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Log Cabin & Asian Vibes • River Hero • Ultimate Tailgating Four years of St. Vincent’s • Toast of Pell City • Goodgame Company

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Features and Articles Discover

The Essence of St. Clair

Married in the mountains

Farm becomes perfect outdoor event venue Page 58 Ultimate Tailgating

Log cabin with an Asian flair

Crazy Christmas People

Page 12

St. Vincent’s

A voice for river conservation Page 28 Four years of St. Vincent’s St. Clair Page 38

Page 8

Page 22

Santa and Mrs. Claus

Page 23

In the beginning: Early Years Page 44 A true community hospital Page 50

Traveling the Backroads The Mountains of St. Clair Page 64

Business Review

Goodgame Company: Building Alabama for 60 years Page 74 Toast of (down)town Pell City Page 82 Pell City Pediatrics Anniversary Page 84 UAB, Brookwood in Leeds Page 86

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Writers AND Photographers

Carol Pappas

Jane Newton Henry

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. After retiring, she launched her own multimedia company, Partners by Design Inc. In addition to marketing, design and web services for companies and nonprofits, Partners publishes Discover, various community magazines for chambers of commerce and Mosaic Magazine, a biannual publication of Alabama Humanities Foundation.

Jane Newton Henry is a freelance writer with an M.A. degree from The University of Alabama. She has retired from Alabama Power Co., where she worked as a writer and editor in the Public Relations Department.

She was an adjunct instructor at The University of Alabama and Samford University. Her work has appeared in publications and online. She co-authored Leeds, a pictorial history of the small Alabama city.

Leigh Pritchett

For almost 30 years, Leigh Pritchett has been involved in the publishing industry.

She was employed for 11 years by The Gadsden Times, ultimately becoming Lifestyle editor. Since 1994, she has been a freelance writer. Her work has appeared in online and print venues. She holds the Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Montevallo.

Jerry C. Smith Jerry C. Smith’s interest in photography and writing go back to his teen years. He has produced numerous articles, stories and photographs for local websites and regional newspapers and magazines, including the St. Clair County News, Sand Mountain Living, and Old Tennessee Valley. His photos have appeared in books, on national public television, in local art displays and have captured prizes in various contests. A retired business machine technician and Birmingham native, Jerry now lives near Pell City. He recently published two books: Uniquely St. Clair and Growing Up In The Magic City.

Wallace Bromberg Jr. Wally was born in Birmingham. He graduated from Mountain Brook High School in 1973, and went on to Auburn University where he graduated in 1976 with his BA in History and minors in German and Education. Wally’s skills in photography blossomed during college. Upon graduation, he entered his father’s business, National Woodworks, Inc. After a 30-year career, he decided to dust off his camera skills and pursue photography full time.

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Elaine Hobson Miller Elaine Hobson Miller is a freelance writer with a B.A. in Journalism from Samford University. She was the first female to cover Birmingham City Hall for the Birmingham Post-Herald, where she worked as reporter, food editor and features writer. A former editor of Birmingham Home & Garden magazine and staff writer for Birmingham magazine, she has written for a variety of local, regional and national publications. She is the author of two non-fiction books, Myths, Mysteries & Legends of Alabama and Nat King Cole: Unforgettable Musician.

Mike Callahan Mike Callahan is a freelance photographer who resides on Logan Martin Lake in Pell City. He specializes in commercial, nature and family photography. Mike’s work has been published in Outdoor Alabama Magazine, Alabama Trucking Association and Alabama Concrete Industries magazines. Publishing his work to the internet frequently, he has won many honors for pictures of the day and week. One of Mike’s latest assignment’s was to be chosen as one of the photographers for this year’s 2015 Alabama Sports Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.

Jim Smothers Jim Smothers had his first work published in The Gadsden Times in the late 1960s when his father, sports editor Jimmy Smothers, had him take games called in from youth sports coaches and put a camera in his hands at Jacksonville State basketball games. For more than 40 years he has been a writer, photographer, graphic artist and editor at publications in central Alabama for which he has won dozens of Associated Press awards. He has degrees from Jacksonville State University and the University of Montevallo and also studied at the Winona School of Professional Photography.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

From the Editor

St. Clair’s gifts

As Christmas fast approaches, we cannot help but think about the wonderful gifts that surround us in this place we call home.

They are not the kind wrapped in colors of the season and topped with a bow. They are the presents we see all around us every day – the distinctive places that lure us, the people whose works inspire us and the history that shapes us.

We see gifts of varying shapes, sizes and palettes in the mountains and pastures that paint a picturesque view in just about any direction at just about any time of day. We see them in the history of those mountains with names like Streight and Chandler and Bald Rock.

We see them in a wedding and event venue in Ashville where mountain peaks and a lake come together to form a pictureperfect backdrop for any occasion.

In Springville, we see it in the determination of an ordinarycitizen-turned-conservationist’s yeoman efforts to protect Big Canoe Creek as a preserve. River Hero is a perfect descriptor for this body of work to save natural beauty and wildlife for future generations.

St. Vincent’s St. Clair, the gift that changed the face of health care for our region, celebrates its fourth anniversary this month.

And a Shoal Creek couple helps ease the pains of tragedy and challenges for others in their portrayal of Santa and Mrs. Claus about this time every year.

Those stories and pictures are found throughout St. Clair County. They are not hard to find if you know where to look.

They all are gifts in the eyes of this beholder, and you will learn all about them in this issue of Discover, The Essence of St. Clair.

But of course, that’s not all. There are plenty more ‘gifts’ in the pages that follow. Come along and discover it all with us.

Carol Pappas Editor and Publisher

Discover The Essence of St. Clair

December 2015 and January 2016 • Vol. 27 • www.discoverstclair.com

Carol Pappas • Editor and Publisher Graham Hadley • Managing Editor and Designer Brandon Wynn • Director of Online Services Mike Callahan • Photography Wallace Bromberg Jr. • Photography Dale Halpin • Advertising Peg Overton • Advertising

A product of Partners by Design www.partnersmultimedia.com 6204 Skippers Cove Pell City, AL 35128 205-335-0281

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ULTIMATE TAILGATING

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

Jeff and Jeremy Alexander

Auburn Style and on TV Story by Carol Pappas Photos by Mike Phelan, CNN HLN and Carol Pappas

Set at sunrise just beyond stadium

Dr. Ed and Sandra Murray host TV tailgate

When Pell City’s Sandra Murray talks about how an Auburn game day tailgate party turns into a CNN event, she laughs and says, “When you’re not there, you get nominated.”

She and her husband, Dr. Ed Murray, have been hosting home-game weekend parties at their “Auburn House” for years. The house itself attracts plenty of attention. After all, it is appropriately painted orange and blue and sits conspicuously on a knoll overlooking campus and Jordan Hare Stadium.

In October, Ed’s aunt had passed away, and for only the second home game in 20 years, they were going to miss the party. So Sandra traveled to Auburn on Wednesday, set up everything for game day and asked friend Cindy Goodgame to host.

That weekend, she got a text from Cindy simply saying, “Call me when you can.” When she did, Cindy told her that someone from CNN tapped on the window and asked if they could film from the parking area of the house with the stadium for the backdrop. Oh, and they might film in the house.

Sandra said OK. Then another “oh” moment followed with Cindy adding, “And they need a woman to barbecue and compete in a cookoff, and I told him you would.”

“I said, What!,” And the rest, they say, is history.

Turns out CNN produces the HLN Tums Tailgate cookoff, which is set at various campuses across the nation during football season. The man at the window was producer Mike Phelan.

CNN Crews, as part of the cookoff series, have been at the Clemson-Notre Dame and Ohio State-Michigan State games. On this particular weekend, they came for Auburn-Ole Miss. The semi-finals will be in Atlanta for the SEC Championship game and the finals, in Glendale, Ariz., for the National Championship game.

Being a good sport, a good cook and enjoying the fanfare of a good tailgate party, Sandra obliged, cooking her original recipe, Cajun-fried chicken drumsticks with a Bulleit Bourbon sauce, for the competition. “It was only the second time I had cooked it,” she said. And it was only later that she learned famed chef Chris Hastings and Auburn’s Acre Restaurant use the same high-rye, awardwinning whiskey in their own recipes.

At 5 a.m. on Friday and 4:30 a.m. on Saturday of the game weekend, a CNN satellite truck and other vehicles pulled up to the house and started unloading – lights, cameras, monitors. “Watching them set up was a lot of fun,” she said.

CNN and HLN sports anchor and correspondent Coy Wire, a former Stanford and NFL player, went over his lines. Cheerleaders from Auburn and Ole Miss arrived.

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ULTIMATE TAILGATING Auburn Tiger mascot, Aubie, joined the fun. So did the Auburn Band. A crowd gathered. Lights, camera, action. “The whole progression was phenomenal,” Sandra said. “It was fun to work with them.”

She competed with Jeff and Jeremy Alexander of Athens, Ala., whom the Murrays have known for years. They own a game-day condominium behind their Auburn House. Coincidentally, they are professional barbeque cookoff competitors. They won the Sloss Furnace competition in recent months.

While Sandra’s drumsticks came in second, she wasn’t disappointed at all. “It was a lot of fun,” she said.

“I’m tickled for them. It was good promotion for them.” The Alexanders’ winning dish cooked to order was a brisket. They also made a “Fatty” – Italian sausage taken out of the casing, flattened and topped with a mixture of peppers and onions, rolled up and wrapped in a bacon weave. It is smoked and then sliced into pinwheels.

Hence, the perfect moniker.

“They’re serious,” Sandra said.

For her, it was simply part of being a gracious hostess, even if her nomination came in absentia. The Murrays love to entertain, and the house they bought in 2004 underscores that notion.

It is the perfect game-day house.

They completely redid the interior in 2005 – orange and blue motif and Auburn themed throughout. Mounted televisions are found in almost every room.

“When we found out Pella did navyblue windows, we said, ‘Here we go!,’” she said, relating the story behind an orange and blue house. “When the crew was painting the house, people would pass by, blow their horn and yell, ‘War Eagle!’”

The house is comfortable and inviting – just like the Murrays. They have used the house for fundraisers and awards. The Pell City Cheerleaders were there for the Idaho game as part of an auction-winner event. “It’s for fun. That’s what it’s all about,” Sandra said.

And in typical, welcoming Murray fashion, she adds, “You know what we say: ‘One invitation lasts a lifetime.’” l

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

CNN’s Coy Wire, Sandra and Ed Murray

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A stone Burmese Chinthe greets visitors to the Valdes home.

Light pours into the Great Room through French doors and a halfmoon or fanlight transom.

Log cabin WITH AN Asian flair

By Elaine Hobson Miller Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr. For eight years, Steve and Carla Valdes have been trying to turn their log home on Logan Martin Lake into a 14th-century Japanese-style home. They tore out the country kitchen, removed a clawfoot bathtub, reworked the master bedroom fireplace and painted the door frames black.

Despite their best efforts, it’s still a log house.

It’s also a showcase for their Asian art collection, which constantly pulls your eyes away from the rustic American details.

“It looked like a cowboy bunkhouse when we bought it from the bachelor who lived here,” says Steve. “I hope it conveys an Asian feel now.”

The couple were drawn to Asian art when they lived in China and Japan while Steve sold medical devices from India to California for Johnson & Johnson. They began picking up a Burmese temple guard here, a Japanese kimono there, and the first thing they knew, their house was an Asian art gallery. ”My daughter calls it an Asian antiques store,” Steve says.

Carla, who is originally from Tarrant, was an Atlanta-based Delta flight attendant for 32 years. Steve,

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Log cabin WITH AN Asian flair

Plenty of outdoor entertainment space surrounds the pool.

Steve left the center section of the rear deck open for grilling and outdoor seating.

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Wicker furniture dominates the screened porch off the master bedroom.

When you can’t be there.

Always ere is…

Stevel Valdes stands next to his Samurai suit of armor. originally from Miami, grew up around water. They have lived in several countries and traveled all over the world, but wanted to settle in Atlanta when Steve retired 12 years ago. After searching that area for a house, Steve saw the online real estate ad for a log house on Logan Martin Lake, decided Pell City wasn’t so far from Atlanta, and drove over to take a look. “I had never been inside a log house before,” he says. “We walked in, and I said, ‘This is the place.’ I love the warmth of the wood.”

From the outside, the house looks like a typical log home, with wide, square logs and gray chinking. The silent sentinel near the front door, a stone Chinthe (lion-like creature that guards Burmese temples), and the Japaneseinspired lattice work between the porch rails on one side, hint at the treasures within.

