Discover the Essence of St. Clair August and September 2020

SPECIAL MEDICAL EDITION Tractor Man • Champion Dog Breeder • Jim Nunnally • Business Growth

August & September 2020

Tomato Time!

Chandler Mountain’s bounty

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Features and Articles Discover

The Essence of St. Clair

Tomato Time!

Bounty of produce on Chandler Mountain

Page 28

St. Clair’s Tractor Man Page 8

Traveling the Backroads Jim Nunnally

Page 18

Old-Time Tent Revival

Page 26

Tomato Time Recipes

Page 36

Passionate About Dogs

Raising champions in Ragland Page 40

Medical Community Page 44

Medical Section New facilities

Page 44 Northside Health & Wellness Page 56 Practicing in the Pandemic Page 60 Medical alliance Page 68

St. Clair Business

New businesses across county Page 70

Pell City’s 3 R’s

Page 70 New restaurants opening Page 74 Business News Briefs Page 80 EDC Board Members Page 82

August & September 2020

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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.

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

Elaine Hobson Miller

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 Alalit.com. Jackie is currently seeking an agent and publisher for her first novel, Mojo Jones and the Black Cat Bone.

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.

She is a member of Alabama Media Professionals and NFPW (the National Federation of Press Women). Follow her weekly blog about life with a dozen four-legged critters, life in the country and life in general at www.countrylife-elaine.blogspot.com.

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.

Linda Long Linda Long has worked in communications for more than 25 years in print, broadcast, nonprofit promotion and special event planning and implementation. Her writing has appeared in Business Alabama Magazine, Technology Alabama, Mobile Bay Monthly, Birmingham News, Huntsville Times, Partners Magazine, Birmingham Magazine, Alabama Alive, Cahaba Talk, Hoover Outlook and Shelby Living. She served as news and special projects producer for NBC13 News, where her work won national, regional and state honors, including two Emmy Award nominations.

Eryn Ellard

Leigh Pritchett

Leigh Pritchett is a wife and mother. She earned the Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Montevallo. In the late 1990s, she left a career with a New York Times Regional Newspaper to be a stay-athome mom and freelance writer. She was blessed with the opportunity to spend 22 years homeschooling her three children.

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.

Eryn Ellard is a freelance writer living in Pell City. She graduated with her B.A. in Journalism in 2006 from The University of Alabama.

She has been published in The St. Clair News Aegis, Al.com and The Tuscaloosa News, which ultimately led to her securing an internship and becoming internationally published in Cosmopolitan Magazine in New York City.

From the Editor

Summer’s bounty found all around My doorbell rang on a Saturday morning in late July while I was working on editing Discover. I go to the door, and my neighbor, Sandra, was pulling off in a golf cart.

I look down on the porch and see that she and Randy have left another bounty from their garden – a box full of eggplant, cucumbers, corn and squash.

As an extra, Sandra always gives us a recipe tip to go along with the fresh fare from Randy’s garden.

I can’t say it was a surprise. Similar scenes play out most every summer with our neighbors.

There’s Jack across the street. He’s known as “Farmer Jack” around these parts. He grows the best heirloom tomatoes you’ve ever tasted. Heck, everything he grows – from potatoes to lettuce, yellow squash, zucchini and all the rest – is hard to top.

Even the foxes who have taken up residence in our neighborhood have taken a liking to his zucchini. But that’s another story for another day.

One day last week, a sack of juicy, red tomatoes arrived on our front porch courtesy of Jim down the street. It wasn’t his first trip. Earlier, he came, bearing a sack full of tomatoes and squash.

And when our friend, Rob, is in the neighborhood, we’ll likely get a visit along with a bagful of tomatoes and sweet banana peppers. We worked together years ago, and he knows I like to add a little Greek flair to the peppers, coring out the seeds, lightly sautéing them in olive oil, stuffing them with feta cheese and grilling them.

Just down the road a bit, Sam and Debbie amaze with their impressive garden – not just because of what they grow but the creative touch Debbie uses to entertain passersby with her various scarecrow scenes. You might see a patriotic theme one week, a cheerleader the next. It’s guaranteed to bring a smile.

And the okra is a tasty pleasure.

When they come bearing the fruits and vegetables of their labor, we know it’s harvest time in St. Clair County, and that means there are two kinds of people – those who grow and those – like us – who are lucky enough to reap what they sow.

Of course, we have our real farmers, too, like the ones up on Chandler Mountain who supply one of the largest tomato crops in the country.

It’s a calling – digging in the dirt, planting and picking – a legacy handed down from generation to generation.

In this issue of Discover, we’ll take you inside the operation at Smith Tomato Farm, third-generation tomato growers who are working on a fourth. They are the largest atop Chandler Mountain, famous for its soil and elevation, which make it an ideal garden spot for tomatoes and beans.

Along with their story, we’ll provide a few tips for care of your summer tomato bounty as well as some recipes to try in your own kitchen.

But that’s not all in this edition. Learn about one man’s passion for collecting tractors and how it has turned into a tourist attraction and outdoor museum each July 4 and other special occassions. Go behind the scenes of the Westminster Dog Show to our very own breeder and participant in the internationally known event.

Our special medical section features a growing medical community to serve the needs of St. Clair County and a look at how providers overcame the challenges of COVID-19, the pandemic that has gripped the globe.

Be sure to check out the big tent, old-time revival coming in October. It’s reminiscent of days gone by with a message of hope for the future.

And don’t forget our business section. St. Clair is showing no signs of a growth slowdown these days, setting new records, cutting more ribbons and new construction is going up all around.

It’s all here and more in this issue of Discover. Turn the page and harvest it all with us.

Carol Pappas Editor and Publisher

Discover The Essence of St. Clair

August & September 2020 • Vol. 55 • www.discoverstclair.com

Carol Pappas • Editor and Publisher Graham Hadley • Managing Editor and Designer Dale Halpin • Advertising Toni Franklin • Graphic Designer

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TRACTOR MAN Serrell Fleming saves ‘ageless iron’ from rusty oblivion Story by Elaine Hobson Miller Photos by Graham Hadley If you want to see a child’s eyes light up, put them on a tractor. Better yet, take them

by Serrell Fleming’s house at 8701 Moody Parkway, between Odenville and Moody, where they will have almost three dozen tractors to climb on. They can turn the steering wheels, push the buttons and play with the knobs and gear shifts without fear of reprimand. In fact, the tractors’ owner encourages such behavior.

“I take the batteries out of most of them so kids can push all the buttons without starting up the tractors,” Fleming said.

Old tractors are, as one writer put it, “the antique cars of the farm,” which makes Fleming an antique dealer extraordinaire. He has been buying and restoring old and rare ones for 45 years, simply because he likes them.

For the past 25, he has lined them up in front of his house during major holidays and invited any with an interest to drop by.

His current count is 35 standard-size tractors in his display, plus a few lawn tractors and some children’s pedal models. He puts them in his front yard for at least a week around Memorial Day, July 4 and Labor Day. Many are decorated with American flags. During the Christmas holidays, he displays them for more than a month beginning in early December and extending well past New Year’s Day, decorated with lights.

Serrell Fleming showing off one of his vintage restored Ford Tractors.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

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TRACTOR MAN

Tractors line Moody Parkway between Odenville and Moody.

He replaces the batteries and puts as many as he can find drivers for in the Odenville Christmas Parade. “All of them will run,” he said proudly. During the parade, he also pulls a flatbed trailer with child-mounted pedal tractors behind his pickup truck.

Cases, John Deeres, Minneapolis Molines, Olivers, Allis Chalmers models, Fords, Farmalls and Massey Harrises cover Fleming’s yard like wildflowers, their ageless iron shining under new coats of red, blue, orange and yellow paint. There’s even a pink one, a Power King that Fleming painted to show support for the American Cancer Society, even though the color is usually associated with breast cancer awareness. “I saw one done that way at an International show at the Coliseum in Montgomery,” he said. After his wife’s death from COPD two years ago, he dedicated it to her memory. “Her favorite actually was the Oliver 440, but she didn’t want it painted because it’s more valuable like it is,” Fleming said.

Passion ignited

Fleming’s tractor passion started with buying used ones and restoring them for his own use.

Later, he began selling them, then decided to become a collector.

Some of the tractors are in original, unrestored condition.

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Serrell cranks up a dual-fuel tractor to show how well the old engine runs. He keeps his machines in top running condition.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

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On restored tractors, paint colors are matched as closely as possible to the original.

All the mechanical parts of the tractors still work.

The collection also includes rear-engine tractors, center.

TRACTOR MAN

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Serrell lovingly restored this pink tractor for his late wife, Sherry Fleming.

He often finds out about them at tractor auctions like the one on RFD-TV on Tuesdays and has been all over Alabama and parts of Tennessee retrieving them. He finds most of them within a 50-mile radius of where he lives. “I don’t find them, they find me,” he said.

When he buys an old tractor, it’s usually in pretty rough condition. “Most are basket cases,” he said. “They have been welded on and patched up and rusted so bad. The (Ford 2000) Hi Crop looked like it had been in a junk yard. I have to disassemble them, strip them (of any remaining paint) and replace parts.”

He has no trouble finding parts, sometimes through salvage yards, sometimes through Steiner Tractor Parts, a Michiganbased company that makes reproductions. A retired sheet metal worker (Hayes Aircraft), he, too, knows how to make parts when he can’t find what he needs. “When it’s using oil and smoking, I have to buy a part,” he said.

Every nut and bolt, manifold and carburetor is color-coded like the tractors: blue for Ford, orange for Allis Chalmers, green for John Deere, red for International. When the U.S. had a more agrarian-based economy, farmers bought whatever brand their local dealer had, and dealers usually specialized in one brand or another.

Fleming’s grandson, Chad Brantley, helped him research information on each of his tractors online, printed that information, encased it in plastic sleeves and attached it to the

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

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TRACTOR MAN respective tractors for visitors to read.

“It keeps me from having to answer so many questions,” he said. But he doesn’t mind answering a few and loves to talk about his favorites.

Tractors 101

The Oliver HG 68, for example, is a metal tractor that was used in apple orchards in Tennessee because it wasn’t easy to turn over. The Ford 2000 Hi Crop is a favorite because it’s so rare and unique. “I only know of two others, one in Leesburg,” he said.

“I looked a long time for this one.”

He bought it in 2018 and he’s only its second owner.

“My grandfather, Cecil Smith, bought this tractor for me to drive when I was 15,” said Mike Smith, in the printed information attached to the tractor. “It has remained in our family solely from 1964 to 2018.”

Another favorite and his rarest specimen is the Oliver 440, one of only 600 produced. He also has a rare Minneapolis Moline, one of only 137 built. “Honestly, my favorite is the one I’m working on at the time,” he said.

Then there’s the John Deere 40 All Fuel, so named because it has both a gas and a diesel tank. The one-gallon gas tank got the engine hot, then you flipped a switch to use the 10-gallon diesel. “It’s not loud, it’s a beautiful sound,” he said as he cranks up the engine and listens to it purr. “It was practical. It didn’t have a water pump because they wanted it to run hot to burn the diesel.”

They have extra seat pads so people who want to sit on the tractors don’t get burned by the sun-warmed seats.

Parade of visitors

Fleming is with his display from daylight to dark, watching the happy folks examining the tractors. They come from all over Alabama and nearby states, having seen the Tractor Man on Fred Hunter’s Absolutely Alabama (WBRC-Fox 6 TV) or read about him on his daughter’s Facebook page (Janice Fleming Brantley).

Others just notice his display as they drive by on Moody Parkway. This past July 4th, he even had a couple from North Dakota who were in town visiting relatives and read about the

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Serrell explains how an old hay bailer worked. Despite its age, the machine is still functional.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

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TRACTOR MAN tractors in a local newspaper. He doesn’t have any way of keeping a count of visitors, because he doesn’t sell tickets, but for this year’s July 4th, he gave away all 500 of the tractor-listing sheets he had printed. He gives away bottled water during the warmer months, too.

“I plowed my garden with this one,” he told a visitor who was admiring an Allis Chalmers G. The G stands for Gadsden, where it was made in 1944.

Whitt Davis, age 21 months, climbed all over the G while his mom, Jessica Davis, and granddad, Ron Chamblee, watched. “He loves tractors,” said Ron, a Springville resident. “We have to take a tractor or lawn mower ride just about every day.” Ron restores tractors, too, but not to the extent of Fleming.

Abel Hilliard of Woodville, 15, visited July 3 with his dad and brother. “Dad read about it online,” Abel said. “I think it’s pretty cool. Dad has an old Farmall that he’s working on, too.”

Fleming loves watching the kids’ faces as they play on the tractors and enjoys hearing their parents’ comments, too. “Parents thank me for putting these out for them and the kids,” he said.

“They say they appreciate what we’re doing here. One guy left a message on my answering machine saying he saw the tractors but couldn’t get in my driveway.”

