad we have such great health care in our area.

It’s good for the community and the county as a whole.”

Traditionally, comprehensive pediatric services that focus solely on the care of infants, children and adolescents, have only been available in much larger areas, but St. Clair County is home to three practices.

Pell City Pediatrics, a Children’s of Alabama practice, was the first on the scene 23 years ago and has grown to have three doctors on staff. Purohit Pediatric Clinic in Moody opened about four years ago and has one doctor and a nurse practitioner. Springville Pediatrics, which celebrated its presence with a ribbon cutting in March, has one physician and two nurse practitioners.

“It’s nice to be able to be close to your doctors, especially for working parents,” said Dr. Manci Balas, who practices at Purohit. The decision to open in Moody was made after Dr. Naresh Purohit, who has four clinics, had a team research the need in underserved areas. “There weren’t that many clinics nearby, and this area has a lot of schools, a lot of children,” she said.

When Dr. Siddiqui opened her practice in 1995, it was the first pediatric practice in St. Clair County as well as Children’s first stand-alone primary practice. The Birmingham hospital, ranked among the best pediatric medical centers in the country

by U.S. News and World Report, now boasts 14 clinics across the state, with the majority in Jefferson and Shelby counties. The goal is to provide easy access to private care, Dr. Siddiqui said.

Without nearby pediatric services, families often

must rely on emergency rooms or walk-in medical clinics for their children’s care. “They are usually staffed by adult doctors who are not used to seeing little children,” Dr. Balas said. “And some will see kids, but they won’t see them under the age of 2.”

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the pediatrician’s role is to help prevent, detect and manage physical, behavioral, developmental and social issues affecting children. Pediatricians also monitor their patients’ development, and they educate parents about issues affecting their children, as well as developmental milestones.

That’s easier to do when the same physician sees a child regularly, Dr. Siddiqui said. “If you have seen a child since he or she was a baby, you know all of the past medical history,” she said, adding that it can make a difference in how an illness is treated. If a child with a cough is seen by a doctor who is unfamiliar with the patient’s history, the physician might think the cough is the result of a viral infection rather than a flare-up of asthma. “It can be dangerous,” Dr. Siddiqui said.

Being able to provide that continuity of care is one of the reasons she was drawn to the Pell City area. “I wanted to work in an area that had a shortage of physicians,” she said. “The community was very welcoming. I’m working in an area where it is needed.”

She started by visiting schools and introducing herself during parent/teacher conferences. The parents were excited to learn that local care was available and their questions illustrated the need.

“Do you take care of seizure patients?,” one parent asked. “What about asthma patients?,” others inquired. Despite their different needs, they all seemed relieved that they would no longer have to drive to Birmingham or other larger cities for medical care for their children.

Jessica knows the feeling. Although the hole in Avery’s heart, a ventricular septal defect (VSD), closed up on its own and they were released from the cardiologist’s care a few months ago, Jessica said she is grateful that Dr. Siddiqui was nearby during the ordeal.

In addition to diagnosing the heart issue, Dr. Siddiqui has treated Avery for severe acid reflux, a milk protein allergy and severe ear infections.

Although family members help her juggle the appointments, it would be a real strain for the working mother to have to make round-trip visits to Birmingham for pediatric care.

“It made it a lot easier having someone close to home who knew Avery, who knew her condition and who could be there if we needed her,” Jessica said. “It makes me more comfortable as a mom.

Anything can happen with our children, and I don’t think I would be comfortable if I had to drive a long way to see her doctor.” l

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

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St. Clair Alabama

Business Review Louis

A new era begins at Northside HBI Salon

74 DISCOVER Essence St. Clair •••August & September 2013 of St. ClairThe •The Business Review 74 DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair October && November 2017 74• DISCOVER The Essence DISCOVER The Essence St. Clair •August February &July March 2016 DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair June & July 2016 DISCOVER The Essence ofof St. Clair & September 2017 2017 DISCOVER DISCOVER Essence The Essence of St. Clair of St. ••Clair Clair December June 2016 & 2015 2017 DISCOVER The Essence ofof St. Clair December 2017 & January January 2018 74 DISCOVER The Essence of St. •••April & May

Story by Katie Beth Buckner Photos by Mike Callahan

Business booming in Springville New growth driving local economy If numbers are any indicator, Springville is in the midst of what is being called a business boom for this northeast St. Clair County city.

Five businesses have opened their doors to the community already this year, and the outlook for the future is promising, officials say.

On Saturday, May 19, the Springville Area Chamber of Commerce hosted grand openings for HBI Salon, Daylight Donuts, Laster’s Sundries and Bam’s Coin Laundry. The owners and their families and friends took part in a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the opening of their new businesses.