Just inside the door, a Buddhist home-worship altar sits on a tall-legged cabinet. A small Buddha rests on top, with a gong behind him. “So much of Asian art is religious,” Steve says, although he isn’t.

Ceramic horses, copies of those found in Chinese burial mounds, stand on the sofa table to the left. Continuing left, on the wall separating the kitchen from the entrance hall, hangs a 14th-century Chinese scroll in a cabinet Steve built for it. As he turns the scroll, the pictures change, revealing a series of seaside and forest scenes done in ink on silk. “It’s a 30-foot-long story,” Steve says.

He replaced the maple kitchen cabinets with birch and the ceramic-tiled countertops with red and black granite, but the red appears burnt orange. “It looked more red when we picked it out,” Steve says. “We thought it would pop, but the color is swallowed up by the wood.” Stainless-steel appliances include a Jen-Air range with ceramic cooktop, bought because it has a downdraft. “We didn’t want a draft hood blocking the view of the lake,” Steve says.

In a corner of the dining area stands a tall, free-form, paper lamp, signed by its Japanese artist, although Steve can’t recall his name. “This is my most prized possession from an artistic point of view,” he says. “From a value point of view, it would be the Chinese scroll.” A foursection, Asian-style curio cabinet nearby houses part of Carla’s Madame Alexander doll collection, one of the few feminine touches in the house.

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Light dances on the countertops in the remodeled kitchen.

Log cabin WITH AN Asian flair Light pours into the great room from two sets of French doors and the fan-shaped transom above one set, illuminating the wide-plank pine floors and the tongue-in-groove pine ceiling. Both ceiling and floors are stained a golden oak color.

Recessed lights in the vaulted ceiling also shed light on the seating area in front of the fireplace.

An Asian-style open-front curio cabinet on the right side of the fireplace displays more Chinthe temple guards, including a small ceramic pair that are male and female. The painted ostrich egg, meerkat and giraffe figurines are African, yet seem to fit right in with their Asian cousins. A child’s Japanese kimono hangs on the wall behind the curio, while another child-size version and two adult kimonos hang high in the seating area. Bali puppets flank the chimney on stone shelves above the mantel, where a wooden ship rests. An antique Samurai suit of armor from the late 19th or early 20th century drapes a mannequin on the left side of the fireplace.

The master suite features a bathroom with white-washed ceiling boards — Steve’s attempt to lighten the ceiling without losing the grain and texture of the pine. This is the bathroom that had a clawfoot tub on a platform when they bought the house, and when he removed it, “people were clamoring for it,” he says. He replaced it with a jetted-tub next to a shower that has glass on three sides. The vanity has two matching bowls that sit on top, both with a design depicting orange coy swimming in a sea of emerald-green. Hanging over the tub is a geisha looking into a mirror as she puts on her makeup. “It’s an embroidery cloth traditionally used as wrapping paper for important gifts,” Steve says. More Chinthe stand guard from each end of the vanity.

Steve tore out the stone fireplace in the bedroom, which

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Formerly an open bedroom, the loft now serves as a home office for Steve and Carla.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

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Log cabin WITH AN Asian flair

One of the guest bedrooms has a corner curio with Asian figurines.

A jetted tub and separate shower stall replaced the clawfoot tub in the master bathroom.

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

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shared a chimney with its twin in the Great Room, and replaced it with black marble. The bedroom has a three-dimensional Mandarin king and queen wall hanging made of ivory and wood and a Chinese secretary that serves as a television cabinet.

An open deck spanned the back of the house when the Valdeses bought it.

Steve screened in both ends, leaving the center section unscreened for outdoor grilling. The section that opens off the master suite is furnished in wicker Giveblack themcushions what with theyan really seating that has predominantly off-white design in them. this holidaygarden season‌ Another favorite piece of want Asian art, a Japanese lamp, is located on an end table there. The screened porch off the dining area has more wicker, but with striped cushions in green, tan and red. That porch also has a glass-topped end table that Steve made using a gnarly tree stump he found on the property as the base.

Two areas of the 3,000-square-foot home reflect the eclectic side of Steve, who builds wooden model ships, collects military memorabilia and stocks his bar with South African wines and Italian grappa. (The latter is a fragrant, grapebased pomace brandy.) One is the loft overlooking the great room, the other the basement.

That loft was completely open and had been used as a bedroom when Steve and Carla moved in. He tried to make it look as Asian as possible by building a new bannister with an Asian flair and painting it black. He put up a half wall and painted that black, too. Then he turned its under-the-eaves closet into a storage area and the loftOPEN into an office.

A Cambodian goddess made of wood, SEVEN DAYS A WEEK! twin dragons made from teak and teak dust that was hardened with glue, and some Thai temple rubbings are the primary Asian art touches. Most of the loft is filled with odds and ends of things that Steve happens to like, such as a small pair of Mayan statues, an FDR “Man of the Hour� clock and the scale model of the steamboat Robert E. Lee that Steve built. “It took me a year,� he says of the project. “Now I’m working on a model of the CSS Alabama.� On the log wall behind his computer hangs a propeller from his dad’s airplane with a clock that Steve inserted in the center hole. “Mom and Dad are pilots,� he explains. “I blind.�

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Log cabin WITH AN Asian flair basement, which has Mexicantiled floors. Framed Confederate war bonds hang on one wall of the hallway, which leads to two guest rooms, a small bathroom, Steve’s “man cave” and a War Room. He calls the bathroom the Florida bath because of the wooden fish that hang on the wall, fish that he carved himself. “The former owner laid part of the tile floor and I did part,” Steve says. “He did the stucco walls.” Unlike the main floor, the basement has round log beams.

His man-cave features exposed log ceiling beams, tree-stump benches, a wooden bar for his wines, a Thai spinning wheel and another display case of Carla’s Madame Alexander dolls. The closet in one of the guest rooms houses his Nazi and South African Army uniforms and his U.S. Navy peacoat. A Korean painting done on silk hangs on one wall of the room, while a triangular table from China or Taiwan (he’s not sure which) stands beside the bed, and Korean puppets and figurines are displayed in a glass-fronted curio cabinet.

He calls the unfinished basement area his “War Room” because of the military memorabilia there. He has Swiss Army helmets, a German propaganda poster, rifles, a radio-controlled PT boat, and a mannequin dressed in his old flight suit, his jungle boots from Vietnam and a flight helmet and Mae West from his Dad. “That’s a medical dummy, actually,” he says of the mannequin. “It has a pacemaker in its chest. Johnson and Johnson was tossing it out in favor of a newer model, and I adopted it.” He also has autographed photos of famous World War II pilots such as George Gay, a Nazi flag, a Confederate flag, a work bench, and the safe from his grandfather’s cigar factory in Tampa.

“My wife doesn’t like this house as much as I do because it’s so masculine,” Steve admits. “It’s like The Lodge. As the real estate agent told us, it’s not a house on the lake, but a lake house.” l

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‘The Crazy Christmas People'

Tragedy leads couple on magical journey

Story by Leigh Pritchett Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr. Carl and Rexanne Brownfield do not mind being known as “the crazy, Christmas people.”

“Christmas is probably my favorite holiday,” said Mrs. Brownfield, who naturally was wearing red.

Year around, the décor in their home includes two Christmas trees. One is always adorned in Christmas finery.

The buffet in their hallway displays a collection of their favorite Christmas books, among them, Operation Christmas Child

by Franklin Graham and Donna Lee Toney.

Overlooking the buffet are many family photos of their four children, 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

“So we have a huge Christmas,” Mrs. Brownfield said.

Four years ago, however, Christmas took on an even greater meaning for the couple and has grown to be part of who they are throughout the year.

Like so many defining moments, this one resulted from heartache.

On April 27, 2011, an EF-4 tornado churned through Shoal Creek Valley, leaving death, devastation and despair in its path.

Thirteen people, including a preborn baby, perished.

Brownfield found several fatalities as he cut through debris trying to reach rescuers working to get into the valley. Some of the injured were taken to what was left of the Brownfields’ home, where Mrs. Brownfield and others cared for them until help arrived.

In the weeks and months that followed, life for Shoal Creek

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Rexanne and Carl Brownfield of Shoal Creek Valley

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

Santa and Mrs. Claus

For some people, it’s always Christmas Story by Leigh Pritchett Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.

Mrs. Claus and her husband, Santa

Santa peered through his round glasses when he answered the knock at the door.

With a smile and a chuckle, the bearded gentleman greeted visitors to his home atop a knoll in St. Clair County’s Shoal Creek Valley.

He was wearing jeans and a crimson-and-white striped shirt.

The railing on the inviting front porch was draped in red, white and blue bunting, indicating that Santa is a patriotic kind of guy.

His home resembles a cozy ski lodge, with its vaulted ceiling, wooden floors, towering stone fireplace and antler motif.

Santa’s house also has a swimming pool and a billiard table.

“I must have looked at 150 houses,” he said about his quest to find the perfect place for him and Mrs. Claus. “This area is just so beautiful.”

He confessed that he is not particularly fond of cold weather, which is why he and Mrs. Claus have chosen Alabama for their “summer home.”

Santa originally is from Greensburg, Pa., and Mrs. Claus from Montrose, Mich.

This particular evening, the couple opened their home to give Discover St. Clair magazine a very rare look into their legendary lives.

And the Clauses were quite obliging. For instance, Santa unlocked the treasure chests of special trinkets that help him illustrate the stories he tells children during his visits. One such trinket is a golden goblet containing coal. Yet, when the goblet passes through a “tunnel”

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

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Christmas People Rexanne Brownfield works at her sewing machine.

A buffet in the hallway displays an assortment of Christmas and Santa books. residents seemed to be on hold as they worked to clean up and rebuild.

Later that year, Mrs. Brownfield — who adores all things Christmas — took her husband to Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth, Mich.

While his wife was shopping, Brownfield spotted an advertisement that actor John Wayne had once purchased a Santa suit from Bronner’s.

Brownfield thought about how the people of Shoal Creek Valley needed something to “build up beat down spirits.” They needed some joy and cheer.

He thought about how he had wanted to be Santa since he was 20 years old.

And here he was, in a massive Christmas store where he could get what he needed to be Santa.

Eight hundred dollars later, Brownfield had his first Santa suit.

Even more so, he became Santa, going to great lengths to find the right accessories for his suit and props for the stories he would tell children during his visits.

That first year as the Jolly Old Elf, Brownfield made appearances at three churches in the Shoal Creek area and one in Moody, at a Pell City day care and at a photo session at Shoal Creek Volunteer Fire Department.

The next year, the demand for the couple grew exponentially. Not only were they engaged for the same events as the first year, but also for a hospital, a children’s cancer group and others.

This year, their schedule contains all sorts of events, such as “breakfast with Santa,” private and company parties, a hunting club, parade, bank and even a hair salon in Georgia.

The Brownfields get bookings a year in advance.

All year long, the Brownfields are in Christmas mode. They are either thinking about, preparing for or actually being Mr. and Mrs. Claus.

Mrs. Brownfield, in fact, can often be found purchasing

24

Carl Brownfield

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

Santa and Mrs. Claus of time and patience, the coal becomes diamonds.

Santa also revealed that he is partial to Harley hogs. In his younger days, he liked to ride Harley-Davidson Full Dressers and Road Kings. He even has 883 elves in his employ, in honor of the Sportster Iron 883.

While Santa revealed little-known information about him and his wife, Mrs. Claus was busy making ornaments for one of the two Christmas trees that stay up all year. The decorations of one tree change to herald the season or an upcoming holiday. The other tree, which is flocked, continuously displays Christmas splendor.

When she finished the ornaments, she quickly turned her attention to a new coat she was sewing for her jolly hubby. It is a long, red velvet coat of Victorian design.

This Christmas tree stays Santa donned the coat, putting his large up all year. Its decorations leather belt around his middle, and Mrs. change to celebrate the Claus pinned where fasteners and belt season or upcoming loops should go. holiday.

This is actually one of three coats Mrs. Santa was making for her husband. One of the other two is a majestic blue; the third is white.

Mrs. Santa also is fashioning a new outfit for herself, as well as for the four main elves who help the couple during the busy Christmas season.

Both the Clauses needed new outfits this year because the famous pair have been counting calories. As a result, each has lost 50 pounds.

Santa has worn store-bought outfits in the past, but finds that he much prefers the ones made with love by his dear wife.