Fleming also said the display, which is stored in a couple of sheds behind his house between holidays, is really a family thing. His daughter lives next door, helps with traffic and posts notices about the display on her Facebook page.

His son-in-law helps drive the tractors out and back into the sheds, and on off days, he walks the rows of tractors, helping Fleming answer questions. A couple of neighbors keep him company under his sun tent. “There’s no way I could do all this without the help of my family,” he said.

He pauses, gazes out at the rows of tractors and the smiling faces of the visitors, and a broad grin lights up his face. “I’m so glad the young people are bringing the kids,” he said. “Tractor collectors are getting older, and we’re losing the heritage of these.”

The Tractor Man is doing all he can to maintain that heritage. l

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Caitlin Tennyson of Trussville lets Jaxon have a seat on this old tractor.

This tracked tractor was used by the Forestry service because it was more stable in the uneven ground in the woods.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

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Traveling the

BACKROADS

Jim Nunnally

Beloved cheerleader for Ashville, hometown hero

Jim Nunnally from 1968 Ashville Yearbook

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

Story by Joe Whitten Submitted photos A quote on Facebook, “Hometown is the place where I was born, where I was raised, where I keep all my yesterdays,” express well Jim Nunnally’s affection for Ashville, Ala., his own hometown.

And although he lived and worked in Texas for many years, he returned to Ashville for his “golden years” and left an enduring influence. Shortly before his death in 1968, Ashville High School dedicated its yearbook to him and established the Jim Nunnally Award to an outstanding athlete.

Born Aug. 5, 1888, James Renfroe Nunnally was the seventh of the 10 children born to Robert Thomas and Emma Mary Montgomery Nunnally. He grew up in Ashville, and when World War I engulfed the globe, he joined the Army and served in the 167 Infantry, the Rainbow Division, which earned renown in France and Germany.

Garrett Spears, a young distant cousin of Jim’s, researched Jim Nunnally for his fourth-grade history project, sponsored and judged by the St. Clair Historical Society. He noted that after the war ended, “the Alabama troops were honored by parades in Gadsden, Anniston, Birmingham, Montgomery and Mobile before being discharged at Camp Shelby.”

Surviving both the war and the flu pandemic of 1918-1919, Jim lived and worked in Birmingham. According to research

by Jerri Jenkins of Springville, Jim married Fannie Archer of Birmingham in 1921, but the 1930 U.S. Census shows them as married but living apart: Fannie living with her parents in Birmingham and Jim boarding with Albert and Pauline Teague back in Ashville. By the 1940 census, Jim was divorced and living in Houston, where in 1940 he married Effie Violette Torrance, a naturalized Canadian. Effie died Feb. 4, 1953 and was buried in Forest Cemetery in Gadsden.

Around the time of Effie’s death, Jim returned to his hometown of Ashville and lived in the Teague Hotel, owned by his cousin, Annie Teague McClendon. In July 1958, Jim married Louise Heath of Gadsden, and they continued to live in the hotel until it was sold.

The salient memories of those who knew Jim personally deal with his love of all things Ashville and especially the Ashville High School teams – baseball, football and basketball – that he faithfully supported. Dr. John McClendon, Temple University, recalled recently, “He was there for every sporting event, every practice. I remember when I was in the fifth-grade – I was manager, water boy with the team – and we played somewhere on Sand Mountain, and we got up there about an hour early to warm up, and there were he and Louise already in the stands. I remember the coaches saying, ‘You can’t play far enough away for Jim Nunnally not to be the first person there.’”

Jim’s enthusiasm for all Ashville Bulldogs sports earned him the reciprocating respect and love of the players and students.

Dr. McClendon recalled, “Just a few days before Jim died in 1968, the senior class decided to dedicate the annual yearbook to him. The class visited with him shortly before he died to tell him about the dedication. He’d been in the hospital several days and was back home and he died at home.”

The yearbook dedication reads, “Sixteen years ago Jim came back to Ashville after many years away. During these years he endeared himself to all of us because we knew that he was our friend. He had a keen and enthusiastic interest in us and our many activities. He had the ability to be any age he chose to be.

Toddlers met him on equal ground. He easily became a pre-teen

Teague Hotel, bought around 1905 by Tallulah Nunnelley Teague

when one of them sought his company, and he was one of us – the high school gang. He was ageless!

“His three loves were the Rainbow Division of World War I, the town of Ashville and ALL young people.

“To show that we returned his feeling for us, we the Seniors of 1968, lovingly dedicate the annual to his memory.”

Jim died May 7, 1968. To further show their love and respect to this man who had won their hearts, Ashville High School established The Jim Nunnally Memorial Award with these words in the annual: “In honor of a great man who was loved and respected by all at Ashville High School, a memorial award has been established. This athletic award will be presented each year at graduation to a senior girl or boy who has been selected as the ‘Best Athlete.’ We hope this award will promote athletic desire, sportsmanship, scholarship and determination.”

The first Jim Nunnally Memorial Award was presented at the 1969 graduation to Harlan Sanders, son of Mr. and Mrs. Austin Sanders. The 1969 yearbook recorded of Harlan that he lettered four years in football, playing center on offense and linebacker on defense and was voted to the All-County Team. Harlan became the first Ashville player to be voted to the Birmingham Post Herald’s All State Team. He lettered four years in basketball and was team captain of the 19681969 team which went to the state tournament and placed on the All-County and All-Area teams his senior year. Harlan also lettered two years in baseball. John McClendon recalled that “the football team Harlan was on was one of the best in Ashville history – 8-2 record.”

The Jim Nunnally Memorial Award is still presented at Ashville High School with one change. Today, awards are presented to both male and female outstanding sportspersons.

Winners for school year 2018-2019 were Chris Sanders (Harlan Sander’s nephew) and Erika Williams, and the recently named 2019-2020 winners are J-Brelin Cook and Chloe Wills. Recipients of the award are chosen by Ashville High School coaches of all sports.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

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Traveling the

BACKROADS

Jim Nunnally, Lee Thompson, Clemons Roe, Max Smith, Mr. Hurst and, seated, Sheriff Joel (Red) Woods.

Life at the Teague Hotel

The Teague Hotel, where Jim took up residence around 1953 was located on the town square where today stands the Union State Bank. The hotel was owned and operated by Jim’s cousin, Annie Teague McClendon. Annie was a sister to Mattie Lou Teague Crow. The genealogical connection with Jim Nunnally and the Teagues came through Annie and Mattie Lou’s mother, Tullulah “Lula” Nunnelley who married John Teague in 1886. (Jim spelled his name differently from his relatives.)

Lula and John’s marriage ended in 1905 with John’s sudden death, leaving Lula with two daughters and four sons to raise and provide for. Mattie Lou in her memories wrote, “My mother purchased it when I was 3. … My father was a farmer and a schoolteacher.

When he died in 1905, my mother sold our farm in Beaver Valley and came to Ashville.” She recorded that not only did her mother have children ranging in age from 19 to 3 years in age, but she also had “our grandmother Nunnelley, who was then 80.”

Caroline Ballard, great-great-great-granddaughter of Lula Teague, researched the Teague Hotel for a school project and found it was built as a stagecoach inn by a Mr. Cranford in the early 1800s. Later, Curtis Grubb Beason ran it as an inn and trading post. Caroline wrote, “Mrs. Lula Nunnelley Teague purchased the Inn and ran it until her death in 1942. Annie Teague

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

Harlan Sanders received the first Jim Nunnally Award, 1968

Jim and Louise Nunnally from 1968 Ashville Yearbook McClendon, my great-great-grandmother, ran the hotel after her mother’s death.” Annie lived in the hotel until it was sold.

Lula Teague’s granddaughter, Nancy Willison, recently described the hotel as “… an L shape with two stories on the side parallel to the courthouse and there may have been two stories on the entire building. There was a porch at least on the long side. There were two large rooms on the side next to the courthouse.

“Miss Anna Smith, longtime fourth-grade teacher, lived in one of the rooms during the school year. The hall in front of these rooms led to a few steps down to a landing in front of the bathroom, and there was a door to the dining room from this landing. The table was usually full for one family-style meal, and, when necessary, a second seating was served.

My mother, dad and I ate lunch there often during the week.

My grandmother did most of the cooking with help. She made wonderful tea cakes that I have worked for years, unsuccessfully, to duplicate. She pulled those cookie sheets out of that woodburning stove using her apron or bare hands.”

Nancy married in 1969 and remembered Jim’s wife as a “delightful lady who enjoyed attending my bridal showers.”

However, Jim had moved back about the time Nancy left for college. So, growing up she saw Jim infrequently and remembered him as “… a mysterious person. He would randomly appear in Ashville, stay for some period of time and then disappear. He was my grandmother’s nephew. I remember when he would come to Ashville that he would spend time in my dad’s store, Teague Mercantile Co., visiting with everyone who came in.”

Annie Teague McClendon, who married Perkins McClendon, wrote of her mother’s buying the hotel. “After she had made a small down payment on the place, we had no money, so we all worked helping as best as we could. The boys helped, not only with the chores, but at any job they could find in order to buy their clothes and shoes and to help with the expenses. I stopped school to help with the housework. Our baby sister, Mattie Lou, did her part, too.” Of her mother she wrote that she “arose long before daylight and worked long after dark.”

Mattie Lou Teague Crow remembered that the boarders at her mother’s establishment were “... school teachers, a music teacher, a judge, superintendent of education, clerks, young

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

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Traveling the

BACKROADS

men who were high school students, a sprinkling of laborers – road builders and sawmillers – and a young doctor and his wife.” She spoke of the meals served and that when the dinner bell rang, there was rarely an empty chair at “our banquet-size dining table.

Exciting times at the hotel for Annie were court weeks. She remembered the “… judges, lawyers and farmers at the same table and had such a good time. I remember the old jury room where thirteen men stayed for many days and nights and had at our table three square meals a day.”

Poignant moments

Annie’s memories flowed from her heart to the written page as the Teague Hotel, her old home, was being taken down, beam by pegged beam. So many years ebbed and flowed that one hears both sorrow and happiness in her words. “I remember when our baby brother left home to find a job and never came back. I remember he was identified by his registration card which was in his pocket. I shall never forget that our mother never stopped grieving and she never stopped working, nor did she fail to keep faith in the One that is over us and hears our prayers.”

An open hall ran through the hotel providing a cool “summer living room,” Annie recalled. The hot days would find the women of the house sewing or mending garments while other townsfolk and guest congregated to visit. “Often, there were as many as 12 or 14 regular boarders at our house. Many were cultured, educated people who brought us treasures unnumbered – books, conversation, music and, best of all, friendship.”

Annie wrote that the rooms were named for people who stayed in them – Mama’s Room, just off the living room; Drummer’s Room, the front bedroom; Jury Room, the big bedroom upstairs; and her brothers’ room called the “Bull Pen, because it was so often full of boys, their friends and cousins who came whenever they wished.”

Lastly, Annie spoke of her cousin’s return to Ashville and his living in the hotel after his second wife died. “I remember when Jim Nunnally came home to live. He was all alone, and he took a room across the hall from the living room. It was so good to have someone whom I loved to share the old house with me again. That room will always be Jim’s Room in my memory.”

Being a never-meet-a-stranger man, Jim soon renewed friendship from former days and made new ones throughout Ashville, and everybody knew he lived at the hotel in “Jim’s Room.”

Annie and Perkins McClendon’s grandchildren have wonderful memories of Jim and the hotel, which was almost a second home. As Jim’s younger cousins, he quickly became friends with them.

Susan McClendon Kell, recalls, “Jim’s room had very high ceilings and was across the breezeway that was off the wraparound porch. All the cousins loved visiting him there and were always welcomed. We loved Jim. He loved us and all of Ashville’s youths.”

The cousins loved playing in the hotel, Susan recalled.

“There was a large upstairs ‘plunder’ room filled with treasures my brothers, cousins and I loved to play with. Old trunks,

22

Erica Williams and Chris Sanders, 2018-2019 Jim Nunnally Award winners soldier uniforms, etc. Fond memories of that fun-filled room.

I would love to see all those items again now that I could appreciate them.”

Martha McClendon Richey, Annie’s granddaughter, vividly recalls her grandmother, “Big Mama” Annie McClendon, and Eddy McClendon, a cousin, crying as they watched the Teague Hotel being torn down. Being too young to understand their sorrow, their tears disturbed her and linger in her memory.

Mattie Lou knew the sorrow and wrote of the hotel where she grew up, “For all of us there was something about our house. …

I believe that very old houses hold memories of all the lives that have been spent there.” Annie, Eddy, and no doubt, Mattie Lou, wept because they saw the dismantling of the past.

John McClendon, Susan Kell’s brother, loved Jim like a grandfather and cherishes wonderful memories of him. “I never knew either of my grandfathers, but I had Jim. And, boy, was he the best grandfather a boy could have. Fishing, tossing the baseball, roasting marshmallows, long conversations and all the stuff one could expect from the best grandfather ever.