HAIR. BEAUTY. INSPIRATION

HBI Salon served Springville for many years from a location right off of Main Street, but it relocated to a larger space at 6448 US Highway 11. The new location in downtown Springville has added artistic flare to the area.

The staff is dedicated to using their knowledge, passion and experience to meet their clients’ hair care needs. To help her clients achieve their hair style goals with minimal effort, owner Jenny Ryan uses high-quality products she’s confident will keep her client’s hair healthy, yet stylish.

“We are so excited to be a part of what makes downtown Springville hop,” Ryan said. “Our clientele pulls from Springville all the way to Nashville. We love that all of our (Springville’s) unique shopping options can offer them an experience that goes beyond great hair.”

SWEETS, SWEETS AND MORE SWEETS!

Amid the growth, Springville has gained two small businesses that cater to that sweet tooth.

Daylight Donuts opened a new location at 449 Marietta Road. They serve a wide variety of donuts, croissants and coffee that are made fresh daily. The most popular treat sold is the apple fritter.

Co-Owner Vatanak Sap said he fell in love with the town and its friendly people and decided it was the perfect place to open a donut shop since there wasn’t one nearby.

“I love the support the locals have shown me.

Business has been great,” Sap said. “We are very busy in the mornings. People like to stop by and grab breakfast on their way to work.”

Meanwhile, what was old has become new

DISCOVER The Essence St. Clair •••August & September 2013 Business Review •July DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • 75 DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair October && November 2017 75 DISCOVER The Essence St. Clair •August February &July March 2016 75 DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair June & 2016 DISCOVER The Essence ofof St. Clair & September 2017 2017 DISCOVER DISCOVER The Essence The Essence of St. Clair of St. ••Clair Clair December June 2016 & 2015 2017 DISCOVER The Essence ofof St. Clair December 2017 & January January 2018 DISCOVER The Essence of St. •••April & May 75

Business Review

Springville

again. Laster’s Sundries, a historical ice-cream parlor, recently reopened under new ownership. Its lively atmosphere and central location in downtown Springville make it a great place to host a birthday party or similar event.

Their ice-cream is imported from New York and offers customers a large variety of flavors you can’t get elsewhere. They also serve shakes, floats and sundaes for customers who want a sweet treat beyond a regular ice-cream cone.

Locals have been very receptive of Laster’s reopening and wish to see their limited hours extended, according to Mayor Butch Isley.

“Business has been great and busy,” Laster’s manager Jordan Hamilton said. “People seem to really enjoy our ice cream.”

WASH, DRY AND FOLD!

Bam’s Coin Laundry

A convenient new service is now available in Springville.

Bam’s Coin Laundry, LLC opened a new location at 143 Marietta Road. They provide 24-hour access to large capacity washers and dryers, allowing customers to wash their clothes, comforters and blankets for a reasonable price. Bam’s is also equipped with video surveillance, free Wi-Fi and cable television.

Individuals on a tight schedule can take advantage of their newly offered wash, dry and fold service. They can coordinate a drop-off and pick-up time with an employee and have their laundry done for them at a small additional charge.

“People from Springville were coming to our laundromat in Pell City and saying that they wanted us to open one closer to them,” owner Billy Blaylock said. “We found a location and opened to meet their needs.”

FIRST PEDIATRIC CLINIC COMES TO TOWN.

Springville Pediatrics, located at 350 Springville Station near Walmart, opened its doors to patients on March 12. The clinic is the only one in the community tailored toward pediatric care with patients ranging in age from infants to 18 years old.

“We have new patients coming in everyday, so we are excited about being able to take care of children in Springville and the surrounding areas,” office manager Jennifer Richardson said. “We are set and ready to care for our patients in the best way possible.”

WHAT’S AHEAD?

“People have been very receptive of these new businesses,” Mayor Isely said. “They’re meeting the needs of the community.”

Looking forward, he hopes to see more development of businesses near Interstate 59. He’d like to bring a large chain restaurant and a full-service gas station to town.

Candice Hill, retail specialist for St. Clair County Economic Development Council, is working with Isely to bring more retailers to town in the shopping area near Walmart.

But while Isley likes growing big city amenities for the community, he notes that there are elements of downtown he wants to maintain. He plans to work alongside business owners to preserve the historical charm of the area by restoring some of the aging and unoccupied buildings.

Downtown revitalization is part of the plan for the future.

And while Springville has visions of continued growth, Isley said it’s vital the town doesn’t grow too rapidly and become something he and locals aren’t proud of. Growth is good, he said, but it needs to grow in the right way, filling needs while maintaining the city’s allure.