That wide leather belt Santa was wearing is embossed with the names of all the reindeer. It was handcrafted in Myrtle Beach, S.C. His black boots were custommade in Massachusetts … by a former clown. Santa said the boots are the “bestfitting thing I’ve ever put on my feet.”

When not supervising elves, making appearances or delivering toys, the Clauses have hobbies and hold regular jobs.

Santa likes to build things using metal and wood. In fact, he said he hoped to complete a deck around the swimming pool before the beginning of Alabama’s short winter.

He is also learning to play the fiddle.

Mrs. Claus designs and makes all sorts of items, such as knickknacks, hair bows and tiny shoes for newborns.

During his off-season, Santa is a manufacturing engineer at Inteva Products in Gadsden. Mrs. Claus works there, too. She is an industrial engineer who received her education at Baker Business College in Owosso, Mich.

Santa said his vocation gives him much insight into making playthings. “That’s how I know how to make toys. (Inteva) makes parts for expensive toys. Most of them are Mercedes-Benz.”

They said they have a very understanding employer who willingly gives them time off each year to spread Christmas cheer.

Also, the Clauses like to be involved in their community. Santa is fire chief of the local volunteer fire department and also operates the sound system for the choir at his church. Mrs. Santa teaches Sunday school.

They have children, who are all adults now, and grandchildren and greatgrandchildren and other children who seem like their own. Finishing out the family are three pooches. One is named Vixen, of course. She is a rescued Rottweiler mix.

The other two furry friends are America, a Siberian husky, and REO Speed Wagon, a

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

25

Christmas People

Santa and Mrs. Claus

Santa and Mrs. Claus determine where belt loops should go on the new coat.

Rexanne Brownfield pins where belt loops and fasteners should go on her husband’s Santa coat.

Christian coloring books, word-search books and plenty of colors at Dollar Generals. These go in gift bags for children who visit Santa.

Their appearances and the goody bags are the Brownfields’ gifts to all they see. They never charge for appearances.

When they are given donations, the Brownfields give them to Toys for Tots or to an entity that assists needy families in St. Clair County.

Being Santa and Mrs. Claus creates opportunities for them to tell children the real reason for Christmas, Brownfield said. “(Rexanne) reads one of the Jesus stories” at events, Brownfield said. “Some people we visit, we are the only exposure to Jesus they get.”

Billy Wakefield, a friend of the couple as well as pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Shoal Creek Valley, is “just proud of the fact they have used it like a ministry. They use it to share the message of Christ and bring joy to kids’ hearts, too.

They have a tremendous passion for it. They take it to another level. It’s really who they are. It’s a calling.”

Once Brownfield became Santa, it was not long before he and his wife were asked to visit children with significant life circumstances. Some had experienced abuse or abandonment.

For some of these children, talking with Santa is therapeutic. They tell him things that they might not disclose to anyone else.

Visiting with Santa gives them a reprieve that brings a little laughter. Seeing those joyous faces blesses the Brownfields.

When a child smiles, “it’s just worth it,” Brownfield said.

The couple have no idea how much they spend each year preparing for and being Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Actually, Mrs. Brownfield said she is a little bit afraid to add it up.

She prefers to calculate it in different terms. If they are able to make one child smile or turn one person to Jesus ... that’s priceless. l

26

cocker spaniel. (Incidentally, Santa said REO Speed Wagon is named for the vehicle, not the band.)

Although they spend much time in Alabama, the Clauses stay up to date through the marvels of modern technology with the elves’ work at North Pole Work Shoppe.

Each fall, Mr. and Mrs. Claus attend “Santa school,” which is officially named Charles W. Howard Santa Claus School in Midland, Mich.

“Santa is never done learning,” said the Jolly Elf, who has also attended Alabama Fire College; Westmoreland County Community College in Youngwood, Pa.; and Pennsylvania State University in Pittsburgh.

It is during Santa school that he and Mrs. Claus are introduced to the new toys for that season and learn which are destined to be most popular.

And they said their time at Santa school is fun, fun, fun.

In October, their whirlwind schedule begins and keeps them very, very busy. There are breakfast events; photo sessions with children, and visits to day cares, hospitals, churches, fire departments, parades, festivals and company parties.

Those, of course, are in addition to what the Clauses adore most – being with children and hearing what is on their heart, their mind and their wish list.

Their calendar – the one Mrs. Santa keeps on her iPhone – is full through Dec. 23.

By the way, Santa has an iPhone, too, and a phone number that rings right to his sleigh.

Speaking of the sleigh, Alabama’s lack of snow means the Clauses must use an alternate mode of transportation while at their summer abode. They drive a truck and a sport utility vehicle. Oh, and Santa just got a 1962 Cadillac Seville. He is trying to decide whether to paint it white or red.

At 6 a.m. Dec. 24, their “marathon day” begins. While it is Christmas Eve for all of us here in the Western Hemisphere, it already is Christmas Day in some parts of the world.

From Dec. 26 through New Year’s Day, the very tired couple rests. Mrs. Claus gave a much more descriptive account of what happens to them on Dec. 26. “We crash,” she said.

But that does not last long.

Pretty soon after Jan. 1, the two begin to plan for the next Christmas because, at Santa’s house, …

It’s always Christmas, always! l

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

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Doug Morrison of Springville stands in Big Canoe Creek.

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

River Hero

Doug Morrison, a strong voice for conservation Story by Leigh Pritchett Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr. Doug Morrison does not consider himself to be a hero.

He is just a man who appreciates God’s green earth, blue skies and crystal-clear waters, and he wants to keep them that way.

The Alabama Rivers Alliance sees it a little differently, though. Because Morrison has worked to protect creeks, rivers and their surroundings, the Springville resident was named a “2015 River Hero” by the alliance earlier this year.

“I was just doing my thing and loving doing it,” said Morrison, who picks up litter along St. Clair County Road 9 near the Big Canoe Creek bridge during his lunch hour.

The River Hero Award, according to the non-profit alliance, is “a lifetime achievement award given to passionate individuals who exemplify river stewardship and who have a rich history of advocating for the protection of Alabama’s waterways.”

Morrison, notes the alliance, received the award for helping to revive the Friends of Big Canoe Creek organization, for being president of the Coosa Riverkeeper, for working with Freshwater Land Trust to establish a Forever Wild preserve along a portion of Big Canoe Creek, and for being supportive of Alabama Rivers Alliance and other riverkeeper groups.

Morrison serves as president of the Friends of Big Canoe Creek, which has 50-60 members, and president of the Coosa Riverkeeper until his term expires this December.

“Every conservation project I’ve ever been involved in, there has been a champion,” said Wendy Jackson, executive director of the non-profit Freshwater Land Trust. “For Big Canoe Creek, that champion has been Doug Morrison, who has invested countless hours of his time and all of his heart to this project. Not only is he a river hero, he is my hero.”

Though Morrison is the one who received the award, he said he has not worked alone. He said both groups – the Friends of Big Canoe Creek and the Coosa Riverkeeper — have board members and membership “with the same passion and want to help.”

Just a few examples of the biodivesity found in the creek.

Conservation Photographers of Alabama

Liz Brooke Photo

Path of understanding

Morrison’s journey to becoming a waterway champion actually started with a visit to Homestead Hollow in Springville.

During the excursion, Morrison and Joannie, his wife of 30 years, happened to drive along Oak Grove Road and into downtown Springville and decided this was the place for them.

They wanted to escape city life.

At the time, Morrison, an information technology consultant in the 401K record-keeping field, and his wife lived in Center Point.

A few years later, they saw an advertisement about a home

Conservation Photographers of Alabama

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

29

River Hero

Looking over an old dam on the creek.

Trispot female Trispot male

One of the mussel species found in the region 30

for sale in Springville. The description mentioned a creek bordering the land.

When they visited the property, Mrs. Morrison explored the inside of the Victorian-style home, with its side turret and stained-glass transoms. Morrison, on the other hand, checked out Big Canoe Creek that flows about 140 yards from the home’s back deck.

The pleasant childhood memories of looking for crawfish in Shades Creek in Jefferson County flooded his mind. Immediately, he was sold on the property.

That was in 1999.

For a while, he was content to sit next to his creek and occasionally be involved in various projects of Friends of Big Canoe Creek.

That changed noticeably after he saw neighbor Philip Dabney kayaking on the creek one day.

Morrison decided he would like to do that, too.

As Morrison paddled in a kayak or canoe, he noticed details about the creek, the life in and around it, and the vegetation.

His fascination with the creek increased, and so did his activity on it. He took up wade fishing; he set a goal of paddling the creek all the way to Neely Henry Lake. (He has paddled about half of it to date.)

“As I paddled it and started networking with other river groups, (I discovered) a lot of creatures there, what depends on the clean water and what harms the water,” Morrison said.

More and more, he realized the importance of protecting this pristine creek that flows in the shadow of an Appalachian foothill.

With the help of neighbor Vickey Wheeler, a founding member of the original Friends of Big Canoe Creek, Morrison was able to reactivate the group in 2008.

Now called the Friends of Big Canoe Creek, the group has engaged during the past seven years in cleaning up the creek and its tributaries, monitoring watershed, testing water quality, promoting recreation and fishing, educating the community and planning special events.

When Morrison learned that the group, Coosa Riverkeeper, was forming, he wanted to participate because Big Canoe Creek is in the Coosa River watershed. Morrison was asked to serve on the board of directors and has been president for three years.

Representing the Friends of Big Canoe Creek, Morrison and Board members have worked with Freshwater Land Trust’s Executive Director Wendy Jackson, city and county officials to designate between 300 and 600 acres adjoining the creek as a preserve through the state’s Forever Wild program.

“We are continuing efforts to make Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve a reality and are still working hard to see this through. Many wonderful folks have been involved, and there seems to be a genuine interest in having green space for folks to recreate in nature, to get their kids outdoors, away from their electronic life and truly experience what nature has to offer.

“In a book by Richard Louv, called Last Child in the Woods, he used the phrase, ‘Nature Deficit Disorder.’ That hit home with me, and I see how important it is to get folks back to nature, to have

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

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River Hero Morrison leads kayakers on creek

Joannie and Doug Morrison

Working for the creek

32

a place to sit quietly, listen to the forest, observe the creatures in the forest and listen to the simple sounds of a running stream. It is just downright good for your soul. So we are working hard to make this happen for the community, where folks can get away to a place in their neck of the woods and enjoy a natural setting.”

Unique creek

Big Canoe Creek begins at Zamora Lake Park in Clay in Jefferson County and crosses northern St. Clair County. When the creek reaches Gadsden in Etowah County, it becomes part of the Coosa River.

As Big Canoe Creek winds along its 50-mile path, it is fed by Gulf Creek, Muckleroy Creek, a Little Canoe Creek near Springville and another Little Canoe Creek in Etowah County.

One of its unique aspects is that it flows northeasterly, Morrison said.

In the creek is an array of fish, such as redhorse sucker, bass, crappie, bream, rainbow shiner, longear sunfish, alligator gar and southern studfish. Some are so colorful that they look tropical.

“Big and Lit­tle Canoe Creeks are home to 54 known species of fish and 23 rare and imper­iled plants and ani­mals doc­u­mented through­out the water­shed,” reveals Freshwater Land Trust.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, two federally protected mussels — the southern pocketbook and the triangular kidneyshell — can be found in Big Canoe Creek. Federal listing is being sought, as well, for the Canoe Creek clubshell mussel and the trispot darter.

The Canoe Creek clubshell mussel “is entirely new to sci­ence and was recently dis­cov­ered,” reports Freshwater Land Trust. As for the trispot darter, it is “a rare fish once thought to be extinct in Alabama.”

In 2004, 18 miles of the creek were deemed a “critical habitat” under the Endangered Species Act, states the Friends of Big Canoe Creek web site (www. bigcanoecreek.org).

A “critical habitat,” explains the wildlife service, is an area that “contains features essential for the conservation of a threatened or endangered species.”

The fact that mussels live in Big Canoe Creek is indeed positive because they require good water quality to exist.

“Their persistence in the Big Canoe Creek watershed is a testament to its ecological integrity,” states www.bigcanoecreek.org.

Wading in the creek one afternoon with a Discover photographer, Morrison came upon a sizable freshwater crustacean.

“There’s a big ole crawfish back there,” he said, estimating the critter to be possibly 6 inches long.

Studies of crawfish in Big Canoe Creek have found quite a diverse population.