“We had this daily ritual of going to Whitney Junction to watch the train go by at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. And it would deliver the mail. Haley Nelson would pick up the mail; that was his job. And he would be there at Miss Sheffield’s store – and he’d get the mail and take it back to Bunt Jones at the post office in Ashville. We would eat sardines and crackers

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Traveling the

BACKROADS and watch the train go by. That was the big event, watching the train go by!

“And my older brother and sister, Eddy and Susan, did the same thing when they were kids. He’d been taking kids to watch the train go by for years.” John paused, reflecting, then said, “Eating sardines as a kid – which is lovely. He was always there.”

John’s memories kept flowing. “Jim had a classic car. I don’t know what it was, but it was clean. This was in the mid-60s and it was a car out of the ‘30s. I wonder if anyone would know the make?” John’s young nephew Garrett Spears had it recorded in his history report: “Jim drove a black Chrysler c1930.”

Not only did John and Jim meet the train and eat sardines, but they also fished. “We’d go over to Red Wood’s lake and to Canoe Creek and to Lake Camac to fish. We went to the creek all the time – down Double Bridge Road at the creek there.”

A 911 forerunner and more

Of Jim’s Ashville activities, John recalled that “Jim took a job at the Sheriff’s Office. He was a radio dispatcher in the courthouse. He was a friendly, social guy, and this job and its location placed him smack in the middle of the ‘goings and comings’ of day-to-day activity in the middle of town. He did that maybe three or four years before he died.

“I was a kid, and I would go up to the courthouse and spend the day at the Sheriff’s Office right there on the first floor.

Jim would be manning the radio. They had four or five cars at the most in the county, and he would be the dispatcher for that. The original 911, I guess. Way before 911. But I think he wanted to have a reason to hang out at the center of all action – the drugstore, the post office and the courthouse. Always friendly and up for good conversation, this fit Jim perfectly as it meant Jim was central to the daily lives of the town as ‘best friend’ to everyone.”

Helen Sweatt, daughter of a deputy, recalled Jim as clerk in the Sheriff’s Office as well as dispatcher. “My daddy, Lee Allen Thompson, was one of three deputies at that time.

When Daddy would come home for lunch, he would park the patrol car in front of the house. Although the car wouldn’t be running, the police radio would stay on. My younger brother, Timmy, loved to play cops and robbers, and often he would get in the car and pretend to be our dad, whose call number was SC3. Timmy would key up the mic and say ‘SC3’ to whomever he thought he was calling.

“Mr. Nunnally would call our house phone and say, ‘Lee, your boy is on the radio again.’ Daddy would run out on the porch and say, ‘Boy, get out of the car and stop playing with the radio!’ Timmy never got a spanking for playing on the radio,” Helen laughed.

“Daddy had to furnish his own car,” Helen added. “He had a 1955 black Ford that he had a siren installed in it that worked from a button in the floor, just like the old-style light dimmer.

Timmy would set off the siren and upset the neighbors because during that time, unlike today, a siren meant that something terrible had happened.”

After the hotel closed, Susan Kell recalled, “Jim and Louise lived in a house right down from the church. My grandmother,

24

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

Garrett Spears at Jim Nunnally’s tombstone

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Stella Moorer, lived in one half and Jim and Louise in the other. Grandmother Annie McClendon lived directly across the street from Stella and Jim.”

Lasting legacy

As the interview with Dr. John McClendon drew to a close, he spoke of Jim Nunnally’s influence. “Jim didn’t just belong to me or the local kids, he belonged to all of Ashville. Think about this: He was not a principal, teacher or a coach. He was not a famous or rich alumnus. He was never an elected official.

He never held any official position in the town that would suggest a role with the school. But the Jim Nunnally Award is presented still today. He was ‘Jim: supporter and friend.’ A great person loved by all who knew him.

“In short, Jim loved Ashville and Ashville loved Jim – and it was an unconditional love, the best kind of love there is. So, I guess, an even better word to describe Jim is ‘love.’ He cared deeply for the town and its people.”

There could be no better affirmation of a man’s life than to be remembered as a man who loved. Such was James “Jim” Renfroe Nunnally. l

Old-time tent revival heading to Pell City

The gathering will be a throwback to the tent revivals of old.

Voices of Mobile

26

James Spann

Charles Billingsley

Donna Gaines

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

Dr. Johnny Hunt

Story by Pam Childs Submitted photos A bit of Americana is coming to Pell City this October in the form of a large, old-fashioned tent crusade that includes a packed lineup of visiting, renowned evangelists, musical artists and speakers.

The nightly “Come to Christ Crusade” will take place Oct. 4-8, from 6:30 to 8:30, on the campus of Eden Westside Baptist Church, 223 Wolf Creek Road N. The tent will accommodate up to 1,500 people.

Eden Westside Pastor Jacky Connell said he is planning the crusade with the hope that current state health regulations meant to curb the spread of COVID-19 will be over.

If not, the church will take every precaution. “We will do everything we can do to ensure that people are as safe as possible. If we have to fan out all outside that tent and put some speakers out there, that’s what we will do,” Connell said.

While a tent meeting may be unconventional these days, Connell said the nostalgic gathering is perfect for this time in the lives of the residents of St. Clair and surrounding counties.

“If there has ever been a time, even in the middle of a pandemic, that a crusade for Christ needs to happen, it is in the days we live in right now. Hope is needed in our community.”

Up through the 1960s, tent meetings were a tradition in the South. Colorful handbills beckoned people from all walks of life to attend the makeshift church that was often erected in a park or a field near a roadside.

Night after night, people came wearing anything from overalls to their Sunday best to hear traveling evangelists, including the late Dr. Billy Graham, who preached his first citywide crusade 73 years ago.

It was September 1947, and the orange and yellow handbill for the crusade read, “Christ for this Crisis!” Notably, the world was still reeling from the “atrocities” of the second world war, “the most destructive conflict in history,” according to a blog in the Billy Graham Library archives.

So, how did the idea of the “Come to Christ Crusade” for Pell City come to be?

It was April 2019 when God planted the specific idea of an outdoor crusade in Connell’s heart. “It’s unusual for a pastor to have the assignment of an outdoor crusade and a tent, specifically. We have a large campus, large facilities,” he said.

Still, Connell shared the idea with a friend and leaders in his church, all of whom he said encouraged him to follow through on the idea.

The pastor said he never imagined the crises that would soon rock the world, the nation, the community. “When you look back, there was really nothing going on back then that would call for something this unconventional. But God knew what was going to happen in 2020 and was getting someone ready back in 2019 to provide this for such a time as this. I am absolutely and utterly convinced that this (crusade) is of God.” The purpose of the “Come to Christ Crusade” is evangelistic, Connell said. “It is for people to come to a place where they are introduced to Jesus; it’s not come to a denomination, not come to a particular church, such as Eden Westside, but it’s come to Christ. Anybody can come. It’s for everyone to have an opportunity to respond to the gospel message.

“I think as human beings, we are required to face the issue of life and living, and I think that all the crises we are dealing with have everything to do with life and living. The crusade allows us to present another dimension of hope. And that hope is for eternity.”

Connell said he believes the crusade is a strategic call from God. “It gives us an opportunity to have our eyes opened to a greater hope than what this world has to offer – to a greater hope than the temporary things that are so swiftly passing by and changing. The greater hope lies in eternity and where we are going to spend it.”

Connell noted the recent, rapid change in the world. “I think that we are being made aware that a lot of things that people would call normal and have confidence in, can quickly change and be taken away from us. But when you put your focus on just the things of this world, the hope that people are searching for can quickly evaporate. We have to open our eyes to a bigger picture of eternity.”

The pastors that will be bringing that message of hope include C.T. Townsend of North Augusta, S.C.; Scott Dawson of Birmingham; Dr. Steve Gaines of Cordova, Tenn.; Dr. Ted Traylor of Pensacola, Fla.; and Dr. Johnny Hunt of Woodstock, Ga. Connell said he believes Townsend is “a young man who has a special anointing on his life to preach.” Dawson has led youth ministries for many years and has had great influence while investing in the lives of political and church leaders, Connell added.

Gaines is a long-time pastor who has a heart that seeks after God. He is also a leader in the Southern Baptist Convention, said Connell. Traylor’s ministry also has longevity, and his presentation of sharing the gospel is “very powerful.”

Connell describes Hunt as a Christian who “got saved, and he ain’t never got over it.

“He has such a desire to see the lost come to Christ. He’s been a leader in our denomination – not only nationally, but also globally.”

Author, speaker, educator Donna Gaines of Cordova, Tenn., and Birmingham’s ABC 33/40 chief meteorologist James Spann will also speak.

Charles Billingsley, Jonathan Wilburn and the vocal performing ensemble, Voices of Mobile, are the musical guests.

A fun, interactive children’s crusade for ages 4 through sixthgrade will also be held on Eden’s campus, inside the children’s building.

Preschool will be provided for infants through K-3. l For more information, visit www.edenwestside.org.

Ted Traylor

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

Scott Dawson

27

Tomato Time!

Chandler Mountain comes alive in a sea of red Story by Elaine Hobson Miller Photos by Graham Hadley It’s tomato-picking time again on Chandler Mountain, the unofficial Tomato Capital of Alabama, where 800 acres of St. Clair County soil are devoted to this popular food every year. For several weeks now farmers have been pulling them from the plants, packing them up and selling them to distributors and the public alike.

Picking got off to a late start this year at Smith Tomato, a fixture on Chandler Mountain for more than 35 years. Cloudy days and excessive rain pushed back the picking, which usually begins the first of July, by a week.

Coronavirus pandemic permitting, it will end with a big fall festival sometime in October.

“We’re only picking 1,500 to 2,000 boxes a day now, where we’re normally doing 4,000-6,000,” Smith Tomato co-owner Kista Smith-Lowe said in mid-July. “We pick every other day because it’s more productive. We get twice as many in less time because they don’t all ripen at once.”

Picking began on July 10, and they sold out of their Number One grade the first day. “The Number Ones have no imperfections, while our Number Twos have some flaws, but they taste the same,” Kista (pronounced Keesta) said. Distributors picked up 1,500 boxes, each weighing 25 pounds, that first day, but that’s far less than a normal day’s pickings.

The Smiths grow more than 100 of the 800 acres of tomatoes planted on Chandler Mountain each year. The exact amount varies because all fields aren’t the same

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The next generation of Smiths have taken over running the family farm.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

29

Tomato Time

Picking is labor-intensive work, finding the ready-to-pick tomatoes among the unripe ones. size, and they rotate the fields. “We have about 200 acres all together,” Kista said. “We sell directly to the public and to distributors or middlemen, who then sell to grocery stores, etc., in Florida, Texas, Mississippi, even as far away as New York and Pennsylvania.”

Kista’s parents, Leroy and Kathy Smith, purchased the Smith farm 35 years ago from her uncle, who started growing tomatoes in the 1960s. The Smith kids have added to it and now have about 200 acres, plus some leased land. “We lost both of our parents in 2018,” Kista said. She and her two brothers run the place. Kista is in charge of bookkeeping and public sales, Phillip handles irrigation and fertilization and Chad handles spraying for pests. A crew leader answers to Chad. The Smiths were raised working with their parents in the fields, and Kista’s two daughters, ages 19 and 14, are already helping in sales, restocking and in the vegetable garden.

Their parents probably grew about half what the Smiths do now because it’s easier to grow tomatoes today than it used to be. “They had to do lots more field work by hand,” Kista said.

“Daddy put quality before quantity, and that’s the way we were raised. I’m super proud of what he accomplished.”

Even though harvest time lasts only three or four months, tomato farming is a year-round affair, with only a couple of months off in late fall and early winter. The process begins in February when they work on the equipment. During March and April, they break ground. In April, they start planting, and from March to October, they’re staking, tying, setting fall plants out and picking. After each setting, all the tomato plants are staked and tied at least four times.

30

Buckets of hand-picked tomatoes are carried to trucks for sorting.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

Picked tomatoes are sorted by hand in the back of trucks.

2021

Models In Stock

When October rolls around, the guys clean all the tractors and winterize the equipment. Their only down time is November through January, but even then, they might be placing orders.

And that’s not counting the time they’re planting cover crops like hemp, wheat, turnips and other greens for winter, to put nutrients back into the soil. “Early in the year, we spend eight to 10 hours a day working this farm,” Kista says. “Four months of year, we have 14- to 16-hour days.”

The field process starts with plowing, using a machine that digs deep into the soil and brings it up in clods. Next comes fertilizing, using spreaders pulled by tractors. Then a chisel plow with gripper feet rips the ground and loosens it, and a tiller with rotating tines turns those clods into fine dirt. A plastic machine (that’s what they call it) pushes dirt into piles to form rows, puts down drip lines (plastic tubing, part of the irrigation system), fumigates, then covers the rows with plastic sheeting.