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

City of Moody | City of Argo | City of Ashville | City of Leeds City of Odenville | City of Ragland | City of Riverside City of Springville | City of Steele | City of Pell City City of Magaret | St. Clair County Commission | Webb Concrete Andritz | St. Vincent’s Hospital | Lovejoy Realty | Spire Advanced Disposal | Alabama Power | Bain & Company

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Business Review

Trident Marine opens on Logan Martin Merger with Lakeside Marine brings more sales, service to lake Story and photos by Carol Pappas Paul Davis got his first boat when he was 12. It was an aluminum boat, he said, barely disguising a smile of remembrance as he recalled those early days of a boy and his boat out on the water.

“I grew up on the lake,” he said. “I’ve always been on the water here, fishing.”

So, it’s no small wonder that after college at Auburn University as a member of the fishing team, the Pell City native returned to Logan Martin, not just to fish, but to work.

Six years ago, recognizing the need for quality service on boats, he and a business partner founded Lakeside Marine. “We started Lakeside Marine, focusing on service. We saw a need.

It grew pretty quickly, and we had all the business we could handle.”

But they didn’t sell boats, so the next step eventually evolved into a merger with Trident Marine in March, and the end result is Logan Martin’s newest boat dealership. Trident Logan Martin, with Davis as its general manager, sells new boats carrying the brand names, Berkshire, SouthBay and Trifecta.

Ninety percent of the business is Tritoons, Davis said, although they do sell some pontoon boats.

The Tritoon boat employs a third tube in the center to provide greater stability and a smoother ride than traditional pontoon boats, and they are growing rapidly in popularity.

“Business is really good,” Davis said.

He added that Trident is a Mercury, Yamaha and Suzuki dealer, so customers can choose any of the three motors for their new boat.

And while the name has changed, and it has a new look, the service department is the same as it was when it was Lakeside Marine – laser-focused on providing quality parts and service to the boating community. “We have a huge commitment to service here,” Davis said.

Together, they’ve made a great combination, and business has “exceeded expectations already,” Davis said. “We have done really well. The community has been behind us and our Lakeside customers.”

“The reception has been fantastic,” added CFO and Owner Jeff Tolbert Jr. “We are excited to be a part of the community and the environment of the lake right here in our own backyard. Being able to partner with Paul, things have been wonderful, really since Day 1.”

Describing the partnership as a “very nice marriage,” Tolbert noted that “Paul for years had been putting out great work in service. We brought in our expertise in boat sales, and it was a great marriage.” Sales, service and supplies – “We’re your one stop shop for all your boating needs.”

Trident Logan Martin is located on US 231 South in Cropwell and becomes the third location in the Trident group. Other locations are Shelby Shores on Lay Lake and Trident Marina on Smith Lake for the company that had its beginnings in 2015. “We’re only blessed with a certain number

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Paul Davis at Trident Marine

of opportunities. Once we see one, we go for it,” Tolbert said, explaining the rapid expansion of the company.

For Davis personally, it has been a rewarding experience. “It’s always fun to be around boats. It’s a fun business, something I enjoy, especially introducing first time boaters to the lake or people who have never been out on the water.”

He puts his experience and that unmistakable passion to work to introduce them to the thrill of boating – probably reminiscent of how he felt when he ventured out in that aluminum boat for the first time.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

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Business Review Keith Brown takes helm at Jeff State St. Clair officials laud announcement of new college president Submitted photos St. Clair County officials are welcoming news of Keith Brown’s ascension to the presidency of Jefferson State Community College. He has been serving as interim president of the college with campuses in Center Point, Hoover, Pell City and Clanton.

Jeff State has played a key role in both the business and education communities throughout St. Clair County, particularly with its workforce development programs running through cooperative efforts with industries and school systems in the region.

Garrison Steel has been an instrumental piece of that partnership. Owner John Garrison said, “I have had a lot of dealings with Keith and know him well. … I think Keith is absolutely the right person for the job, and I applaud Jeff State for choosing Keith to serve as the new president.

“I think they have done a great service to the community, both education and business wise, in selecting Keith as their full-time president.”

St. Clair Economic Development Council Executive Director Don Smith agreed.

“Keith has been a partner with the EDC and the St. Clair County community since the construction of Jeff State’s Pell City campus. He has been instrumental in creating a number of workforce development programs that have benefitted our employers and our citizens,” Smith said.

“We are very excited about the long-awaited news of him becoming the president of Jefferson State Community College.

Those workforce development programs have become an essential core to K-through-12 education in St. Clair County.”