“I didn’t know there were so many varieties of them,” Morrison said.

The creek also attracts blue herons, green herons, box turtles, salamanders, minks, otters, owls, raccoons, turkey, deer and many other creatures.

Morrison said he has encountered a black coyote and a bobcat that was “one of the biggest … I’ve ever seen.”

In 2013, the Friends of Big Canoe Creek was

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River Hero

involved in a huge undertaking to remove part of a 19th century grist mill dam, the only dam on the creek.

A study showed that the dam was keeping fish from migrating up and down stream. Also, the pooling of water behind the dam was promoting a buildup of sediment, which was adversely affecting aquatic life.

Seven national, state and local entities teamed to remove a portion of Goodwin’s Mill Dam to let the creek flow unobstructed.

Morrison said a recent biodiversity survey indicated that the different species living in that part of the creek are flourishing since the dam’s removal.

Life changer

Big Canoe Creek and its interests have become an integral part of Morrison’s everyday life.

He has his coffee at the creek some mornings and relaxes there after work. He likes “just sitting on the bank, listening to the water” as it hits the rocks of the shoal. He goes there at night, builds a fire and enjoys the peacefulness.

Often, he gives presentations about the creek, counsels Boy Scouts working toward their sustainability merit badge, presents rain barrel workshops, and encourages groups to practice the three R’s of reduce, reuse, recycle.

Because it is largely hidden, Big Canoe Creek remains untouched with few threats to its ecology. “We’re blessed not to have industry on it,” Morrison said.

However, he does not want the creek to remain a secret.

“I’d like to continue educating people about it,” he said. Specifically, he envisions more video documentation that would “bring to people’s living rooms” the beauty and life in and around Big Canoe Creek.

“People that paddle it get to experience that beauty,” he said. “And once you experience that beauty, you may become like me and want to protect it.”

Whenever he has the opportunity, he talks about Big Canoe Creek and the Coosa River because of water’s importance to man and creature. “In my opinion, anyone who fishes or swims or drinks water from the Coosa watershed ought to be concerned about it and support the work of the Coosa Riverkeeper,” he said.

He encourages people to support riverkeeper efforts in their area because these groups are the “eyes and ears of the water community.”

Morrison realizes that his transformation from a guy who enjoyed a creek to a guy determined to preserve it has been a significant one. “(The creek) has changed my life,” said Morrison, the father of two and grandfather of four. “I wasn’t into … conservation … until we moved out here. The creek changed me. It has given me a better appreciation of what we have here in our state. To see what we have in our own back yard is incredible. … This may sound corny, but it’s true: Be a better steward of the earth.

Enjoy what God has given us, this common ground for all living beings to thrive.”

Information from Alabama Rivers Alliance, Freshwater Land Trust and The Friends of Big Canoe Creek was used with permission. l

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

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St. Vincent’s St. Clair

Celebrating Four Years No matter the measuring stick, there is no mistaking the impact of St. Vincent’s St. Clair inside and outside its doors over the past four years.

Replacing an aging building that had become obsolete by today’s medical standards, the new St. Vincent’s St. Clair opened in Pell City in December 2011 to great fanfare. And rightly so. It ushered in a new era in health care for the entire region.

“This is a great community, and we are proud to be here,” said Michael Korpiel, who just took the reins of St. Vincent’s St. Clair and St. Vincent’s Blount as their president. He had been serving as president of St. Vincent’s East, but a strategic restructuring added two more hospitals to his administration. And the fit is not just good in terms of geography but in the services they can provide together.

“I’m excited about how we can make all three hospitals work more closely together,” he said. As an example, he cited St. Clair’s certification as a chest-pain center, stringent standards that mean when time is of the essence, lifesaving procedures kick into action quicker than ever before.

St. Vincent’s is the first health system in the country to be certified under these new standards, and they enable emergency department staff to begin care for a patient suffering from chest pain – often a sign of a heart attack – even before they reach the emergency room.

Once they are assessed at St. Clair, they

38

Stories by Carol Pappas Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr. and from the Discover Archives

Michael Korpiel 39

St. Vincent’s

Celebrating Four Years Out of date hospital spurred talk of replacement

New professional offices adjacent to hospital

RN Brittany Washington shares a moment with 101-year-old patient, Sara Ellen Keller.

40

can be transferred to a sister facility, if necessary, in a matter of moments, saving critical time through a coordinated effort in treating one of the biggest killers in the United States, Korpiel said.

Specifically, St. Clair has many more advancements that continue to keep the hospital and the care its patients receive on a progressive track.

Specialties added since opening are continuing an upward trend. A female obstetrics and gynecology doctor is opening a practice in the adjoining Physicians Plaza.

Dr. Kim Cox Gorman will practice at St. Clair and deliver babies at St. Vincent’s East.

Plans are under way for St. Vincent’s St. Clair Transitional Care, a “swing bed” program, which allows patients to receive skilled nursing services within this acute care hospital setting. “It enables us to better manage care for patients without transferring them to a nursing home or other hospital,” Korpiel said.

It basically involves designating beds when the 40-bed hospital is not at capacity for use as continuing care. If a patient needs longer term care, the designation of the bed simply changes, and the patient never has to leave the room. That system would allow more patients to remain close to home for post-acute care services.

“The addition of transitional care beds would strengthen our position as the provider of choice for the people of St. Clair and nearby counties,” according to a release announcing the plans. “It’s better for the patient, and it’s better for us” in providing the continuum of care, Korpiel added.

Bariatrics is “going strong” at the hospital with 30 surgeries targeted for this year. Combined with education and a support system, it is helping patients lose weight en route to healthier lifestyles.

Dr. Gaylyn Horne-Ballard has opened her pain

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

Thank you past and present members of the Hospital Board and Health Care Authority for providing the foundation for our hospital

J.B. Martin Wayne Wood Ren Wheeler Charles Forman Fred Hughes Jack Norton Bill Fox Frank Riddle Joel Washington Gerald Morrow Aubrey Watson Stan Batemon Stanley Horn Guin Robinson

David H. Hill J.B. Walters Larry E. Armstrong Lawrence Fields Peggy Dickinson John Wesley McHugh Jr. Tom Sanders Terry Capps Louise Martin Hugh L. Hand Alan Furr C.R. Spivey Jr. Susan Williams Bill Murray

Marlin S. Huggins Herbert A. Newman Joe Lee Clemons Roe Janice R. Holland Judy Martin Ernest White Pam Bedsole Pat D. Turner Frederick Mack Honeycutt Paul Manning Pat Fouts Rusty Jessup

With sincere appreciation from the 2015 Health Care Authority, Lawrence Fields, Chairman

St. Vincent’s

Celebrating Four Years

Kidada Hawkins in early days of new hospital

Sisters Vigil sculpture, a tribute to hospital’s ministry 42

management practice in Physicians Plaza, performing 20 to 35 procedures a day.

Gastrointestinal services are being performed at the hospital as well, with several physicians from Birmingham offering outpatient procedures at St. Clair.

Partnerships have strengthened with local practices as well. “Northside Medical Associates continues to be a great partner,” Korpiel said, noting that such specialists as those with Birmingham Heart Clinic have established clinics within Northside.

And Pell City Internal Family Medicine, housed at Physicians Plaza and at the Publix shopping center “have done a great job” in delivering services, he said.

As for the future, it’s looking better than ever. More specialties in urology, orthopedics and ear, nose and throat are on the horizon.

He acknowledged that while he has been “blown away by the support of this hospital,” he would like to see greater strides in the Emergency Department. It is not unlike national numbers. The lowest statistics for satisfaction are in the area of emergency departments because of long waits and more expensive care.

“My goal is to improve service through the Emergency Department,” he said. Through the hospital system’s Lean initiative, those improvements are already being seen.

Delays in lab and radiology results are being eliminated. Transfer time for patients needing emergency services for a heart attack has been cut by 20 minutes, something that is critical to the patient.

The goal for turnaround time for troponin lab tests, which help rule out a heart attack diagnosis, was 30 minutes. It is now being done in 23 minutes.

And overall, 30 minutes has been shaved off Emergency Department times for services rendered.

What all that means is better care and better results for patients close to home at a hospital that consistently rates in the top 10 percent of hospitals in the St. Vincent’s Health and Ascension Health systems across the country for patient satisfaction.

Nationally, it means Joint Commission Accreditation and Joint Commission’s Top Performer Award on Key Quality Measures for the local hospital.

“My vision for St. Clair as the county continues to grow and Pell City continues to grow,” Korpiel said, “is to enable this hospital to provide as many comprehensive services as possible” so that patients get the care they need “close to home.”

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

Welcome the Season

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St. Vincent’s

In the beginning

Community’s earliest peek at hospital When St. Clair County and state officials joined with executives of St. Vincent’s Health System and Ascension Health to symbolically hoist shovels full of dirt into the air, most observers would have thought that was the beginning of St. Vincent’s St. Clair.

After all, it was the groundbreaking ceremony for a new, state-of-the-art hospital that would open its doors to the region four years ago – December 2011.

Today, it sits on a perch high above Interstate 20, a fitting symbol to passersby of how St. Clair County’s healthcare landscape has drastically changed for the better. Just behind it is the Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home, another symbol of positive change, which opened a year later. Just down the road a bit, but sharing the same expansive campus, is a campus of another sort – Jefferson State Community College, which among other academic pursuits, houses a nursing school.

All three would become partners in what has – arguably more than any other single development – changed the face of health care for the region, if not the state.

Former Pell City Mayor Guin Robinson recalled when

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

Floor signing in chapel during construction

From rendering to reality: A new hospital is born

Bird’s eye view of construction

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

45

St. Vincent’s

In the beginning

Jason Goodgame, right, acts as project manager

Last patient leaves old hospital

Breaking new ground for hospital 46

he and other officials first took the late Judy Merritt, president of Jefferson State Community College, to the densely wooded property just north of Interstate 20 in the 1990s. She took one look and said, “Dynamite!,” knowing in an instant it would become the home of the college’s Pell City campus.

Robinson credits her with the vision to see the potential. But if she could have seen well into the future, he noted, she would have trumped her “dynamite” description in favor of “game changer.”

All who have had a hand in the evolution of that property agree.

Pell City’s Bob Barnett now chairs the Board of Directors for St. Vincent’s Health System, a network of four hospitals, One Nineteen, and St. Vincent’s Chilton under construction. He remembers when a new hospital was simply “outside-the-box” thinking for St. Clair County’s future. He was a member of the board at Medical Center East, predecessor of St. Vincent’s East and the lessee of the old St. Clair County Regional Hospital.

CEO Bob Chapman had challenged the board to come up with new ideas to make the hospital better.

The old, 82-bed hospital in St. Clair had lost its effective functionality in a changing health-care environment that was moving more toward outpatient procedures than overnight stays.

Barnett was chairman of the Pell City Industrial Development Board when the St. Clair County Economic Development Council bought the interstate property. He recalled it as a “natural fit,” and a new hospital on that property was pitched to the Medical Center East board.

Fast forward through years of on-again, off-again negotiations and a series of different hospital system lessees, and St. Clair County finally arrived at its best chance to build a new hospital.

Some might call it fate. Others might call it a never-give-up spirit. Those involved will likely tell you it had elements of both.

The college coming, the need for a new hospital in a quickly growing county, a state veteran’s home emerging as a neighboring opportunity, a hospital ministry that recognized the need for outreach, various factions working together – they all were the parts that drove this engine. “If any one component had been missing, it wouldn’t have worked,” Robinson said.

“It wasn’t easy,” said former Pell City Mayor Lawrence Fields, who serves as chairman of the St. Clair Health Care Authority. “It was an uphill battle. Our board rallied around it. It took a team effort.”

Former St. Clair Commission Chairman Stan Batemon recounted those early years. “St. Vincent’s convinced me they could pay the lease, close the doors (on the old hospital) and save money.” Nearing the end of the lease by St. Vincent’s, “I was totally convinced it was going away.”

But opportunities came together at the right time. Health Care Authority members from across the county who were receptive to the idea of building a hospital, whether it was in their home community or not, came on board. The college provided the “synergy,” and the prospect of a 280-bed veteran’s home across the street “all fell into place,” Batemon said. “The whole process became tied together – the hospital, the school and the veterans home.”