“Our dad was the first farmer on Chandler Mountain to use a plastic machine,” Kista said. The fumigation chemicals go away in two weeks, before they put down the plants. A plant setter pokes holes in the plastic and drops water into those holes.

“Our migrant workers put the plants in by hand,” Kista said.

“It’s much faster than machines can do it.”

The cost to grow tomatoes is about $10,000 per acre, and that’s before picking. It costs another $3.50 per box to pick, sort and grade them, so that’s about $7,000 in boxes and packing per acre. “We strive for 2,000 boxes of tomatoes per acre per season,” Chad said. “We have had as many as 3,000, but 2,000 is our feel-good mark.”

They wait until after April 15 to start planting to be sure they’ve seen the last frost. “We’ve had to pull up thousands of plants and re-plant due to a late frost,” Kista said. “Some companies put Styrofoam cups over them to protect them from unexpected frost, but that’s costly.” Even if the tomatoes live through the cold, it stunts them, and they won’t yield as much.

“They’ll be fewer and smaller and more prone to disease,” Chad said.

They put about 400,000 plants into the ground each year, buying the seeds and having a plant grower raise them until they are about four weeks old. “We plant, stake, string and pick by hand, with a crew of about 50 people,” Kista said. “The tomatoes are processed in the field, meaning they are sized,

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

31

Tomato Time

Mandy Smith, Esther Smith, Kista Smith-Lowe, Delaney Franklin ready to help customers at the store

graded and boxed there.”

“There’s so much technology now, and some larger processors have machines that can detect size and grade the tomatoes,” Chad said. “Here, we used to have machines that graded them. We would put them on belts that had different sized holes in them.

We went to grading in the field because it’s better production.”

Workers were picking about a third of their normal crop in mid-July, but sunshine and an upcoming full moon were sure to help. “A full moon when tomatoes are ripening is like 24 hours of sunlight,” said Chad.

“It speeds up the process.”

“It’s very tiring but very exciting work,” said Kista.

“Harvest is the most exciting time, especially when we pick more than ever for one day. Sore hands and backs, from picking, lifting, repairing tractors, planting are occupational hazards for us and the crew, too.”

They fight worms and insects that can kill the plants, like aphids and white flies, using insecticides and fungicides that are EPA-regulated. About a third of their chemicals are organic. Chad figures fertilizers and other chemicals and the plastic sheeting and tubing probably cost $400,000 per year. “Our profits may be four or five cents a pound after costs,” he said.

“That would make us a good living.”

32

Your turn to pick In August, when a field has only a couple of thousand tomatoes left, the Smiths turn it into a U-Pick farm, allowing the public to pick their own tomatoes at a cheaper cost than buying them by the

Smith Tomato sells fresh tomatoes out of their store on the farm.

Cucumbers, squash and other produce are also grown and sold on the farm.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

People call ahead and order whole boxes of tomatoes.

34

box or basket. “It’s not productive enough for the migrants to pick at that stage, because they generally pick 5,000-6,000 tomatoes per day,” Kista said. “Their record is 8,000.”

They usually end the season with a big fall festival the first or second weekend of October, depending upon the Bama football schedule.

“We grow pumpkins and sell those and cornstalks and other outdoor decorations like acorn squash and mums,” Kista said. “We have face painting and vendors who sell food and arts and crafts. Last year, we had close to 1,000 people show up.

It’s hard to count because we don’t sell tickets. It’s free.” She said they aren’t sure whether they’re having the festival or not this year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, but urged readers to check their Facebook page for updates.

Tomatoes aren’t the only vegetables (or fruit, depending on the definition you prefer) that the Smiths sell. They grow melons, cucumbers, green beans, yellow squash, zucchini and grape tomatoes, and they buy potatoes and onions, jams and jellies out of the Birmingham Farmer’s

Picking fresh squash is going on at the same time as the tomato harvest.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

Tomato Time

Fresh produce for sale covers tables at the farm store.

Showing off fresh tomatoes ready to be sorted.

Acres of tomato plants cover Chandler Mountain.

Market, to sell to the general public out of their warehouse.

That warehouse is open to the public from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week, during tomato season. They’re on Loop Road, just off Gallant Road, in Steele. (That’s 4575 Loop Road, Steele, for your GPS.) They get anywhere from 25 to 100 customers a day, who buy for home canning and cooking. Customers can also pick up a T-shirt or baseball cap emblazoned with the Smith Tomato logo. It’s worth a trip to their warehouse just to see all the signs and symbols hanging on the walls and from the ceilings, like Farmall tractor advertisements, old license plates and kiddie pedal tractors, including one Chad drove as a youngster.

Looking ahead, the Smiths are contemplating opening a diner in two or three years. It will feature fresh, home-cooked vegetables and some sandwiches and lots of tomato dishes.

Then folks can make a day trip out of shopping for fresh vegetables and eating them, too.

Now that’s something to look forward to!

Follow Smith Tomato on Facebook and online at smithtomatollc.com.

Tomato Time

Tomatoes play starring role in all kinds of recipes Nothing compares to the taste sensation of a ripe, red, juicy tomato.

You can eat one in a sandwich, chop one for a salad or bake it in a pie. If you can’t wait for it to ripen, you can slice it thinly, dip the slices in a beaten egg, drag them through some cornmeal and fry them.

You can freeze or can tomatoes and use them in soups and stews during the winter months. Heck, you can even store green ones all winter.

Makes your mouth water just thinking about the prospects, doesn’t it?

Both of these recipes were lifted from allrecipes.com, but the one for the Green Tomato Cake is similar to one Kista Smith-Lowe’s mom used. “She said the tomatoes made the cake moist,” Kista said. The Tomato Pie recipe probably is more familiar to folks. Bake and dig in.

GREEN TOMATO CAKE Serves 24

Ingredients: • • • • • • • • • • •

4 cups chopped, green tomatoes 1 tablespoon plus 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup butter 2 cups sugar 2 eggs 2 cups plain flour 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 cup raisins 1/2 cup walnuts

Directions: Place chopped tomatoes in a bowl and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of salt. Let stand 10 minutes. Place in a sieve or colander, rinse with cold water and drain.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x13 baking pan.

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat until creamy.

Sift together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, soda and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add raisins and nuts to dry mixture, then add dry ingredients to creamed mixture. Batter will be very stiff. Mix well.

Add drained tomatoes and mix well. Pour into the prepared pan.

Bake for 40-45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until skewer inserted into cake comes out clean.

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TOMATO SANDWICH

Around these parts, the hands down favorite recipe is the tomato sandwich.

While there are as many variations as the Smiths have tomatoes, the key ingredients are traditionally two pieces of white bread, your favorite mayonnaise and a thick, juicy, red tomato. Enjoy!

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

Discover the Best of

St . Clair County AWARDS

Now is your chance!

Our readers tell us where to discover‌ Vote now! Ballot casting closes 8.24.20

The Best Food: Please specify applicable location: Ex: Name of Business/Group, Town

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VOTE AT DISCOVERSTCLAIR.COM OR MAIL THIS BALLOT!

Voting is now through August 24, 2020. Nominees must operate in St. Clair County. Only one ballot per person or by mail.

Mail ballot to: 1911 Cogswell Ave., Pell City, AL 35125 or vote online at discoverstclair.com.

Winners will be announced in the October issue of Discover St. Clair Magazine.

Tomato Time

TOMATO PIE

ED WILLIAMS’ TOMATO GRAVY

Ingredients: • • • • • • • •

1 (9-inch) unbaked pie crust 5 large tomatoes, peeled and sliced 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ground, black pepper 1 tablespoon dried basil 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder 3/4 cup mayonnaise 1 & 1/4 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Directions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Bake pie crust in preheated oven for 10 minutes Cover bottom of pie crust with a layer of tomato slices.

In a small bowl, mix together salt, pepper, basil and garlic powder. Sprinkle half of mixture over tomato slices Layer remaining tomato slices in pie crust and sprinkle with the rest of the seasoning mixture.

In a medium bowl, mix together mayonnaise and cheese. Spread mixture evenly over top of pie.

Reduce oven to 350 degrees and bake pie for 35 minutes.

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Ingredients: • Fresh chopped tomatoes (at least three but I prefer six) • 1 Vidalia onion • Pinch of sugar • A little bit of flour • Water if needed • Salt and pepper to taste Directions: Heat butter or bacon drippings in cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly softened and lightly browned, about 5 minutes.

Add flour and cook, stirring occasionally until slightly browned, about 2 minutes. Add tomatoes, sugar, and salt and pepper.

Bring to a gentle boil, then reduce heat and simmer 10-15 minutes until tomatoes are cooked and mixture is slightly thickened. If too thick just add a little water. Pour the gravy on top of biscuits and enjoy! Goes good with some Royal sausage. l

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

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PASSIONATE ABOUT DOGS A Ragland woman raises champions fit for showing, hunting and petting

Story by Elaine Hobson Miller Submitted photos Ever since she was a child, Brenna Carlisle has had a passion for dogs. Breeding and showing are in her blood, almost a part of her DNA. Her grandparents and her mother bred and raised show dachshunds. Yet when Brenna decided to take up the mantle, it was primarily because she couldn’t have a horse.

“I just wanted to be able to participate in some kind of animal shows,” she says. “I had been on my parents about a show horse around the time Christopher Reeves fell off his horse and was paralyzed,” she says. “I was an only child. They weren’t sure about a horse. Then mom said, ‘Well, she could get a show dog. She can’t fall off a dachshund.’”

And the torch was passed.

Today, she and her husband, Joseph, own Heritage Hounds, where they breed and train bluetick coonhounds, long-haired dachshunds and treeing walker coonhounds. Some of their stock have won American Kennel Club championships all over the U.S. Their most recent success was with CH (Champion) Heritage Make it Rain, a bluetick known as Noah around his

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kennels. His mother won Best Bluetick Coonhound in Breed at the prestigious Westminster Dog Show in 2014, and Noah was being prepped for the 2020 show when the coronavirus quarantine shut down the show circuit. Westminster is an invitation-only event, and those invitations are extended only to dogs who are already Champions of Record. The Carlisles had high hopes for Noah and his sister, CH Heritage Annie Oakley, a.k.a. Annie. Both are now retired to a friend’s farm in Georgia.

In the beginning Brenna got her first dachshund, Domino, from a top showdog breeder when she was 11. “That was in 2003,” says the 28-year-old. “The breeder mentored me in showing, and I was hooked.” She soon became the top junior dog handler (person under 18 years of age who competes in a special competition just for young handlers) in the country and remained in the top 10 for four years. In 2008, she took the No. 1 position and stayed there for a couple of months.

“Today we have three generations of dachshunds at my house and would have had four, but we lost Domino at 17 last May (2019),” she says.

The leap from dachshunds to coonhounds wasn’t as high or long as it may sound. When Brenna was attending the

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

University of Alabama, it was a big deal for sorority sisters to have large dogs they could take to the park or the campus quad. Brenna wanted a big dog, but not something anyone else had. She wanted to stay in the hound family, so she did some research, came across blueticks and fell in love.

“I gotta have one of these,” she told herself and her sorority sisters. So, she got a puppy from a breeder in Ohatchee.

Neither one of them knew how famous that puppy, Mint Julep, was going to be. “We expected her to be a champion, but she surpassed all of our dreams,” Brenna says. “Mint Julep has won best Bluetick Coondog at the American Kennel Club national championship, best at Westminster Kennel Club dog show and best at the United Kennel Club’s (UKC) national grand championship. Julep is Noah’s mother.”

Dogs brought Brenna and her husband together. They met at a state championship coon hunt in 2013. “Neither of us won the hunt that night, but he says he won because he got me,” Brenna says.

She quickly discovered that, like her, Joseph believed in dualpurpose breeding, or breeding for form as well as function.

“Dog shows were originally created for the preservation of hunting dogs,” she says. “You’re supposed to be showing your breeding stock, so you should be able to take your dogs out of show rings and turn them loose in the woods that night, and they should be able to do what they are bred to do.”

Joseph was born and raised in the Ragland area and makes his living in his family’s logging company. He is 38 and has been hunting since he was 14. Bandit, a female, was his fourthgeneration treeing walker coonhound who was the 2012 UKC Alabama State Hunt Champion. She died in October 2019 at the age of 13, but Joseph continues to breed walkers.

The couple married in 2016 and have a two-and-a-halfyear-old son, Marty, who loves the dogs and helps feed, bathe, groom and train them. He even goes to shows with Brenna and on coon hunts with his dad and mom. Joseph also has a 12-year-old daughter, Ray Leigh Anna Lynn.

In addition to the kennels, Heritage Hounds includes a dog hunting club just off the Carlisle property, called St. Clair County Coon Hunters Association. The Carlisles host the United Kennel Club, Professional Kennel Club and American Kennel Club hunts there.

“We breed dual-purpose dogs for show and hunt,” says Brenna. “We are Preservation breeders who breed for a purpose.