Pell City Schools Curriculum Coordinator Kim Williams, another instrumental player in the cooperative effort between the college and schools in the area, said, “Jeff State has been a viable partner with the Pell City School System as we have worked together to strengthen our local economy through workforce development.

“Keith Brown’s support has been an invaluable part of our effort so far. Now that he has become president of Jeff State, we look forward to continuing to work together to provide our students with quality programs of study that will equip them with the skills and knowledge needed to improve their quality of life while also making a positive impact on our local economy.”

Chancellor Jimmy H. Baker announced Brown’s selection during the board meeting in June.

Brown has served Jefferson State for nearly 20 years, most recently in the role of interim president. His tenure at the college has been marked by his commitment to expanding and maintaining partnerships with community leaders, business and industry, education institutions, and elected officials.

Additionally, his commitment to fostering a positive work environment has been recognized by The Chronicle of Higher

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Keith Brown

Education with Jefferson State being named a “Great College to Work For” in 2015 and 2016.

“As a Jefferson State alumnus who has dedicated his career to improving the lives of the college and its students, I can think of no individual more qualified for the role of president than Keith,” Baker said. “Keith is highly regarded as a capable and compassionate leader, not only within the college but with the greater community, and I’m confident that under his direction Jefferson State will continue its exemplary reputation of providing education and training opportunities for all those looking to better their lives.”

Prior to serving as interim president, Brown served as dean of campus development and campus/legal services and also spent time in the classroom as a business law instructor. Brown also serves in the Alabama Air National Guard as a colonel and staff judge advocate. Brown has an associate of arts from Jefferson State Community College, a bachelor of arts from the University of Alabama, and a juris doctorate from the University of Alabama School of Law. Additionally, Brown has received training at the U.S. Air Force Air War College, the senior Air Force professional military school.

“It is an honor to continue to serve the thousands of students, hundreds of faculty, staff, and administrators, and the greater Birmingham community as president of Jefferson State Community College,” Brown said. “I would not be where I am today had my path not started at Jefferson State, and I am committed to helping as many people as I can to recognize their potential through the work we do every day. JSCC is near and dear to my heart and it is truly a privilege to be selected to serve in this capacity.”

Discover St. Clair Managing Editor Graham Hadley contributed to this story.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2018

BUILDING the Future TOGETHER Garrison Steel congratulates the naming of Keith Brown as president of Jefferson State Community College.

President Brown, the college, the public school system and our company have partnered to ensure that workforce development is central to building for the future – in jobs and projects.

Together, we teach the skills.

Together, we put them to work!

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Business Review Fresh-Value Opens in Pell City

Employees and local officials gather for the ribbon cutting.

The City of Pell City welcomed Fresh-Value in a ribboncutting Ceremony at 1009 Martin St. South, in the Pell City Marketplace Shopping Center in the former Winn-Dixie location to the end of the first sentence. This is Fresh-Value’s third location in the Birmingham metro area and the first location in St. Clair County. Fresh-Value is a family-owned store that offers a convenient location, high quality foods, friendly service, and great prices.

Fresh-Value is owned by Fourth Avenue Supermarket Inc. which was founded in 1951 in Bessemer, Alabama, by Frank D’Alessandro. His sons took over in the 90s and eventually sold the business to Gerry D’Alessandro in 2013. Gerry is a third-generation owner and fourth-generation grocer and has expanded the business to five locations and is currently evaluating other opportunities for further growth.

“For years I have wanted to open a location in Pell City and when the opportunity came available I was very excited,” said Gerry D’Alessandro, owner of Fresh-Value. “Growing up I would always come to Logan Martin with friends and family.

I enjoyed it so much I bought property here on the lake a few

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years ago. As a Pell City property owner myself, I knew a grocery store such as Fresh-Value would only further increase my property values for myself as well as everyone else in the City. This was an easy decision for me. We look forward to serving the citizens of Pell City.”

“The County Commission shares in the community’s excitement about the opening of Fresh-Value in Pell City,” said Paul Manning, Chairman of the County Commission. “It will provide a valuable service to our citizens and retain local jobs.”

“I think the nearly complete redevelopment of this entire shopping center speaks volumes on the strength of our local economy and this trade area,” said Bill Pruitt, mayor of Pell City. “Fresh-Value is a welcomed new member to our family of quality retailers in Pell City.”

“The owner, Gerry D’Alessandro, has been great to work with on this project and we welcome him into the shopping center with our other quality stores. Any city would be fortunate to have them in their community,” said Micah Lacher, president of Anchor Investments and owner of the Pell City Marketplace Shopping Center.

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