Neeysa Biddle, FACHE, senior vice president, Ascension

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

OUR HOSPITAL: A COMMUNITY SUCCESS STORY

St. Vincent’s

In the beginning

The chapel

Former Hospital Administrator Terrell Vick during construction 48

Health; Birmingham market executive and president/CEO for St. Vincent’s Health System, has seen the process move from rendering to reality from different angles over the years. She was serving as interim CEO when an impressive proposal for a new hospital was presented to leaders of parent company Ascension Health at its national committee meeting. She delivered it over the phone, but that proposal turned heads and sparked eventual action to build St. Vincent’s St. Clair.

In June 2011, she retired as Chief Operating Officer of St. Vincent’s, but was needed in yet another role. She oversaw the move from the old hospital to the new hospital while it was still operating.

Today, she talks with pride of the leading health care facility it has become. “Today, it is in the 90th percentile in the United States for patient satisfaction. In four to five years, that’s phenomenal and a real credit to that staff.” It has the Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval for Quality Measures, and it is a model others not only want to emulate, they’re doing it.

It is the power of partnerships. “In order to have a viable community,” Barnett said, “you have to have good education and a good health care system. They are key to putting our community in a better position for economic development.

We’ve been really successful here.”

And others certainly have taken notice. Chilton County’s Clanton has mirrored Pell City and St. Clair County’s success story. Jefferson State built a campus there a few years ago, and now construction has begun on nearby St. Vincent’s Chilton.

Sound familiar? It should. According to Biddle, officials from that region had a straightforward request: “We just want what St. Clair’s got.”

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

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St. Vincent’s

A true community hospital It isn’t much of a stretch to conclude that St. Vincent’s St. Clair is a hospital the community built. Of course, the critical foundation for it came from St. Vincent’s Health System and its parent company, Ascension Health, but dogged determination by entities and individuals across the county brought it all together.

Today, it is a leader in the hospital industry, a credit to the partnerships that made it happen.

Step inside the door of this cutting-edge hospital, and you get a sense of it from the granite plaque that hangs in the entrance. St. Clair County Commission, St. Clair Health Care Authority, City of Pell City, St. Vincent’s Health System, St. Clair Economic Development Council – they were the major players.

The St. Clair Economic Development Council bought the land. The St. Clair County Commission offered funding and in-kind services, as did the City of Pell City. The Health Care Authority pledged its resources from lease payments, and St. Vincent’s and Ascension clinched the deal.

“We knew St. Clair County needed a new medical facility,” said Lawrence Fields, who serves as chairman of the Health Care Authority.

And he and his board set out to bring it to fruition.

He used the same determination he did as Pell City’s mayor, when he convinced Kmart’s CEO Joseph Antonini to bring the discount chain store to town when retail offerings in the city were minimal.

He quasi-crashed an invitation-only Kmart grand opening in another city where the CEO was in attendance. “I knew he had to come back out that door,” Fields said. And when he did, Fields introduced himself and told him matter-of-factly, “We need Kmart in our city.”

Each week thereafter, he would send ‘gifts’ from Pell City to the Kmart chief – memorabilia from the city’s centennial, a ham, jumbo shrimp from the Pell City Steakhouse. In a couple of days, Fields received a call from Antonini’s secretary asking him to cease.

“We just want him to know where Pell City is,” Fields replied. Her response was quick and to the point. “Believe me, he knows.”

Within a year, Kmart began construction in Pell City.

“It’s nothing more than just having faith,” Fields said. “I still believe in people. If you’re a good sales person, you can sell people on your ideas. That’s what team work is all about.”

Fields and the Health Care Authority made tough decisions in committing millions of dollars

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is no question the hospital was “ forThere the betterment of St. Clair County.

— Paul Manning, St. Clair County Commission Chairman

Korpiel in chapel, central to hospital

Emergency Department Manager Amy O’Barr, RN, checks a patient’s blood pressure before EKG.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

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St. Vincent’s

A true community hospital Health Care Authority Chairman Lawrence Fields

to the prospect of a new hospital. But by joining forces with other entities to make a compelling case for the need – and a sizable investment – the dream became reality.

“The Health Care Authority spent a lot of time putting it together,” said Bob Barnett, who serves as chairman of the board for St. Vincent’s Health System. “There were a lot of negotiations back and forth. It took several years. It went to the brink several times before it happened.”

“You’ve got to have a team, people that believe, and they accomplish something,” Fields said. “I’m proud for our community. It is worthy of that hospital.”

EDC steps up

Annette Summers and Irene Sexton in gift shop run by auxiliary

Now a county commissioner, Tommy Bowers was serving as chairman of the Economic Development Council at the time. “I signed the deeds for the property,” he said, as he relates the story of the land before it was developed into the sites for Jefferson State, Col. Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home and St. Vincent’s St. Clair.

Just about where the hospital stands today, he discovered an old well house the city owned. Inside, he spotted an old metal sign lying on a shelf on its face. He turned it over and read the words: Hospital Zone. “The best we could determine, it was from downtown Pell City when the hospital was above the Rexall Drugs,” Bowers said.

The hospital has come quite a way since those days. “It’s state-of-the-art. It maintains excellent ratings for health care, and it is a model for other hospitals,” he said. “It has meant a tremendous amount to our county and to the citizens of our county.”

County Commission instrumental

More specialties offered 52

Stan Batemon was County Commission chairman when the deal was in negotiations. “I call it a mini-UAB complex,” he said, noting the relationship between health care and the college and the added plus of the state veterans home.

Believing it was critical that all entities invest in the hospital’s future, he said the county pledged $2 million in cash assets. The Health Care Authority and St. Vincent’s invested as well. The road leading to the hospital was built with a federal grant secured through U.S. Senators Richard Shelby and Spencer Bachus. The City of Pell City extended water and sewer service to the development.

“There is no question the hospital was for the betterment of St. Clair County,” said Commission Chairman Paul Manning. He cited jobs created, quality health care and opportunities for growth among the benefits realized from building a new hospital. Serving on the County Commission throughout negotiations, Manning played a role in ensuring that the investment was fair to all. With that achieved, the Commission’s unanimous support paved the way for a new hospital.

“It is great to have this facility here. We are proud to see it, and it was very important for us to have it,” Manning said.

Looking toward the future, Manning talked of the projects to improve travel to and from the hospital. And, he talked of the partnership of Jefferson State, the veterans home and the hospital as integral in the growth of the county. “It was a good

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St. Vincent’s

A true community hospital

Outpatient procedures performed in state-ofthe-art surroundings.

investment.”

Inside the hospital, other investments are evident as well. Because of its nonprofit status, St. Vincent’s is backed by a strong foundation that enables it to have newer, state-of-the-art equipment in its operation that other for-profit facilities might not afford, Batemon said.

Plaques throughout the hospital commemorate the financial commitment by citizens and companies who helped bring it about through those donations. One of those is an Emergency Department exam room, which displays a plaque in memory of Rhonda Batemon Colburn, Batemon’s sister – an RN – who died of cancer.

College a catalyst

When Guin Robinson was mayor of Pell City, he, Realtor Dick Whatley and then St. Clair Economic Development Executive Director Ed Gardner Sr. took Judy Merritt, the late president of Jefferson State Community College, to a thick forest just north of I-20 to see a piece of property they thought would make a perfect site for a college campus.

54

Turns out, she agreed, and the college became the catalyst for what would follow.

He now works for the college in Birmingham as director of Community Outreach, but ironically, Robinson said his first entry into public service in St. Clair County was as a County Commission appointment to the Hospital Board. Long before terms as city councilman and mayor, he saw the need for a new hospital from the board’s standpoint.

When he was on the Council, he saw the need from the city’s vantage point. “The chorus was growing louder and louder. “It was my first glimpse into how we could really be a more cohesive county and come together around health care,” he said.

Parallel to that chorus in the early 1990s were discussions centered on workforce development.

“We saw a need for economic development, and that spawned the EDC. As mayor, I saw the opportunity for us to have a new hospital. But first, it was the college that was the missing piece. We kept coming back to the need for a college to make it all come together.”

With the college’s much-heralded nursing

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

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St. Vincent’s

A true community hospital

program, the opportunities were unmistakable. According to Dr. Barbara O’Neal, associate dean of Nursing for Jefferson State, 55 students are in the nursing program at the Pell City campus, a stone’s throw from the hospital.

“The whole idea fits the definition of what a community college is all about,” she said. Needs are identified, and needs are met. Students have access to studies and training in their own community, they can complete their clinicals at the hospital, and their prospects for employment in their community are heightened.

“Until the end, I will forever be proud of that project,” Robinson said, underscoring the ministry of the hospital in “saving lives” and the mission of the college in “changing lives.”

City integral in process

Former Pell City Mayor Bill Hereford has a long history along the route to a new hospital. He served as chairman of the Hospital Board before becoming mayor. To see it finally come to fruition was “a great feeling, especially knowing what a great effort it took to make it happened. Even when people had a differing opinion, I think we came up with a better hospital and a better-funded hospital.”

He remembers the work of Charles Trotter, who served as chairman before him. He remembers former Hospital Administrator Doug Beverly, who “started the ball rolling about a new hospital.”

And Hereford remembers the words of former Hospital Administrator Terrell Vick as it neared reality, the phrase immortalized and becoming the mantra for the move: “Ever what it takes.”

The day Hereford met John O’Neill, former CEO of St. Vincent’s Health System, “he stuck his hand out and said, ‘We are going to build a hospital.’ And it took off from there.”

Hereford credits “a collaborative effort of leadership in St. Clair County on the city and county level.”

Hereford was mayor when the new hospital opened.

The morning of the move, he drove over to the old hospital.

There, he spotted Dr. Jim Tuck. Together, they walked every hall on every floor, remembering and reflecting. “Jim and I walked that whole hospital, talking about (the late Dr.) John Haynes, all the memories, all the babies born there over the years. Thousands.”

Then, it was time for “out with the old and in with the new,” he said. One chapter closes, and another begins. He drove over to the new hospital.

“When I look at it now, it is with a sense of pride.”

Leaders laud efforts

Community leaders like Don Perry, retired president of Metro Bank, saw a need to get involved, and he did. He served as the first chairman of the advisory board for the new St. Vincent’s St. Clair.

“It really has changed the face of health care for the region,” Perry said. “I have observed that we’re drawing patients from adjoining counties, which is very unusual.”

In economic development, “the three big things people look at when relocating are schools, hospital and recreation.” With

56

Plaque tells partnership story the building of a new, technologically cutting-edge hospital, “we went from a negative to a real positive. St. Vincent’s has so much emphasis on patient care, it is a real pleasure for me to be a part of it. They really care. It is good to see the kind of emphasis on everything that is good for the patient.”

Perry was elected to the board of directors for St. Vincent’s Health System in November, and Realtor Lyman Lovejoy replaces him as chairman of the advisory board for the local hospital. Lovejoy sees St. Vincent’s St. Clair as “one of the better gems to come along in St. Clair County in many, many years.”

He talked of its importance in creating jobs, improving the quality of health care and the ability to grow its medical offerings. “We have attracted more specialists, and the services that are being offered here at home definitely enhance our quality of life.”

Newly appointed Administrator for St. Vincent’s St. Clair, Lisa Nichols, RN, MSHA, couldn’t agree more. “I am excited to join the team at St. Vincent’s St. Clair. The staff members have accomplished a tremendous growth in services and improved patient satisfaction scores since the opening of the new hospital in 2011,” she said.

“My goal is to support our continued growth – always with a focus on quality patient care.” l

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Married in the mountains Ashville farm turns into special wedding, event venue Story and photos by Jim Smothers Submitted Photos When Jeff Caddell’s parents, Bud and Mildred, bought 110 acres in Ashville in 1989, they weren’t just looking for a home, they were also looking for the perfect spot for Bud to be able to enjoy his life-long hobby of building and flying remote controlled model airplanes. But he didn’t want it just for himself, so he chartered an RC club so others could enjoy the sport, and he was just happy to be able to host them at his place. The club is still going strong, even after his death, with 45 members at last count.

So after Jeff and his wife Sheila had a beautiful wedding of their own on a small island in the 8-acre lake on the property, it wasn’t long before they wanted others to be able to be able to use the property for their weddings, too, and they got the ball rolling last year. To date, about a dozen couples have begun their lives as man and wife at Mountain View Farms.

“There are five or six places here where people could have weddings,” Jeff said. “Inside or outside the barn, in the middle of a field, on the island – they could even have it on the lawn in front of our house overlooking the lake if they wanted to.”