We are at the AKC Breeder of Merit Silver Level,” which is a program that honors responsible breeders who have gone above and beyond on health issues, temperament and genetic screening as well as to the individual care and placement of puppies in responsible homes, according to the AKC website.

A teachable moment Brenna was excited to have the ability to share her passion for dogs with her fifth-grade classes for a day while at Williams Intermediate School in Pell City. (She’s now a sixth-grade science teacher at Stemley Road Elementary in the Talladega County School System.)

Using black curtains, pictures of dogs and a fake crowd on paper, she transformed her classroom into the Westminster Dog Show ring. “I have trophies and ribbons in my classroom because the kids like to see evidence of what teachers do outside the classroom,” she says. “They were curious about the dog shows. When I was preparing for Westminster, all the kids had questions. I decided to do the room transformation so they could see what it was all about.”

A painting of one of the champions.

She went a few steps further, though, by challenging her students to make a “dog crate” using bubble wrap, cotton and tissue paper. The dogs were eggs.

“I gave each one an egg with a sticker of a dog on it,” Brenna explains. I said, ‘Imagine you’re a dog crate engineer, and you need some crates to protect dogs traveling all over the world.

You have 30 minutes, and we’ll see if it works.’” At the end of that half hour, each student had to drop his egg from a height of five feet to see whether his “crate” actually protected his “dog.”

They had only three eggs to survive, but the students thought the broken eggs were great. “Luckily, the mess was contained in a box,” she says.

She taught several different classes during the day at Williams, and each period got to participate in the eggy experiment. Her goal was to tie the lesson to what she enjoys, what her passion is.

“I was reading a book called The Wild Card that talks about teachers showing kids their passion as a role model for them to follow their dreams,” she says. “I told them my dream was

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

41

PASSIONATE ABOUT DOGS Taking the hounds out at night

to always win best in breed with a dog. I didn’t have a breed in mind, I just wanted to be on that green carpet on television.”

Brenna can’t explain why she loves dog breeding and showing so much. “It’s just something I really enjoy,” she says.

“My husband and I share the same passion. It’s pretty cool to see dogs you’ve produced and raised from birth winning.

That’s definitely rewarding. I feel like we are doing something different than a lot of other breeders because we’re breeding for dual purpose.

“Hunting is important to us, but their form should follow after their function, and they should be able to be shown and hunt. We breed for form so our dogs can do their jobs better, and the breeds will last longer.”

She currently has 10 dogs, some who prefer lounging on couches in her den, others who prefer the outdoors. She’s stepping away from bluetick breeding, putting her focus back on her dachshunds and helping her husband with his treeing walker coonhounds because she loves that breed, too.

“I have a walker puppy born in November (2019) at our house, in my living room, where I bottle fed him until his mom decided she wanted her puppies after all,” she says. “We really don’t keep males because they can become aggressive. But he’s the sweetest, cutest pile of mush you’ve ever seen, all legs and with feet that are way too big for him, so he trips and falls a lot.

I told my husband I don’t care if he doesn’t do anything but eat grass in the backyard, he’s never leaving here. He’s something

42

special.”

Their kennels are simple, welded-wire runs in a metal structure, where specially made barrels raised off the ground serve as bedrooms for the dogs. They don’t use dog houses because they aren’t safe or easy to clean. “We don’t have our dogs on concrete or dirt, but crusher run, because I know when I stand on concrete all day, my legs hurt,” she says. “Standing on gravel or dirt is better for their joints.”

Heritage Hounds will continue to raise dogs for show and hunting, not just for pets. Brenna and Joseph believe that’s detrimental for any breed, recalling puppy mills with crowded cages that breed for money.

“We don’t profit from any of our litters with all we put into them,” she says. “It’s costly to raise them, even with a great vet like Dr. Larry Chasteen at Logan Martin Vet Clinic, who takes care of all our dogs. You have ultrasounds, regular vet checks, shots, flea and tick medicines, heart-worm medicines, spraying for flies and ticks wherever the dogs go, the individual crates for the dogs when they sleep inside the house. There’s no profit in all of that.”The future of Heritage Hounds is bright, according to Brenna, and will be focusing on the breeding of standard longhair dachshunds and treeing walker coonhounds from here on out. “We may have some blueticks here and there, but our main focus will be the betterment of the dual-purposebred treeing walker coonhounds and continuing the breeding of dachshunds.” l

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

PRESENTS

FRIDAY|SEPTEMBER 4 PELL CITY SPORTS COMPLEX

TICKETS: w w w. P E L L C I T Y C E P A . c o m Presented by

Meeting new challenges

MEDICAL COMMUNITY

The new PCIFM building

PCIFM, Bedsole Eye Care, ATI Physical Therapy, Comfort Care Hospice expand to new facilities Story by Leigh Pritchett Photos by Graham Hadley Submitted photos Pell City is experiencing quite a boost in its growing medical community thanks to the expansions of Pell City Internal and Family Medicine, ATI Physical Therapy and Comfort Care Hospice expanding into new facilities.

Pell City Internal and Family Medicine Dec. 26, 2019, was a second Christmas Day for Pell City Internal and Family Medicine: That was when the practice opened its new, freestanding clinic next to South Park Center.

The new construction has consolidated

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PCIFM’s main office in Physicians Plaza at St. Vincent’s St. Clair Hospital and its satellite office in South Park Center into one location.

Together, the two previous clinics totaled 15,000 square feet and had 23 examination rooms. The new building boasts 20,000 square feet, close to 40 examination rooms, a procedure room, laboratory and plenty of space for specialty care physicians.

“We have room for expansion,” said Dr. Barry Collins, a physician and partner in PCIFM. Some areas used for other purposes can easily convert to additional exam rooms if needed, he said.

PCIFM, which was established in 2012, provides primary, after-hours, women’s and pediatric care.

When its physician partners decided to construct a new building, they took note of the

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

45

ST. CLAIR MEDICAL COMMUNITY PCIFM lab

increase in retail and population in the southern part of the city.

This location placed the clinic in a rapid-growth sector of the city and in proximity to people in Vincent and Harpersville (both in neighboring Shelby County). Yet, it is still close to the hospital and Interstate 20, Collins said.

Because of the building’s “linear” design, all medical services are on one floor, which not only lessens the amount of walking for a patient, but also streamlines patient flow, Collins said.

This improves ease of care and speed of care, said Collins and Dr. Ilinca Prisacaru, also a partner.

Even the design of the parking lot limits the walking distance for patients, said Dr. Rick Jotani, partner and chief executive officer. “It’s a little more convenient for our folks.”

The array of on-site diagnostics, imaging and other services now available at PCIFM reduces the need for patients to commute to the hospital to receive them, Prisacaru said.

Having so many services at one location promotes cohesiveness and continuity of care, added Collins.

PCIFM – which was already offering space to several specialists before the new building was constructed – now has room for even more sub-

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New PCIFM waiting room

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

THANK YOU At St. Vincent’s St. Clair, our frontline workers dedicate themselves to providing quality care 24/7. They truly are our heroes, and we thank them for their service to our community each and every day!

St. Clair County Health Care Authority

Lawrence Fields, chairman . James Mc Gowan . Joe Lee . John Wesley McHugh Christy Wills . Bill Murray . Judy Martin . Ren Wheeler . Rusty Jessup

ST. CLAIR MEDICAL COMMUNITY specialties.

Currently, two cardiologists, two general surgeons, an orthopedic surgeon and two gastroenterologists see patients at the PCIFM facility. Jotani and Collins said the practice is “actively recruiting” specialists in dermatology and audiology as well.

Jotani also noted that physical therapy is available on campus through ATI Physical Therapy.

The partners said adding another physician to PCIFM’s primary and after-hours care may happen within the next 18 months. “As the community expands, so should our services,” said Collins.

Prisacaru and Jotani pointed out that the conference room allows on-site diabetes classes to be held on a regular basis. Led by a nurse practitioner, the classes are kept small for participants to receive personalized attention.

The spaciousness of the facility meant there was even room for daycare for employees’ children during the COVID-19 shutdown.

Ten to 15 children each day stayed in a designated area of the building while their parents attended to patients, Jotani said, adding that the community brought food and other items for the employees’ children.

“The community supported us immensely,” Collins said of those weeks of working when many essential services in the city were closed.

Another asset of the new building is a designated aesthetics suite. There, Jotani Aesthetics offers non-surgical cosmetic measures.

Since December 2019, PCIFM has seen a definite increase in patient load, Prisacaru said. One contributing factor is the addition of Saturday clinic hours, Collins said. Previously, the clinic was open Sunday through Friday.

Clinic hours are 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, and 1-5 p.m. Sunday.

Two practitioners are always on duty during office hours.

Collins said visibility – being next to a retail center – has likewise contributed to an increase in patients. “Folks know we’re here,” Jotani said.

To meet increasing demand, another nurse practitioner was hired, as were more clinical and laboratory staff, Collins said. Jotani and Prisacaru estimated that employment has increased 10 to 12 percent since the building opened.

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PCIFM ultrasound

Doctors grab lunch in the new break area.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

CoolSculpting equipment

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oday, while we may use more modern tools to do the job, our core mission is still the same.

Provide reliable service at the most affordable price possible.

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Dr. Bedsole’s new building nears completion

James W. Bedsole, O.D. Eye Care In August, James W. Bedsole, O.D. moves to a modern building, designed for Eye Care, situated just in front of South Park Center. Dr. Bedsole’s practice will relocate from downtown Pell City to 2020 Martin Street South.

Dr. Bedsole said that, of all the properties he considered for relocation, this particular location was the very best.

He provides primary eye care, vision correction and treatment of eye diseases, as well as preoperative and post-operative care.

The new building, state-of-the-art, will allow greater comfort and efficiency for patient care.

The new location is convenient – located in front of the South Park Shopping Center that includes Publix – and it’s more accessible.

The brick-and-mortar buildings are important for patient care, but even more important are people, Bedsole said, noting that he has a great staff who works hard and really cares for their patients.

The new building is an asset in continuing to deliver exceptional patient care.

Michele greets people at Comfort Care Hospice.

ATI Physical Therapy Situated at the Hardwick Road end of PCIFM’s building is the Pell City location of ATI Physical Therapy.

Based in Illinois, ATI operates stand-alone physical therapy sites, as well as units on high school and college campuses, said Chris Baker, director of physical therapy at ATI in Pell City. The

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

Serving the Community from Our New Home!

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Staff outside the new Comfort Care Hospice building next to Publix.

Pell City site opened Feb. 17.

Encompassing more than 2,800 square feet, the local ATI provides physical therapy for a wide range of needs and specializes in therapy for orthopedic and cervical spine issues, Baker said.

Monday through Friday, ATI offers one-toone care, using new equipment and a variety of treatments. Appointments are available 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The growth occurring in Pell City schools and in southern St. Clair County made this location particularly attractive to ATI, Baker said. Even though the location opened shortly before the COVID-19 shutdown, Pell City’s ATI has experienced a steady increase in clientele.

Future plans include hiring additional physical therapists, Baker said.

“We have been very blessed with the patients we have seen so far,” Baker said. “Pell City has been good to us. We look forward to growing with the community.”

Comfort Care Hospice Comfort Care Hospice opened its Pell City office May 1 in South Park Center.

“The growth around here is just awesome,” said Clay Spencer, administrator and a registered nurse with Comfort Care Hospice. “I have wanted to come over here so long. ... I can’t tell you how happy we

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Christopher Baker works on a patient’s hand at ATI.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

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Student athlete Tion Wright of Vincent works to strenghthen her legs. are to be here.”

Spencer said the office relocated to Pell City to be more central to its coverage area, which includes St. Clair, Clay and Talladega counties.

The 10-plus employees at the Pell City location include nurses, aides, a social worker, a chaplain and office staff.

The physicians are Dr. Rick Jotani of Pell City, who is medical director, and Dr. Jarod Speer of Childersburg.

Spencer said Comfort Care Hospice also has a corps of volunteers who call patients and offer short-term respite for caregivers.

Hospice care, Spencer explained, is for patients with terminal diagnoses. “Our goal is to keep them home and keep them comfortable,” she said.

With hospice care, patients receive medical attention right at home. Nurses are available around the clock and also visit at least twice each week with patients. Aides make several visits each week in patient homes, as well.

The hospice mission allows patients, along with family members, to make their own decisions about care, Spencer said. “(Hospice) does elongate how much time they do have before they make that transition.”

Dr. Greg Tankersley, the chaplain, gives spiritual and emotional support to patients and families during the time of hospice care. After a patient passes, he offers grief support to family members for 13 months.

“We stay in touch with our families,” Spencer said.

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ATI has a wide variety of equipment to help meet any physical therapy need.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

Real People. Real Life Stories.

“When my mother had the beginnings of dementia, she was in Birmingham, and I was in Pell City. Working full time, I couldn’t be there. But Always There could, and they helped her with the things she needed to remain independent -- taking her grocery shopping, making sure she got the right medications at the right time, being a companion. Always There allowed her to stay in her own home and took the worries away from my siblings and I when we couldn’t be there for her.”