Actually the barn isn’t ready yet, but the Caddells are

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

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Venue with a view

A very special wedding for Belinda Dorough and Daniel Creech.

excited about the plans for the future. Rather than building a purpose-built barn for weddings, they want to convert an existing barn that can be used for not only weddings but other large-scale events. The plan is to retro-fit the exterior of the barn with board and batten walls while retaining the original wood and tin on the inside for atmosphere.

“There’s 5,000 square feet inside. You can get a lot of people in there,” he said. “We will become a destination wedding and events venue next summer once we complete a big remodel of our large home that is being converted into a lodge with lots of stone, cedar, rusty tin and barn wood. “‘The Lodge’ and ‘The Cottage’ at Mountain View Farms will sleep about 20 people and will be ... offering overnight stays.”

Jeff credits an old friend with suggesting the farm as a wedding venue. Gary Liverett, director of the nearby Alpha Ranch ministry for young men, built the island and gazebo for Mildred Caddell in 2007. When the project was completed, Gary remarked it would be a nice place to have a wedding, which put the wheels in motion for Jeff and Sheila’s wedding in 2010. While the plan for hosting weddings was being hatched, Jeff and his mom were puzzled as to where the bride and bridesmaids could get ready. Sheila pointed out there was an unoccupied two-bedroom house on the property that would be perfect. “’Well, duh!’ I thought,” Jeff said. “That was perfect.”

To get started they set up a Facebook page and offered the use of the farm at little or no charge for a limited number of weddings as a promotion, with the understanding that the Caddells could use photos from those events to show others what they had to offer.

One of the first weddings was actually a couple who remarried each other after being apart for decades.

“Dianne and Gary Duck actually remarried each other here at Mountain View Farms in May. It had been over 30 years since they divorced! They had a small wedding, and then rode away on Gary’s

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Harley. Gary remarked that he was young and stupid and lost her after being married a short time. Life went on, circumstances changed, and he found her again,” Caddell said.

More recently, the Caddells offered the farm as a venue for a very special couple. Daniel Creech and Belinda Dorough both attend a day program at United Cerebral Palsy in Birmingham, spending most of their days in wheelchairs, and living in a group home at night.

Daniel communicates by using his eyes to type on an electronic device and surprised Belinda when he popped the question to her. She can speak a little and first responded “What?” and then started crying before answering, “Yes!” Daniel’s mom reached out to the community for help in making their dreams of a beautiful wedding come true via a Facebook post in which she was merely asking for some suggestions. In the end, a motorcycle club held a charity ride for them, and donations of rings, a cake, photographs and other services were all donated as word about their needs got around.

Their wedding day went like clockwork on a beautiful fall afternoon. Their powered wheelchairs zipped back and forth across the wooden bridge to the island as a custom-built sound system enabled friends and relatives to hear the ceremony and enjoy recorded music. The reception tent a short distance away provided an efficient serving area, and tables under strings of lights gave guests an enchanting evening as they enjoyed dancing on a pallet wood dance floor, a project which another couple that tied the knot there built for the Caddells.

All of the couples are special people, and the Caddells stay close to events to make sure their needs are met.

They are working on a plan to share the farm with another special group of people.

“After my mother passed, it was our great pleasure to make a substantial donation to Children’s Hospital in my parents’ honor,” Jeff said. “Mom and Dad had a charitable trust that provided for any remaining funds after their deaths to be donated to the charity. In talking to people at the hospital, they were interested in having a place for kids to go as a respite, so we’re working towards that.”

They are in the process of setting up a non-profit foundation to be funded by proceeds from weddings and other events at the farm to help fund those kinds of visits.

They are carrying on a tradition of giving established by his parents and want the Caddell Foundation of Hope to give hope to ailing children and their families and underprivileged children.

“When kids go through extended illnesses, their families are incredibly strained,” he said. “There are so many out of pocket expenses.”

The plan is to organize activities at the farm to give them a break without any expense. l

ELECT

Come try us at our new location

Stan Batemon

Downtown Pell City (Inside Former Rexall Drug Store)

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6.00

LUNCH SPECIAL WITH DRINK INCLUDED

St. Clair County Commission

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ALL DAY THURSDAY SPECIALS

205-338-7585

1901 Cogswell Ave., Pell City, AL 35125 Open Sun.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m.- 10 p.m.

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Let us us handle handle all all your your legal legal and and real real estate estate needs needs in in St. St. Clair Clair County.

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Let “No representation is made as to the quality of legal services to be performed is greater than those performed by other lawyers.”

“Plays, fundraisers, school events, private gatherings …they all prove that the CEPA building is a wonderful jewel within our community and used by all the citizens of Pell City.”

– Julie Funderburg

Stan Batemon - continuing to work for you here in St. Clair County and in Montgomery and Washington DC to create jobs, secure grants for education and infrastructure and to oppose ALL tax increases. I also support rescinding the most recent gasoline tax and to demand that the county commission allow a public vote on any more taxes! I pledge to represent you fairly and honestly and to work with others to keep our county moving in the right direction.

Pd. Pol. Adv. by Stan Batemon 534 Eagle Point Lane Pell City, AL 35128

That’s My CEPA! CEPA - The Pell City Center For Education And Performing Arts was built with overwhelming support from our community.

At CEPA we’re proud of the plays and performances, all the events that enrich our community. Together, with your help we’ve created a vibrant, diverse and world class performing arts center. But without continued support from our neighbors we know we can’t continue to grow.

If you enjoy live performing arts we’d like to invite you to become a member of CEPA so you can proclaim “That’s My CEPA!” Your membership will provide vital support to our work and every gift is instrumental in bringing performances to life on our stage.

Julie and Erskine Funderburg are active CEPA Members, and members of the Pell City Players.

To say “Thank You!” for your support we’re now providing members with vouchers for FREE tickets to many of the performances we hold each year. An Individual Membership is just $35.00. A Family Membership is just $50.00. A Supporting Membership is just $100.00 and comes with two ticket vouchers, up to a $45.00 value.

A Director Club Membership comes with 4 ticket vouchers, special discount offers and free lobby rental once a year all for $500.00. You get FREE admission to Pell City Players events AND the satisfaction of knowing you are one of the people helping CEPA to continue its mission.

It’s your CEPA too! Become a member today!

Call 205-338-1974 or go to www.pellcitycenter.com to learn more about the benefits of becoming a CEPA Member

The MOUNTAINS Of St. Clair County, Alabama

View where Streight Mountain and Chandler Mountain join

Traveling the

BACKROADS Story by Jerry C. Smith Photos by Jerry C. Smith and Michael Callahan Bald Rock, Streight, Backbone, Chandler, Beaver Creek, Rattlesnake Hill, Shoal Creek — all are names of mountains found in St. Clair County.

As real mountains go, they’re mere rises; nevertheless, each played major parts in St. Clair County’s social, economic and historical development.

Geographically, they’re foothills of the Appalachians, among the oldest mountains on Earth.

Men like Nathan Bedford Forrest and Andrew Jackson knew these mountains well and used them to advantage during their military operations. They’ve also provided haven for at least one famous criminal and changed the course of history in several ways.

BALD ROCK TOWERMEN During the Depression era and years that followed, hundreds of tall lookout towers were built by governmentsponsored WPA workers and others to keep an eye out for signs of forest fires. Two were in St Clair, atop Bald Rock Mountain near Cook Springs and Beaver Creek Mountain near Ashville.

These sturdy sentinels were usually 80 to 100 feet tall, topped with a small enclosure known as a cab. Most were openly constructed of steel and wood, but some, like Horn Mountain in Clay County, Flagg Mountain in Coosa County, and Cheaha in Talladega County, were elegant, closed structures of finely crafted stonework.

Each was staffed by a lone “towerman,” whose daily job was to climb as many as a hundred steps, open a drop-down trap door, then shut himself inside for the entire day, coming down only in case of violent storms and nightfall.

The cab usually measured about 7 feet by 7 feet, just large enough to house one man and the simple equipment needed to spot and report suspicious smoke. Rex Riddle, a former Odenville resident who worked part-time in the Bald Rock tower while going to college, described the operation: “When you spotted smoke, you watched it a while with binoculars to see if it were just a trash fire or somebody making a controlled burn.”

Locations of confirmed blazes were plotted using an Osborne FireFinder, an optical instrument known generically as an alidade. Mounted over a county topographical map on a table in the center of the cab, the Finder had two upright sights mounted on a large metal ring that was free to revolve in a complete circle. Once aligned with the smoke source, an azimuth reading, basically a compass heading, could be taken from the device’s rim. Range, or distance from the tower, was usually estimated using geological features from the map.

However, Rex explains, “Many times smoke in St. Clair would also be visible from either the Shelby County or Beaver Creek towers, so we would get on the radio and ask those guys to plot another azimuth. Where those crossed told us the exact location of the smoke.”

Rex also speaks of long, lonely hours when nothing was going on: “The view was incredible, although the tower seriously vibrated in the wind. You could see the whole county,

Bald Rock Mountain, from Cooks Springs Road

Morning Fog from Chandler Mountain

Streight Mountain from the St. Clair County side of Chandler Mountain

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

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Traveling the

BACKROADS which was then mostly covered with pristine hardwoods.

“It was absolutely brilliant in the fall. In those days, there were no houses at all on Bald Rock, so I had the place to myself.

On a clear day, I could see the cement plant in Ragland and huge layers of red and brown smoke over Birmingham.”

Rex’s father, Ervin Jackson Riddle (known as EJ), was a Forest Ranger in the 1950s. He was in charge of St. Clair’s fire towers and also managed several “patrolmen,” who were sent out to track down smoke leads and other routine duties. EJ’s brother, Nolan Riddle, was the first regular towerman at Bald Rock, hiring on in 1951 for the princely sum of $100 a month.

EJ worked mostly out of a ranger station which still stands, unused, on a hilltop between Pell City and Eden. His daughter, Ann (Riddle) Burton, worked as a part-time typist in his office while in high school.

Many locals fondly remember a towerman named Howard “Smokey” Pennington, whom Rex had helped train.

In his family history, Walking The Chalk Line, Rex describes Smokey’s training period, “He was very reluctant to talk on the two-way radio. After a few months he began to love to talk on the air and probably talked too much.

“Once Smokey called in a fire, and Dad was having difficulty finding it. When he called the tower to verify the azimuth reading, Smokey replied, “Red, it is down Whites Chapel Road where we used to go to chicken fights.”

Carol (Welbourne) Partain and her sister, Sharon, who grew up next door to the Penningtons in Margaret, and Jean, Smokey’s daughter, often visited him in the tower, delighting in the great outdoors, a magnificent view and Smokey’s personable manner.

Carol characterized Smokey as “a colorful character” who, when someone snuck up behind and goosed him, would shout out the name of whatever he happened to be looking at, often creating scenes that were laughed about for years.

She and Jean once decided to go from the cab to ground level for a romp in the woods, but were interrupted halfway down by Smokey, yelling, “Ya’ll get back up these steps now … NOW!” Upon rejoining him at the top, they were shown a full-grown mountain lion less than a

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Morning Fog from Streight Mountain

Forest Ranger office in Pell City

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

Traveling the

BACKROADS

Forty-Mile View from Streight Mountain

Tomatoes on Chandler Mountain 68

hundred feet from the tower’s base. Smokey usually wore a pistol for protection from “various predators.”

Big cats were not the only forest denizens who visited the tower. Ann often watched hawks circling overhead and recalls seeing one as it carried a big snake several hundred feet into the air, then dropped it onto the rocks below to kill it. She also remembers prowling near an old, abandoned homeplace while gathering snakeroot, a natural remedy thought to cure snakebite.

Carol said you always had to be careful where you put your hands and feet while climbing the tower, as buzzards often roosted among its girders when no one was inside, leaving huge amounts of their natural digestive products all over the handrails and steps.

Were there bathrooms in fire towers? Nope, at least not in the open-frame type. On the other hand, there was usually no one within sight, either, so modesty wasn‘t really an issue. Besides, with the exception of Mrs. Guthrie, who succeeded Smokey as the last lookout to work at Bald Rock, all tower personnel had been men; hence, “towerman” instead of “towerperson”.

Rex tells of a road machine operator called “Snow” White, who built an access road from AL Highway 174 to the tower. Snow had a rough job of it due to the mountaintop’s rocky terrain but loved to shove huge boulders over the edge with his bulldozer and listen as they crashed their way to the bottom, breaking small trees and starting landslides. Snow

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

1122 INDUSTRIAL DRIVE PELL CITY, AL 35125

205.884.4766 800.226.5098

www.garrisonsteel.com

Traveling the

BACKROADS knew some folks who lived in the valley below and often hollered for them to watch out.

The view of the mountain’s rocky precipice was especially breathtaking from the grounds of nearby Cook Springs Hotel. Locals and their visitors loved to hike to the top of the ridge In her book, The Village and Its Neighbors, Anita Smith quotes Mrs. Maizie Bradford, a frequent faith retreat visitor in the 1930s, “In the afternoon, we could walk up Bald Rock Mountain. Some did that, and others didn’t.

“I was one of those who walked up that mountain. There was a trail that was already made for us. By the time I got to the top, I was really ready to sit down! The view was so spectacular it was hard to believe. You could see everywhere!”

However, Bald Rock’s image took on a bit of tarnish in 1994, when a woman was kidnapped, tortured, killed and thrown off a cliff in that area. Whether this heinous act was responsible for closing the fire tower road is debatable, but access to the mountaintop is now limited to residents and repair personnel with gate codes.

The Forestry Service closed all its towers in the 1990s.

Most, Bald Rock and Beaver Mountain included, have been demolished, leaving nothing but concrete foundation pads.

Today, Bald Rock bristles with other, skinnier steel towers of much greater height in its role as an antenna site for various radio, TV, cellular and microwave concerns.

At 1,600 feet above sea level and 800 feet above the valley floor, it’s the third tallest peak in Alabama, behind Huntsville’s Monte Sano and Talladega and Clay county’s Cheaha, thus it is a perfect setting for this purpose.

But there are many who lament the ridge’s closure for recreational use. Ah well; there’s always Cheaha.

A 40-MILE VIEW, AND A CIVIL WAR RUSE Rising some 600 to 700 feet from the floor of Washington Valley and Crawford Cove, Streight Mountain’s brim road is the boundary between St. Clair and Blount counties. It’s easily reached from Springville or U.S. 231.

The ridge’s name is often misspelled as Straight or Strait, but was actually named for Union Col. Abel Streight, who led a raiding and pillaging detachment of Sherman’s army.

Their mission was basically the same as Sherman’s, but they also stole horses and other supplies as they wrought their depredations on the countryside.

But local folks knew a clever place to hide their livestock.

Chandler Mountain, an uplift plateau just across a narrow gap from Streight Mountain, has an amazing array of rock formations at its western end that had been used for decades as a natural corral by locals.

It made a perfect hiding place for both farm animals and fugitives. Constantly harassed by Nathan Bedford Forrest’s guerilla forces, Streight never found them, and Chandler’s hidey-hole took a place in history as Horse Pens 40.

Legendary outlaw Rube Burrows is said to have holed up at Horse Pens for a while, as well as numerous bootleggers and army deserters from several wars. Today it’s a nicely developed tourist attraction whose natural beauty is sure to impress.

Capt. Eugene A. Maynor of Oneonta wrote in his 1967

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Typical lookout tower

Nolan Riddle reports a forest fire.

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

Specializing in Residential & Lake Home Sales Property Management & Rentals

Sharon Thomas, Broker 205.365.8875

www.SharonThomas.net www.SharonsDreamHomes.net Sharon@sharonthomas.net

30 Comer Avenue Pell City, AL 35125

205.338 SELL (7355)

Traveling the

BACKROADS presentation to a historical society, “Hernando De Soto crossed the Alabama-Tennessee line on June 28, 1540, moved down the Tennessee River to Guntersville, wheeled south across Sand Mountain to Clear Springs at the foot of Chandler’s Mountain where he pitched camp for a few days ... to allow his men to prospect for gold in the sandy basins of the innumerable streams flowing down from the surrounding mountains.

“Failing to disclose important findings, he displaced southward around Chandler’s Mountain, down Beeson’s Cove and on to his untimely end.”

At the far eastern end of Chandler lies Camp Sumatanga, a fine retreat with superb lake and meeting and lodging facilities.

Unknown to most is a light-pollution-free “dark site” near a microwave tower toward the center of the mountain top used by the Birmingham Astronomical Society for night-sky viewing and amateur telescope work.

The mountain is described in a newspaper story by Ashville writer Mattie Lou Teague Crow: “From the air, Chandler has the appearance of a giant cake which has too soon been taken from the oven and, as a result, one side has fallen flat. This “fallen place” is called Chandler Gulf.” Pilots often refer to it as the “boot,” because this cleft leaves the appearance of a heel and sole.

Pilots are also aware of the mountain’s alleged ability to draw airplanes to their deaths. Several military and civilian planes have crashed into Chandler’s bluffs over the years, the most recent in 2008, when a Navy T34 Turbo Mentor from Milton, Fla., crashed into the mountainside while on a routine training flight, killing two cadet pilots.

Chandler now hosts a fine hiking and scenic site at Mrs. Crow’s ‘fallen place,’ called Gulf Creek Park, on its southern slope near Whitney Junction. Cretaceous Era marine fossils abound over the entire area.

Both Chandler and Streight are heavily planted in tomatoes and other produce during warmer months.

A COUNTY DIVIDED BY A BACKBONE St. Clair is one of three Alabama counties with two courthouses. Before the 20th Century, people traveling to Ashville from some parts of the county faced an arduous trip of as much as 70 miles on mostly unimproved roads. It was decided that the county needed two official courthouses, sited so that no resident was more than a half-day’s horseback ride from a county seat.

Coal City was clearly in the lead for this new facility. In those days, it was a very prosperous area, with a much larger population than nearby Pell City, but politics being what they are, Pell City somehow prevailed instead.

In 1909, a resolution was passed authorizing a new federal highway to aid commerce and make it possible to go to either courthouse. A St. Clair County News story relates: “… It was decided there should be one good and permanent road built across Backbone Mountain. ... This will give 6 miles of mountain road against 72 miles in the valley, not counting 4 miles approach to the mountain on each side. ...

“The difficulties crossing Backbone Mountain are too well known by our citizens to require comment and ... the Commission is to be congratulated upon their decision to make

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Alidade, used in locating forest fires the journey a pleasure instead of a pain.”

This highway is known as U.S. 231 North, a ruggedly scenic shortcut across Backbone Mountain, aka Rattlesnake Hill, from Pell City to Ashville. The mountain is also pierced by a Seaboard Air Line railroad tunnel at Hardwick, near Coal City.

MAGNIFICENT VISTAS For those with a nice Sunday afternoon on their hands, nothing beats enjoying the scenery and tranquility found on the ridges and valleys of northern St. Clair. Autumn is especially spectacular in Washington Valley and Crawford’s Cove.

A good place to enter is just west of a small cemetery on U.S. 11, at the end of AL 23 exit north of Springville. You will soon pass over Canoe Creek, which is always worth a stop for photos and just plain natural beauty. As you follow Washington Valley Road, you will see Canoe Creek again on your right, next to a pull-off area that was once a local park.

If you’re a very good driver with strong nerves and a safe vehicle, consider taking Walker Gap Road up the side of the mountain for a thrilling ride with some of the best scenery.

It begins at the base of the mountain, near the junction of Washington and Crawford Cove Roads. Be very careful, as it has at least six sharp switchbacks that will have you literally breathing your own exhaust.

It’s particularly dangerous for motorcycles, but is one of the state’s most beautiful roads in the fall. For the less adventurous, follow Crawford Cove Road to U.S. 231, turn north and ascend the mountain, then look for CR 24 on your left at the crest. As 231 climbs the slope, watch for sheer rock bluffs on your left.

In winter, they’re often covered with ice waterfalls that stay frozen long after the rest of the county has thawed.

Once on top of the ridge, turn right onto CR 24 from Walker Gap or left from U.S. 231, and follow it to a scenic pull-off with chairs made of hollowed-out logs. This parking spot is generously maintained by a local family, so please observe all appropriate courtesies.

The view from there is stupendous — one of the best in the state. You can literally see the whole county and way beyond, including Cheaha. Bring binoculars and a camera.

St. Clair is an ideal place to visit for those willing to seek out its most wondrous places. l

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

It’s Not Candy!

“Yes, some kids are popping prescription drugs like candy.

They think they’re safe because they’re used by adults. Join us in protecting our children from this danger. Secure your prescription medications.”

Holidays Are Here!

Let Us Do the Cooking

Smoked Hams, Turkeys, Butts & Ribs

-- Richard J. Minor District Attorney Teens abuse prescription drugs more than any other illict drug

Teens believe prescription drugs are “safer’ than street drugs

3 out of 10 teens do not believe prescription pain releivers are addictive

ILLEGAL PRESCRIPTION DRUG USE CAN BE DEADLY

US 231 at the Texaco, Pell City W E C AT E R . L a r g e & s m a l l e v e n t s .

O f f i c e P a r t i e s , F a m i l y G e t - To g e t h e r s .

Call 205-884-BUTT today!

CEPA — The Place for Entertainment This Season “Hiram – The story of a young Hank Williams”

Never before seen story of Hank as a boy!

Jett Williams will be attending on Opening Night

Feb, 26, 27, 2016 - 7:00 pm Feb, 28, 2016 - 2:00 pm Tickets: Adults - $22.50, Seniors & Students - $15.00

Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with

Peter Boyle & “Sunset Rizing” Don’t miss Peter and this all star band!

Good times! Great Music!

“3 on a String”

Pack the house for bluegrass & comedy at its best!

March 19, 2016 - 7:00 pm Tickets: Adults - $22.50, Seniors & Students - $15.00

Sat, Jan. 30, 2016, 7:00 pm Tickets: $15.00

Pell City Center for Education and Performing Arts Tickets available online at pellcitycenter.com Like Us On FACEBOOK Latest news and special offers @ pellcitycenter.com Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

St. Clair County’s “Got Talent”

Show your talent. Win cash prizes!

April 16, 2016 - 7:00 pm Tickets: $10.00

St. Clair Alabama

Business Review From left, Connie Goodgame, Jana Goodgame Masters, Jason Goodgame, Adrick Goodgame and Senior Project Manager Steve Howell Louis

74 • DISCOVER The EssenceDISCOVER Essence of St.ofClair • August && September of St. Clair •The Business Review DISCOVER The Essence St. Clair • June July 20152013

Story by Graham Hadley Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr. and from Goodgame Company

Goodgame Company 60 years of building Central Alabama For the past 60 years, Pell City-based Goodgame Company has been literally building St. Clair County.

And not just St. Clair — according to Vice President Jason Goodgame, the construction and manufacturing company’s footprint covers a 90-mile radius. They have done construction projects ranging from work on the historic Talladega County Courthouse on the Square to Piggly Wiggly stores all across the region to Honda.

Goodgame’s work goes far beyond construction projects, the multifaceted company does everything from in-house industrial fabrication to helping existing operations maintain and upgrade their equipment and facilities.

The company is celebrating 60 years of success this year, something Jason attributes to a combination of focus on customer service and, something he considers to be of paramount importance, the ability to adapt and change over time as market demands and technology shift.

“What has been a big part of it is, over the years, Dad (Adrick Goodgame) has been flexible. As the economy changed, as business changed, we have been able to move into that,” he said.

“A good example of that: A few years back we switched from Blackberries to iPhones. We offered for Dad to keep his old Blackberry phone. He said, ‘No. If we are going to change, I am going to change,’” Jason said. “He has never been afraid of change. …

“We try to be as far out ahead as we can.”

That mentality has been the backbone of how they do business from the beginning.

According to a printed history of Goodgame Company Jason shared, “In 1955, Goodgame Welding, Inc. was started

by Hughel and Floyd Goodgame as a welding repair shop. In 1965, Adrick Goodgame purchased the business and took over management of the company. …

“Over the years, Adrick Goodgame has continually seen the need to change and adjust with the time and market conditions.

This has been shown time after time, from starting as a welding repair shop and then transitioning into a support place for the local timber and farming operations.

“As the 80’s rolled in, we changed to meet the needs of the steel industry. It is here where Mr. Goodgame saw the need for innovation; he helped create products to make steel production easier. As the steel mills transitioned to “mini mills”, he moved into pre-engineered building sales and erection and general contracting. In the 90’s, the general contracting business was continuing to grow.”

And as the role the company played in the construction and manufacturing industries grew, so did its workforce. Starting with a handful of workers, Goodgame employed more than

Pelham Fire Range

Honda Manufacturing of Alabama

130 at the height of demand.

Though as the economy slowed, that number shrank, it has been steadily growing again and stands at 96 today.