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His office is an accredited surgery center which enables most patients to never step foot in a hospital, offering them the privacy they want.

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NORTHSIDE

Health & Wellness

QUALITY | CARE | PREVENTION Story by Eryn Ellard Photos by Graham Hadley Submitted photos It is no secret by now: 2020 has been met with great adversity and trial as a pandemic gripped the world.

Healthcare workers across the country and here at home have been working tirelessly to keep their skill sets sharp and to keep the community healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Northside Medical is home to St. Clair County’s largest outpatient health care facility, serving over 5,000 patients throughout its six locations, and its innovations in the delivery of health care are widely known.

One of those innovations comes in the form of a six-member team inside Northside’s Health & Wellness department that stresses not only the importance of receiving proper medical attention when you are ill but also when you are healthy in order to stay healthy.

Working directly with each provider, the department serves as a convenient central hub for patients and provides the

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

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Northside Health & Wellness gets fellow staffers to demonstrate safe and healthy behavior – 6 feet apart and wearing a mask. foundation to stay healthy – from flu shots to cancer screenings, wellness visits for women, depression screenings and everything in between.

The department was established as a part of the Northside team three years ago as the need for preventative health was on the rise. The idea, says Executive Director Dianna McCain, is to keep health care cost effective but also to do everything you possibly can to keep from being hospitalized.

“By the time a patient needs to be admitted to the hospital, it is almost a guarantee that they will also need to be treated for something completely different than for what they had to come for in the first place,” McCain said. “We want to do

58

everything in our power to keep hospitalizations to a minimum.”

Nurse practitioners also can be found making house calls through the department. If a patient is unable to acquire transportation or cannot physically come into the facility for a visit, a member of the wellness team will come to them.

McCain said most lab work and X-rays can be done at the home. The visits have proven to be a great tool, not only during a pandemic, but also to several patients who would not otherwise receive care. Because individual providers don’t have the time to assess individual patient’s more in-depth needs, McCain says her department has been very successful in identifying these patients and

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

serving them.

“We have seen instances when a diabetic patient’s blood sugar isn’t being maintained properly through medication and diet,” McCain said. “We can just touch base and see if we can come see them at home. Many times, it can be just as simple as a patient not drawing their insulin up correctly.”

In addition to running patient queries to call and schedule routine immunizations and screenings, McCain says the department has been able to extend monetary assistance when a need arises. McCain and her staff often work directly with other local organizations like the St. Clair County Coalition, The Christian Love Pantry, as well as several area churches to provide groceries, medication assistance and utility bill relief to some patients.

“It can be very bad if, for example, a diabetic doesn’t have adequate power or food available to them,” McCain said. We have been able to visit our patients at home, see what they need and even provide them with the right food they need to stay well.”

Northside patient and county native Andrea Nobles says she is beyond grateful for all the measures Northside Health & Wellness has done for her.

“When you get to be my age, things start coming up with your health,” Nobles said.

“It is very assuring to know that I am not just a number but a person whose concerns are also my doctor’s concerns,” Nobles said.

“I have lived here all my life, and I actually enjoy going to the doctor’s office now that we have Northside. We look out for each other.”

The majority of Alabamians who receive private health insurance can also qualify for incentives and breaks in premiums when they are proactive about their health.

By receiving annual wellness checks and screenings, weight management, help with smoking cessation and women’s health screenings, for example, patients often see a discount in their monthly premiums and other incentives, like gift cards and entertainment vouchers.

“Health care costs are astronomical when you get into hospitalizations,” McCain said.

“Ninety percent of costs come when a person goes to the hospital. We want to do everything in our power to keep a patient out of there, no matter what.”

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to ensure the safety and well-being of each child in our care — and that remains our commitment as we continue our mission during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Here’s how we have redesigned our operations to keep our patients and their families as safe as possible: q All visitors are screened immediately for signs of illness and fever. q We follow Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines for cleaning and disinfecting our facilities. q Our staff practices safe hand hygiene. q We are wearing masks for your safety.

Thank you for wearing your face covering. q All visitors to campus are required to wear masks. q Waiting rooms have been reconfigured to accommodate social distancing guidelines.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

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ST. CLAIR MEDICAL COMMUNITY Anyone entering PCIFM in Pell City had to be screened, including a temperature check.

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

Practicing in the pandemic Local medical community rises to meet the challenge Because COVID-19 required limiting access, Birmingham Heart Clinic’s Dr. Jason Thompson uses a cell phone to get more information from a patient’s spouse.

Story by Scottie Vickery Photos by Graham Hadley Submitted photos Long before COVID-19 found its way to St. Clair County, medical professionals in the area were preparing for its arrival. They had been monitoring the progression of the virus, which began in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, even before it first made its way to the United States in January.

Alabama got its first reported case on March 13, and the virus hit St. Clair County four days later. By mid-July, the state’s numbers had risen to well over 58,000 cases with nearly 1,200 deaths.

At that time, St. Clair County had nearly 700 cases and four deaths.

“The biggest thing in the beginning was dealing with the panic and uncertainty,” said Dr. Michael Dupre’, who led the coronavirus response efforts for Northside Medical Associates.

“When you use a word like pandemic, it gets people’s attention.”

The virus brought challenges that medical personnel had not faced before, and local healthcare officials raced to implement new procedures, alleviate concerns and remove obstacles for their staffs. At the same time, they had to treat existing patients while trying to diagnose and care for those with COVID-19.

Rapidly changing information was an initial challenge since much was still unknown. Lisa Nichols, administrator of St. Vincent’s St. Clair, said that by the time guidelines from sources such as the Centers for Disease Control and the Alabama Department of Public Health were communicated with the staff, new information and guidelines had been released.

“There were a lot of changes,” she said.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

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ST. CLAIR MEDICAL COMMUNITY

Dr. Scott Boyken practicing telemedicine at Northside/St. Vincents in Trussville “Our staff works in 12-hours shifts, and by the time we got information out to everyone, it had changed again. Our team was very resilient and did an excellent job of going with the flow.”

The immediate concern was keeping patients and medical personnel safe, according to Nichols, Dupre’ and Dr. Barry Collins of Pell City Internal and Family Medicine (PCIFM).

“This was like nothing I’ve ever experienced before,” Collins said. “To be honest, I was afraid when all this hit, the fear would deplete our staff.

They hung in there fearlessly, though, because they knew they were essential to the community.”

Dupre’ said staff members were initially concerned that they would contract the virus and take it home to family members who were at risk for complications, such as aging parents or an immunocompromised child. Employees with chronic health issues or family members who were at-risk were reassigned to other areas where it was safer. The level of anxiety was unlike anything I’d ever seen before,” he said, “There were fears, but our duty and commitment to our community did not change one bit.”

Implementing safeguards Once initial fears were addressed, the focus was on treating patients – those with COVID-19 and those without – while preventing the spread of the virus. The first step was to identify potential coronavirus cases before patients encountered anyone else.

“We have so many entry points to the facility, so

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Enjoying ice cream at Camp Northside. we changed the way you come into our hospital,” Nichols said, adding that separate entrances and parking lots were designated for patients and associates. Door screeners at each entrance checked everyone for fever and symptoms of the virus, including cough or shortness of breath.

Anyone who is identified as having symptoms of the virus is directed into a separate waiting area while waiting for the triage nurse.

At PCIFM, patients were initially screened over the telephone when they called to make appointments, and staff members conducted temperature screenings and checked oxygen levels and symptoms at the door. Anyone who was a potential positive, based on either check, was directed to the practice’s drive-thru testing lane. “We were able to do COVID testing without having the patient leave the car,” Collins said.

Northside patients were screened at the door of all four locations – Pell City, Moody, Springville and Trussville – and only one entrance and exit was used at each office, Dupre’ said. At the Pell City campus, the building housing the ACCEL Urgent Care Center was designated for respiratory illnesses and COVID-19 testing and treatment.

Anyone with symptoms of the virus, or those who had been exposed, were directed there.

In addition, hospital and medical office personnel all over the county implemented additional cleaning processes to cut down on the spread of the virus. “We’re constantly changing scrubs and masks and rotating stethoscopes,” said Dr. Jason Thompson, a cardiologist with

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ST. CLAIR MEDICAL COMMUNITY Birmingham Heart Clinic, which has an office at Northside’s Pell City campus. “Exam rooms are being sanitized between every visit, and it’s not just changing the paper on the table. We’re wiping walls down with Clorox and wiping the table down with Clorox.”

The virus brought additional hurdles, as well.

Schools and day care centers closed, leaving medical personnel scrambling for child care.

Northside and PCIFM set up day care programs at their offices so their employees could continue to focus on caring for the community.

“We called it Camp Northside,” Dupre’ said of the child care program that operated for three months. “If our employees didn’t have anyone to take care of their kids, we took care of them here,” he said.

Collins said their day care program was largely operated by family members of staff as well as volunteers. “The community really rallied around that idea,” he said. “They were donating lunches and teaching materials for the children.”

Hard decisions There were other dilemmas, as well. “Probably one of the hardest things we had to do was go to a no-visitors policy,” Nichols said. At first, patients at the hospital were limited to two visitors, but as guidelines continued to change, it went down to one within a few days. Not long after, no visitors were allowed, except for end-of-life situations and patients that required caregivers.

“We struggled with how to get people information about their loved ones. We encouraged patients to connect with their families via social media,” Nichols said, adding that the hospital purchased tablets for patients without smartphones. They also implemented a process to ensure that the nursing staff contacted one family member or caregiver to provide updates, as long as the patient gave permission.

Even though that added more work for a nursing staff that was already stretched, the team didn’t balk at that or any other additional duties, according to Shiloh Swiney, director of nursing for the hospital. “They all chipped in and said, ‘We’re going to get this done. We’re going to get these patients taken care of,’” she said. “We have a strong nursing group, and the morale has been very high.”

The suspension of elective dental and medical procedures caused additional concerns. “Initially, we rescheduled all elective procedures and did Telehealth visits for routine checks of less acute patients,” Collins said. “Not everyone had access to the internet and some patients weren’t tech savvy and weren’t comfortable with talking on camera. We had to educate our patients.”

While some of Thompson’s patient

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appointments could be handled virtually, other cardiac patients needed to continue to be seen in person. In order to limit exposure in waiting rooms, Thompson said that his office asked those patients to come alone unless a caregiver was truly necessary. That sometimes limited the information he received.

“I’ve got some patients who, if their wives didn’t come with them, I wouldn’t know anything,” Thompson said. “The wife is who would tell me if he had been short of breath. Now, a lot of times I’ll pick up the phone, call the wife and put her on speaker. That’s how I’ve brought them back in the exam room without crowding the waiting room.”

Patients with chronic conditions who were concerned about catching the virus often delayed seeking treatment, which led to other problems.

“Our ER volume was almost cut in half,” Nichols said. “Some of the patients we’re seeing now are sicker because they waited too long to get the care they need. We want everyone to know that we are a safe place, and we are absolutely taking steps to keep everyone safe.” High-touch areas are being cleaned many times throughout the day, and some chairs in waiting rooms are blocked off to ensure patients have plenty of room between them, she said.

Thompson, especially, saw the effects that fear and suspending elective procedures, like having a stent inserted, had on his patients. In some cases, patients had strokes that could have been prevented, or they lost heart function after a heart attack that might possibly have been restored if they had sought help faster.

“I’ve had patients who sat on their chest pains for fear of the ER,” he said. “With a heart attack, time is muscle. If we can get to you within 12 hours of chest pain, we can salvage heart muscle.” Although his patients’ cardiovascular disease makes them high risk for coronavirus complications, their heart issues still need to be addressed. “We have to be careful, but we cannot ignore their underlying disease,” Thompson said.

A community rallies together Long before Gov. Kay Ivey issued a statewide mask order in mid-July, all patients and staff at St. Vincent’s, Northside, PCIFM and the Birmingham Heart Clinic were required to wear masks, which were provided for patients who didn’t have them.

When supplies were low in the early days of the pandemic, employees at Northside got busy.

“Our staff made thousands and thousands of masks,” Dupre’ said. “We had hundreds of patients at home making masks with their own fabric and their own money. We’ve always thought the world of our patients, but so many went above and beyond.”

Patients weren’t the only ones offering support.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

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ST. CLAIR MEDICAL COMMUNITY Dupre’, Collins and Nichols all said they were overwhelmed by the love shown by the community as a whole. Individuals, churches and businesses from all over the county provided meals; offered masks, hand sanitizer and cleaning products; and prayed.

Several nights, Swiney said, individuals and church groups gathered in the back parking lot of the 40-bed hospital to pray. “There are so many people out there who wanted to help, and to know they were praying for each one of us here was amazing,” she said.

“The community was absolutely awesome,” Collins said, adding that donated meals meant the staff didn’t have to leave the building and could focus on the crisis at hand. “It reminds you about what is great about the human spirit,” Dupre’ added.

Moving forward Early efforts to flatten the curve helped because, even though people continued to get sick, the cases were spread out over a period of weeks, so the hospital was not overwhelmed. “Fortunately for St. Clair County, we’re rural enough to spread out,” Dupre’ said. “That’s really helped, and we haven’t had the impact other counties have had.”

Early on, Dupre’ said, Northside looked at designating one of the buildings at the Pell City campus to house overflow patients from the hospital, if necessary. “Thank God it was never that bad,” he said.

It could still reach that point, however, if people relax too much. Alabama saw a resurgence in cases in late June and early July after the state began reopening, and Collins said he worries about the looming flu season. Although flu season is typically considered to be October to March or April, it’s not uncommon to see cases in September.

“There’s been a real spike in (COVID) cases, and now we’re almost back to square one,” Collins said.

“The only way we can get this virus to go away is to starve the virus from the host.”

That’s why it’s critical that everyone continues to social distance, wash hands frequently, avoid group gatherings and wear face coverings to prevent the spread. “Wearing a mask can really protect the people you interact with,” Nichols said. “A lot of asymptomatic people are testing positive, even though they have no symptoms. If they’re wearing masks, the likelihood of spreading the virus is reduced.”

Dupre’ said masks are especially crucial for high-risk patients. “We know the masks work,” he said. “We’ve had staff here who have swabbed thousands and thousands of patients, and we haven’t had one catch COVID,” he said in early July.

He added that people need to continue to isolate

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Pell City Rotary delivers food to St. Vincent’s St. Clair. themselves if they are sick and wash hands frequently, especially when they have come in contact with surfaces outside their homes.

Although Thompson said masks have meant that he has had to dramatically slow down his speech so older patients who are hard of hearing can understand him, he agrees that wearing them and taking other precautions is imperative. “We have to take this seriously,” he said. “I think it has become apparent to us that this is not going away tomorrow. We will continue to deal with this for a year or more.”

He added that, while the growing death toll from the virus is tragic, it’s not the only tragedy of this pandemic. Thompson has seen widowed patients suffer depression after being isolated from friends and family for months on end.

People haven’t been able to gather for funerals, which has had a negative effect on the grieving process. Couples looking forward to starting their lives together have had to postpone weddings.

“All of this is part of the human tragedy we’re all living through,” he said. “We are social animals, and it’s interesting how you begin to crave that interaction with family and friends.

I’m not pretending this is going to be easy, but it can be done.”

Collins said he is hopeful that the newfound awareness among the public about how germs are transmitted will have lasting benefits even after COVID-19 goes away. “Right now, this virus is a curse, but if it changes behavior, it may mean a decrease in other communicable diseases, such as the flu,” he said. “It may be somewhat of a silver lining beyond this nightmare.”

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Ascension St. Vincent’s, UAB form alliance to better serve patients

The University of Alabama at Birmingham Health System and Ascension St. Vincent’s have entered into a strategic alliance that will increase access to high-quality, innovative medical care through multiple outlets and health programs.

In January, the health systems announced their intention to form a strategic alliance and began a period of due diligence. The formal alliance began July 1.

Having received necessary approvals, including that of the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees and the Ascension Board of Directors, the new strategic alliance will enable the two entities, which have a long history of collaboration, to further enhance patient care and address Alabama’s most challenging health threats. The strength of the collaboration between the two health systems has been on display throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, says Jason Alexander, CEO of

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Ascension St. Vincent’s and senior vice president of Ascension.

“Our ability to coordinate our efforts in response to COVID-19 benefited each organization and the patients and communities we serve,” Alexander said. “Ascension St. Vincent’s was able to leverage our network to obtain personal protective equipment that was urgently needed by both systems but in short supply, and UAB has accepted the majority of the volume of COVID-positive patients. This alliance will now allow us to be able to collaborate even more.”

UAB Health System CEO Will Ferniany says, now that the alliance is formalized, he looks forward to working with Alexander and the Alliance Board to ensure the alliance is a win-win for patients, the community and both organizations.

“We have a great opportunity to improve health care delivery in Alabama for our patients and

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

communities, and doing so will make each organization stronger,” Ferniany said. “Our physicians, staff and leadership are now better positioned to deliver on our community service-focused missions.”

Ferniany and Alexander serve as the administrative leaders of the alliance — Ferniany as CEO/president and Alexander as executive vice president — with coordinated governance and administrative responsibilities. Both say that efficiencies created by the alliance will strengthen each organization both clinically and financially.

Though the two entities will share resources to better serve the community, they will maintain separate, yet aligned, operational structures. For example, the medical staffs will remain independent at each system. Medical staff privileges to work within each system would be obtained separately.

The historic missions of the organizations will be preserved. Ascension St. Vincent’s remains a ministry of the Catholic Church, and UABHS remains an academic medical center with public, charitable and research functions.

The alliance will utilize innovative strategies to address health disparities, mental and behavioral health, and diabetes, with an emphasis on expanded access for poor, vulnerable and rural populations.

UABHS and Ascension St. Vincent’s leaders say the new alliance enhances their longstanding relationship and affirms each organization’s ability to help patients receive the right care in the right setting at the right time.

“As health care continues to evolve, it is important for health systems to work with each other to provide innovative, personcentered care,” Ferniany said. “It has always been our shared commitment with Ascension St. Vincent’s to remain on the forefront of this vital health care transformation.”

UABHS facilities will retain the UABHS or UAB Medicine brands.

Ascension St. Vincent’s facilities will continue to be branded as Ascension St. Vincent’s.

Entities in the alliance include: UABHS: • UAB Hospital • University of Alabama Health Services Foundation • Medical West Hospital • Callahan Eye Hospital, Clinics and Ophthalmology Services Foundation • Gardendale Freestanding Emergency Department (FED) and Clinics • Highway 150 Clinics and Medical West Freestanding Emergency Department • Acton Road • Primary and Urgent Care Network Ascension St. Vincent’s: • St. Vincent’s Birmingham • St. Vincent’s East • St. Vincent’s One Nineteen • St. Vincent’s St. Clair • St. Vincent’s Chilton • St. Vincent’s Blount • St. Vincent’s Trussville • Ascension Medical Group Practices (including St. Vincent’s Primary Care Network) • St. Vincent’s Urgent Care While the Cooper Green Authority initiative is not part of the alliance, operations will be coordinated to enhance services for Cooper Green patients.

The Board of Directors of the Alliance includes leaders and representatives from both UAB and Ascension. The Board of Directors of the Alliance includes leaders and representatives from both UAB and Ascension.

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Business Review Louis

My Favorite Place on Cogswell Avenue in Pell City.

A new era begins at Northside

70 DISCOVER Essence St. Clair ••••August & September 2013 of St. ClairThe •The Business Review DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair October && November 2017 DISCOVER The Essence St. Clair •August February &July March 2016 70 2016 DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair & September 2017 DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair June & July 2017 70 DISCOVER DISCOVER Essence The Essence of St. Clair of St. ••Clair Clair December June 2016 & 2015 2017 Essence ofof St. Clair December 2017 & January January 2018 DISCOVER The Essence of St. •••April May 70• DISCOVER The Essence DISCOVER The The Essence St. ofof St. Clair Clair August & 2019 September 2020 2020

Story by Linda Long Photos by Graham Hadley

Pell City’s newest 3 Rs: Retail, restaurants and real estate Pell City is ready for some “retail therapy.” That pronouncement came from City Manager Brian Muenger, who says, “People are wanting to get out, go somewhere, do something.”

That’s good news for the six new businesses in town. Those include two boutiques, My Favorite Place and Clover Hill; two restaurants, Huddle House and Lakeside Restaurant at Coosa Island; a new coffee shop, the Croaking Frog, Inc. and Keller Williams Realty.

So, if shopping makes you feel better, go for it.

My Favorite Place boutique is right there on Cogswell Avenue in historic downtown Pell City. The shop is already gaining a following for its unique home décor, candles, clothes and “sometimes puppies,” laughed owner Adam White.

Seems he found the boutique the perfect place to showcase his dog’s litter of pups. “And, yes,” said White, “we found homes for all of them.”

White, an architect by trade, said in addition to decorating accessories, he also specializes in custommade furniture and reproduction pieces.

He comes from a background in “corporate America.

I did that for 15 years and finally said enough. I wanted to be in business for myself, where I could treat people like they should be treated. I wanted it to be so that I could develop a rapport with my customers, so they became not customers but friends.”

The boutique is open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Wednesday through Saturday.

Right next door to My Favorite Place is The Croaking Frog, Inc. coffee shop owned by Shirley Catlin and her son, John McCarty. “This is a new venture for both of us,” said Catlin.

They specialize in fine coffee, locally roasted from Canoe Creek Coffee in Ashville, and a fine selection of “antiques and collectibles.”

The shop’s name was actually inspired by – well – frogs.

“I was throwing around a bunch of names,” she said, “trying to come up with something catchy. Well, one night, after a rain, my son and I were sitting out in the back yard. There were dozens of those little bitty croaking frogs everywhere in the yard, on the side of the house, everywhere. Thus, the name, The Croaking Frog.

“Everybody thought it was catchy and memorable,” Catlin continued, “and it stuck. The name does does get a lot of attention, and that’s what I was hoping for.”

The Croaking Frog is open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Croaking Frog co-owner Shirley Catlin is behind the counter.

Clover Hill at Cropwell Commons.

DISCOVER The Essence St. Clair ••••August & September 2013 Business Review •July DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • 71 DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair October && November 2017 DISCOVER The Essence St. Clair •August February &July March 2016 2016 71 DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair & September 2017 DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair June & 2017 DISCOVER DISCOVER The Essence The Essence of St. Clair of St. ••Clair Clair December June 2016 & 2015 2017 71 Essence ofof St. Clair December 2017 & January January 2018 DISCOVER The Essence of St. •••April May DISCOVER The The Essence St. ofof St. Clair Clair August & 2019 September 2020 2020 71

Business Review Clover Hill Boutique is a women’s contemporary clothing store owned by Mary Alice Bludsworth. She offers whatever you need for just about any occasion – from workout clothes to work clothes; from church clothes to party dresses. Shoppers can also find accessories, shoes, handbags and plus size clothes to a 3x.

The shop is open seven days a week, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; and Sundays, noon to 3 p.m.

Seems only natural that Bludsworth would head into this line of work. She studied fashion merchandising in New York and later got a second degree from the University of Alabaster in fashion design.

“We’ve been using the name Clover Hill for several years,” she said. “We just did pop-up shops, like arts and music festivals. So far, since we opened the boutique, I’ve been very pleased with amount of business we’ve had. We’re following all the COVID-19 guidelines, wearing masks and social distancing.”

Clover Hill is located in Cropwell Commons on Stemley Bridge Road in Suite #9.

“The business climate in the city, was extremely strong before all this (the pandemic) happened,” said Muenger “A lot of the things that have opened now, like The Huddle House and Keller Williams and the boutique (Clover Hill), were already in the works. I’m glad to see them continue because as people get back to normal, they’re looking for outlets.”

Muenger said although grocery pickup and delivery and restaurant curbside service are convenient and seem to be the new trend in normal, “I don’t think it will ever replace brick and mortar retail. People want to put hands on what they’re buying. They want to try clothes on. That’s not the case when you shop online.”

He continued, saying, “People always will want to go to restaurants where they can sit down and have a quality meal.”

With new restaurants opening up in the city, people won’t have to look far to find that quality meal. Lakeside Grill at Coosa Island opens at 7 p.m. with a diverse menu. Seating is either inside or outside water’s edge. The Grill is located on Coosa Island Road in Cropwell on Coosa Island.

An old name in eateries is a new name in casual dining for The Huddle House in Pell City.

“It’s being repurposed,” explained Muenger, “going into the old Taco Bell building on U.S. 231. They’ve more-or-less overhauled the entire space. I’m not sure about the opening date, but the restaurant is substantially complete, and of course, reprocessing is always a good thing because you don’t ever want see any empty retail space.”

The first Huddle House opened more than 50 years ago in Decatur, Ga. There are now 339 Huddle House restaurants in 23 different states and are mostly found in the Southeast.

REALTY COMPANY EXPANDS PRESENCE

Keller Williams is not new to Pell City, explained Muenger.

“They’ve been a presence here, in real estate, for a long time, but this will be the first time the’ve actually had an office here.

Looking ahead Muenger said, “obviously there are huge challenges for businesses in our area with the pandemic and all that goes with it, but I believe the net effect in the future will

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Pell City’s 3 Rs

Adam White is working hard in his new store, My Favorite Place.

Huddle House will soon be open.

New Keller Williams location on US 231 in Pell City be a boon for mid-size cities, like ours.”

He sees the pandemic as a catalyst precipitating a change in the way people think. “As a result of people having to sequester at home and work from home, I see more and more people not going back to their offices in Birmingham. They are continuing to telecommute. This is something that’s particularly strong for a city like ours. It just makes sense to live in Pell City and enjoy all that a small town can offer; then drive to Birmingham maybe a couple of times week. We are definitely working toward a hybrid economy, and we’ll see it more and more as e-commerce and brick and mortar meld together.”

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ALABAMA

Shop Local . Stay Positive . Play Outside

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Business Review

New Eats

Milo’s in Pell City, Purple Onion in Moody adding to restaurant scene Story by Linda Long Photos by Graham Hadley Contributed photos Two iconic names in the restaurant business are expanding into St. Clair County.

Opening in Pell City is Milo’s Hamburgers, complete with that famous sauce and equally renowned sweet tea. In Moody, The Purple Onion, an authentic Mediterranean deli and grill serving everything from kabobs to burgers, is expected to start serving customers in the fall.

The Milo’s move just may be due to popular demand, according to Mary Duncan Proctor, marketing director for the restaurant. “We kept getting requests weekly on social media, ‘Come to Pell City. Come to Pell City.’ We just heard that over and over again. So, we said let’s check it out and see if it’s a good market for us.”

And, that’s exactly what they did. Twice a week for six months the Burger Bus, à la food truck, dished hamburgers out to hungry folks in Pell City.

“The response was overwhelming from people in the community,” said Proctor. “It was also a lot of fun for us. So, we decided, let’s do it. Let’s put a Milo’s in Pell City.” The restaurant will go into an existing building shared with Little Caesar’s Pizza. “It’s where the bus is now.”

Brian Muenger, Pell City’s city manager, welcomes the new restaurant. “Milo’s is a huge name in the fast food business. Over the years, we’ve had people ask, why do we have X, Y or Z restaurant and not a Milo’s?”

Muenger predicted success for the almost 75-year-old restaurant. “They will do well here,” he said. “That’s a good location. Even the food truck sold out within a couple of hours the first couple of times they were here. This is the first time I’ve seen or heard of a truck transitioning into a brick and mortar facility. I think that’s kind of neat.”

Milo’s Hamburgers began in 1946 in a cinder block building on Birmingham’s north

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Milo’s is coming soon to Pell City in the former BaskinRobbins and Dunkin’ Donuts building on U.S. 231.

Kabob is one of the many items available at Purple Onion.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

The Purple Onion is going into the old Bojangles building in Moody. side. Traffic was walk-up and largely blue collar. That’s where Milo Canton, a former U.S. Army mess cook, began perfecting his now famous sauce.

“I’m sure the family knows the recipe,” Proctor said, “but in the corporate office only two people know and believe me, they’re not talking. That recipe is under lock and key.”

In addition to the sauce and sweet tea, Milo’s is also known for its community involvement. Mary Rose DeMouy is marketing manager for the Pell City location, and she’s anxious to get started.

“We want to be a part of our community,” said DeMouy, “not just another restaurant. I’ll be working with schools, churches and other nonprofits.”

Milo’s is set to open in late September or mid-October.

Proctor said they might decide to run both the Burger Bus and the restaurant for awhile to take care of any overflow crowd.

MOODY LANDS PURPLE ONION LOCATION

The Purple Onion is slated to open in Moody sometime in early fall, according to Lyndsy Yim, associate broker with Retail Specialists, a commercial real estate agency in Birmingham.

The Moody location is one of four restaurants included in The Purple Onion expansion. The others are in Birmingham, Pelham and Rainbow City. All are in former Bojangles sites.

“We actually started looking at these sites before COVID-19, but the fact that the drive-through windows were in place is one of the reasons we’re moving forward with our existing plan,” Yim said. “You know, we’re living in a different time. Where people shop, where people eat, where people play is going to be different. We just have to evolve around that.” The Purple Onion menu includes kabobs, gyros, pita roll-ups, falafel plates and burgers.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

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Business Review

Business in Brief steel workers and their families.

From those humble beginnings in the depths of the depression, AmFirst has grown to over $1.8 billion in assets serving approximately 178,000 members at 21 locations.

More about its products and services may be found at amfirst. org.

AMFIRST FEDERAL CREDIT UNION OPENS IN PELL CITY AmFirst Federal Credit Union became the newest member of Pell City’s growing financial community July 6 with the opening of its branch in Pell City.

Located in Town Park Shopping Center in the new section across from Publix, it marks AmFirst’s second expansion into St. Clair County. Its other branch is in Leeds.

Since opening its doors, the reception has been “fantastic,” said Phil Boozer, senior vice president and chief sales officer.

“We have had good traffic at the branch and many people have expressed their excitement at having a Pell City branch.”

The expansion had been in the works for quite some time, Boozer said. “We have been looking for a location in Pell City for a number of years because we have a considerable membership base in the Pell City area and saw the opportunities to grow and serve this vibrant community.”

Like its other branches, Pell City offers a full suite of financial products and services, including all types of loans, savings and spending (checking) accounts. It also offers business services and financial planning.

“We love Pell City and are fortunate to have many members and friends already in the area,” Boozer said, noting that AmFirst’s long tradition of community involvement will continue. “We sponsor several community events each year and have many long-term relationships with local businesses and organizations.” AmFirst has been a longtime presenting sponsor of Logan Martin LakeFest, the Southeast’s largest, inwater boat show that raises money for charitable organizations in the region.

“We are proud to be part of Pell City with our newest branch,” Boozer said, “and we look forward to serving the community for many years to come.”

America’s First Federal Credit Union (AmFirst) was founded in 1936 by employees of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railway Company at the Ensley Steel Works. The Iron and Steel Workers Credit Union, as it was known at that time, served

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SPRINGVILLE CUTS THE RIBBON ON TWO NEW BUSINESSES

Springville welcomed two new businesses to the city’s growing commercial community – The Farmhouse of Springville and Lane Weichman Photography.

The Farmhouse is located on Purple Heart Boulevard, and Lane Weichman Photography is located in historic downtown Springville.

The Farmhouse describes its offerings as “Creative farm fresh sandwiches, salads, soups, burgers, steaks and home cooked meals.

Lane Weichman specializes in photography sessions for newborns, milestones, family, maternity and children.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

Relationships are not the only thing we build, but they are the most important.

AOD FEDERAL CREDIT UNION MAKES ST. CLAIR ITS FIRST EXPANSION OUTSIDE CALHOUN COUNTY AOD Federal Credit Union opened its doors in Pell City and to its first venture outside Calhoun County, locating the new branch on Vaughan Lane in a growing commercial district.

“The community has been very welcoming to our staff and AOD coming to the community,” said CEO Virginia Bowen.

“It has been a very positive response.”

Long before the opening, AOD staff went door-to-door throughout the business community, sharing an opportunity for businesses to become a Select Employer Group, which enables a business to extend membership in the credit union to all of its employees. “It was received very well,” she said.

AOD Federal Credit Union was founded in 1950 under Anniston Ordnance Depot with 45 employees of the depot pooling their money together to create it. The first transaction took place in May 1950.

Since its humble beginning with 45 charter members and a single desk, it has since grown to seven locations in Calhoun County and St. Clair.

Membership has grown to more than 34,000 all across the United States.

“We’re excited about expanding,” Bowen said. “We are looking forward to the opportunity in St. Clair County. We thought it was a really growing market, and our market study confirmed what we thought.”

Noting that the branch is near Buffalo Wild Wings, Home Depot, Walmart and Premiere Cinema and Entertainment complex, Bowen said, “We are very excited about the location of the branch and being part of this growing, vibrant community.”

AOD is a full-service financial institution insured by the NCUA and offers services ranging from a child’s savings account to their retirement account and everything in between.

Services include checking, savings, money market and Individual Retirement Accounts as well as all types of loans and a business product line.

To begin, the Pell City branch has four employees, but it has the capacity to double its employment.

Goodgame Company, Inc., Is A Proud Partner of AOD Credit Union

At Goodgame Company, Inc., we don’t just deliver a quality product, we deliver a quality experience. That’s what has kept our customers coming back since 1955. Let us show you the Goodgame difference. We’d like to get to know you.

2311 3rd Avenue South • Pell City, AL 35128 205.338.2551 • goodgamecompany.com @goodgamecompany

Goodgame Company, Inc., is an award-winning supplier of the American Buildings Company.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

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Business Review Goolsby, Webb complete their tenure on St. Clair EDC Board

The St. Clair County Economic Development Council Board of Directors is experiencing transition with the expiration of the tenure of Drew Goolsby and Dana Webb. They finished their tenure on a high note as St. Clair County experienced the highest amount of new industrial investment in its history with over $350 million announced in 2019.

The EDC Board of Directors is made up of five positions appointed by the St. Clair County Commission, the St. Clair County Industrial Development Board, the City of Pell City, the City of Moody and the City of Ashville. “Goolsby and Webb have served the Board selflessly for close to 20 years helping with fundraising, oversight of the organization, and contributing to the camaraderie for which St. Clair County has become known,” said EDC Executive Director Don Smith. “These men have proudly supported the mission of the SCCEDC: to create jobs, to increase wealth and to improve the quality of life for St. Clair County citizens.”

Goolsby began his service with the board in 1999 as the appointee from the St. Clair County Commission. His longtime career in banking has been an asset to the organization in financial organization and management. As a lifelong resident of Springville, he has provided help and insight into the community as projects have presented themselves and goals have been achieved. Previously serving on the St. Clair County Board of Education, Goolsby has a passion for seeing St. Clair County succeed in its educational endeavors.

Goolsby was a member of the founding team for Leadership St. Clair County, of which he became a distinctive member of the inaugural class. In addition, he was a key member of the marketing strategy team that began the iCademy, which has now evolved into a key element to the workforce development partnership between our local school systems and Jefferson State Community College. “His devotion through the years and countless hours of volunteer service will always be appreciated,” Smith said.

Webb joined the board in 2003 and served most currently as the St. Clair County Industrial Development Board appointee after his retirement from Alabama Power, where he was posted in St. Clair County for many years. “His knowledge of utilities and the St. Clair County community was invaluable as the SCCEDC expanded in both infrastructure and industry,” Smith said.

In his years of service, Webb has volunteered numerous hours to furthering industrial development by serving on both the St. Clair County Industrial Development Board and the SCCEDC Board of Directors. “He has always been a supporter of smart growth in St. Clair County,” Smith added, “and has been an example of unanimity.” He is a long-time resident of Ashville and a graduate of Leadership St. Clair County. “His willingness to listen, support and provide guidance will forever be remembered.”

As St. Clair County experiences growth and is faced with

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Drew Goolsby

Dana Webb

challenges and opportunities, “it is imperative that our board serve as a beacon of conscience, exploring not only the prosperity that these opportunities can bring, but also the consequence,” Smith said. “Both Drew Goolsby and Dana Webb have a history here and a knowledge of the people that has proven very helpful as we have established and met goals. These men have been great assets both to our organization and the county as a whole, and they have shaped our organization and me personally to be the best we can be.

They will be missed.”

“As St. Clair County has grown and changed, the St. Clair County Economic Development Council Board of Directors has played a vital role in the recruitment of industry within each of our communities,” said Chairman Paul Manning of the St. Clair County Commission. “We look forward to the future and we appreciate the efforts of both Dana Webb and Drew Goolsby and all of the time they have put into the EDC.” “Both Drew Goolsby and Dana Webb have been my comrades on the board since I became a board member and have set the bar high for those who come after them,” said EDC Board Chairman Joe Kelly. “We appreciate their service to the St. Clair County EDC, and we wish them the best in their future endeavors.”

The positions on the Board were filled in previous meetings of both the St. Clair County Commission and the Ashville City Council. New board members are Tami Spires of Springville and Josh Kell of Ashville.

The Board will continue its work in partnership with all the communities in St. Clair County to pursue the goals of the 2019-2024 plan.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2020

Our Team is Growing PRIMARY CARE URGENT CARE ONSITE PHARMACY ADVANCED IMAGING HEALTH & WELLNESS COMPREHENSIVE SPECIALTIES - Life Recovery Counseling - Encompass Health

Meet our Newest Member Northside Medical Associates is proud to introduce our newest doctor to our growing network of providers at Northside St. Vincent’s in Trussville. His experience and dedication to quality health care fits perfectly with our mission of delivering patient-centered medicine across the region.

Dr. Jack Vibbert

- Eastern Surgical - Southeast Gastro - Grandview Obstestrics & Gynecology - Orthosports Associates - Grandview Medical Group - Orthopedics - OB-GYN South, P.C. - ENT Associates - Birmingham Heart Clinic - Alabama Orthopaedic Surgeons

Trussville

7201 Happy Hollow Road 205-655-3721

Left to right: Dr. Scott Boyken, Dr. Jack Vibbert, Dr. Andrew Smith, Frankie Crumb, CRNP and Celeste Richardson, CRNP

Pell City

70-74 Plaza Drive 205-814-9284

Moody

2834 Moody Parkway 205-640-2808

Springville

480 Walker Drive, Springville 205-467-7654