The biggest bump came along with the auto industry moving to Alabama, Honda Manufacturing in particular.

“In 2000, Honda located about 15 miles from Goodgame Company’s home office in Pell City, Alabama. The growth of the auto industry in Alabama also fueled a growth of Goodgame Company’s construction business. At the beginning of 2000, Goodgame Company grew from about 30 employees to over 130 by 2007,” the history states.

And that was just the start — you can hardly drive around St. Clair County and surrounding areas without passing a Goodgame Company sign in front of some new construction project: WKW, Eissmann, Northside Medical, St. Vincent’s St. Clair Hospital and St. Clair DHR, just to name a few.

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Business Directory

Business Cards

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DISCOVER The Essence ofClair St. Clair Clair June&& July 2015 DISCOVER The Essence of St. •• April & May 20152015 DISCOVER Essence of Clair St. • August September DISCOVER TheThe Essence of St. • December 2015 & January 2016

Piers Keith

Seawalls

205-473-5750

DISCOVER The Essence ofClair St. Clair Clair June&& July 2015 DISCOVER The Essence of St. •• April & May 20152015 DISCOVER Essence of Clair St. • August September DISCOVER TheThe Essence of St. • December 2015 & January 2016

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Business Cards

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DISCOVER The Essence ofClair St. Clair Clair June&& July 2015 DISCOVER The Essence of St. •• April & May 20152015 DISCOVER Essence of Clair St. • August September DISCOVER TheThe Essence of St. • December 2015 & January 2016 DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

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Business Review

Goodgame

Even during the economic slowdown of the past decade, Goodgame kept things moving forward, this time internally.

“We updated the business, the outside of the building, renovated the inside, added some buildings to the property to improve workflow — how we move things around,” Jason said. “We decided to upgrade our shop, upgraded our equipment to meet today’s needs.”

Jason said that primed Goodgame so that when the economic turnaround eventually came in the past few years, the business was ready to roll with it.

The internal work and modernization efforts also played an important role for their employees — people who the Goodgames consider their extended family — it gave them jobs when the market was lean. A move that not only benefitted the workers, but was also important for the company in maintaining an experienced workforce.

“During the economic slowdown, we worked all around to keep everyone busy until the economy settled down,” Jason said. “You have to keep your key employees to be able to move forward to the future.”

He is also quick to give credit to Goodgame Company’s loyal customer base.

“We are very blessed. We are fortunate to have great customers who stuck with us through the economic slowdown.

We try to provide them with the very best service in return,” Jason said.

Through it all, the company has also played an important part in investing in the local community, taking on projects including new municipal facilities and the upcoming splashpad for Pell City.

“It is important for us to have our hand in the local economy — us being part of the new municipal complex and the splashpad. We want to be a part of what is happening here.”

Jason said he is pleased with where the company is now — and though they are always ready to grow the business to meet demands and customer needs and to adopt new technology and manufacturing systems like 3D modeling software and computer-driven cutting software, they have no immediate plans for expansion.

“I really believe where we are is a sweet spot for construction companies. I think the size we are is in a good place. …

We are always willing to grow, but trying to keep our customer base and keep business at current levels is really the goal,” Jason said.

Though what they have now “is really good for the company,” he does see areas where they plan on focusing some of their attention, particularly when it comes to helping clients be more energy efficient and environmentally friendly.

Goodgame already has LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environment Design) certified staff to work on their projects.

The struggle is balancing the cost to meet those needs, which Jason says can be expensive, with what the clients want.

Their solution is to give clients a kind of a-la-carte list of environmentally friendly and energy-efficient building options and let them pick what they want and what they can afford.

“Right now, it is so expensive. The trick is figuring out a balance between price and those needs. … That will be the future — making pricing work for a building that is going to be energy efficient.” l

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Business Review

Toast of the (down)town Story by Graham Hadley Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.

Originally, the idea was to bring a classic food truck to Pell City.

Instead, what the city got is something much more interesting: Toast, a special soup and sandwich shop inside one of the historic buildings on Cogswell Avenue in the downtown business district.

It is the perfect location for people working in that area, especially the courthouse and municipal offices, to be able to walk over and treat themselves to one of Toast’s signature sandwiches or soups.

Owner Russell Howard, with lots of help from his girlfriend, Sandra Carlisle, has turned the front half of The Old Grey Barn building into a unique eatery with an atmosphere somewhere between a sandwich shop, deli and big-city café. The fact the rest of the building houses antiques, books, arts and crafts, and other interesting booths only helps enhance that comfortable feel to the place.

“I had been thinking about it for awhile. Originally, I wanted to do a food truck, but that really would not work in this market,” he said.

Howard, who also has a carpet-cleaning business, Southland Steam Cleaning, had a little restaurant experience from a previous venture in Odenville. And because Carlisle is in the hospitality business, helping get restaurants and similar operations set up with the supplies they need, Howard was constantly exposed to other restaurants — all of which helped him figure out what he wanted to do with Toast.

“I have been in a lot of restaurants. My girlfriend sells restaurant supplies. She is a merchandising rep in the hospitality business.”

Howard and Carlisle had been considering another place downtown when Jeremy Gossett, who owns the building, suggested he come take a look — and the historic feel and interesting architectural details of the old Gossett Hardware building made it exactly what they were looking for.

“We wanted it to be totally different — not like anything else around here. We wanted it to have a unique feel, a unique atmosphere,” he said. “Jeremy asked me to look. I came in and said, ‘Yep this is exactly want I wanted.’”

“We also wanted it to be a place where people could come in and relax. I have been in the business a long time, and I know how to make it work,” Carlisle said.

And Toast was born — the result of his vision for the restaurant and her experience in the business.

Relying heavily on social media to get the word out — they topped 1,000 likes on Facebook opening day — Toast had a soft opening Oct. 2.

“It was a soft opening that was not so soft. Our first week was non-stop business,” Carlisle said.

The restaurant has a small, but diverse, sandwich and soup menu, with sides like grape salad in the offerings. Their sandwiches run the gamut from a Ruben or muffaletta to something more interesting, like turkey-bacon-avocado. And if you don’t see it on the menu, you can create your own custom sandwich.

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Toast restaurant opened in the Old Grey Barn building in Pell City.

Since Toast caters largely to the business lunch crowd, they pride themselves on fast customer service. Even when they are running at maximum capacity, the cooks behind the counter can turn an order around in under 10 minutes.

And they do it all with fresh food.

“Before we opened, a lot of people suggested we have our food pre-made, but I said, ‘No, it’s not what people want to eat; it’s not what I want to do,” Howard said.

All the sandwiches are made to order on flat presses, while soups and other dishes are prepared on the other side of the small cooking area, which takes up as little space as possible to make more room for seating in the cozy restaurant.

“We are making the most out of a small space, but we can put out as many as 90 sandwiches in a two-hour span,” he said, then joked: “We are trying to figure out how to hang a tea server from the ceiling.”

Food is sold dine-in or take out. For people eating at Toast, the sandwiches are served on pans, with metal utensils — adding to the more classic café style of service at Toast.

“Food that is fast, fresh and affordable is the key,” Howard said.

The response from the historic downtown area has been phenomenal, with walk-in traffic continuing to steadily grow.

“Foot traffic is essential for the success of businesses in the downtown area,” Carlisle said, adding that they not only hope to benefit from that but, by having another restaurant in the area, to add to it for other businesses.

Howard said Toast is a work in progress. He is hoping to start adding specialty sandwiches — something not normally on the menu — in December or January that will change out every month to continue to keep things original and new.

Toast is open Monday through Friday from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. l You can follow them on Facebook or check out their website @ toastsandwicheatery.com

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

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20 years of Pell City Pediatrics

Clinic was a first for Children’s of Alabama Story and photos by Graham Hadley For Pell City, it was a first.

For St. County, it was a first.

For Children’s Hospital in Birmingham, it was a first.

When Pell City Pediatrics opened its doors under the direction of Dr. Rubini Siddiqui in 1995, it was the first pediatric practice in Pell City and in St. Clair County.

It was also the first stand-alone clinic anywhere for Children’s Hospital of Alabama.

Though the current building was built a few years later in 1999 on the same site, the then location of the hospital right across the street on Dr. John Haynes Drive was a big part of the decision to come to Pell City.

“I have been here since 1995,” Siddiqui said with a proud smile, readily admitting how much she has liked working in the Pell City community for the past two decades. “The hospital was across the street and was run by UAB.” The practice has grown over the years, adding Dr. Stewart Hill and Dr. Irfan Rahim, underscoring the wisdom of its original decision to open a remote pediatric clinic in St. Clair based on need.

“Having pediatric care in a clinic is something we take for granted in more metropolitan areas,” said Adam Kelley, manager of corporate communications and marketing for Children’s of Alabama.

Studies had shown that people were using the emergency room of Children’s Hospital in Birmingham for their pediatric care needs. That is something Siddiqui says does not do a good job of providing continuity of care for the patients because they might see a different doctor each time. What’s more, emergency rooms do not provide other essential pediatric services, like regular checkups and well visits.

Plus, it was far away. Parents were driving their children up to an hour away to get medical attention, Siddiqui said.

So Pell City Pediatrics became a reality in 1995 with Siddiqui and three other employees — Sarah White, Jerome Joy and Trisha Hopson, and if the number of patients they were seeing was any indication, the study was spot-on regarding the need. They soon outgrew their original offices and began construction on the current building, working out of a trailer until its completion in 1999, she said.

“When I was alone, I would see 400 to500 children a month, easy. Then Dr. Rahim came, and it was more like 1,000,” Siddiqui said. “… Pell City was very happy we came here.”

Today, that number can easily top 1,200 children a month.

“Our goal was, and remains, to provide quality primary care to children within St. Clair County,” she said.

From the start, and something that continues to this day, Pell City Pediatrics was seeing patients not only from Pell City and St. Clair County, but from places as far away as Clay,

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Dr. Rubini Siddiqui

Dr. Irfan Rahim

Dr. Stewart Hill

DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

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St. Vincent’s St. Clair also played a big role in the success of Pell City Pediatrics, sending many of the non-emergency patients their way.

Pell City Pediatrics opened a whole new world of health care for children in the region. It not only meant local medical care, it greatly increased the quality of that care. Siddiqui said she feels personally connected to her patients, personally cares for them, as do the other doctors in the office.

That approach leads to a level of continuity of care for patients they are not going to get from a hospital emergency room or a walk-in clinic, she said.

“People like to see their own doctor, and for the children, the patients really like it.”

The patients like Siddiqui and the other doctors at Pell City Pediatrics so much that, as they have grown up over the past 20 years and have children of their own, they bring them back to the same doctors who treated them when they were little.

“We have a lot of ‘grand-patients,’” Siddiqui said. “When patients come back as parents, it feels good. Especially the moms … they remember me, and it is fun when I recognize them.”

The availability of pediatric care locally has helped with major health issues across the board, everything from preventing teen pregnancy and childhood illnesses to detecting and treating potentially life-threatening conditions, Kelley and Siddiqui agreed.

Pell City Pediatrics’ services go beyond just seeing their dayto-day patients. They also work with agencies like DHR and sports programs to make sure young athletes are fit to take the field — and they treat their injuries once they do.

“It has been amazing to build a practice up. I love the place, love the community, love being affiliated with Children’s Hospital. People here have been very welcoming,” Siddiqui said, adding she plans to work with the clinic well into the future.

“I think that when you get the feeling your patients like you, like here, that is going to keep you anywhere,” she said.

“Pell City is an important part of my life, personally and professionally.” l

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Business Review

Story by Jane Newton Henry Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.

UAB, Brookwood clinics open in Leeds The UAB Medicine-Leeds and Brookwood Primary CareGrand River are bringing world-class care to patients. Both clinics have opened in Leeds across Rex Lake Road from Bass Pro Shops.

UAB FACILITY

UAB’s internal medicine and pediatric clinic features a UAB Hospital outpatient diagnostic center complete with MRI, CT, ultrasound, digital X-ray, bone-density scanning and mammography. Full ambulatory lab services are provided on-site.

“This facility offers a glimpse of the future of outpatient medicine, allowing patients to have one central location, to effectively provide primary care,” said Dr. Stephen Russell, lead physician for the clinic. “The investment of UAB into a modern facility that brings the expertise of the Kirklin Clinic of UAB Hospital to the outskirts of Birmingham is significant. We are bringing world-class care to patients rather than having patients drive to one central location from home.”

The site’s imaging facility represents a significant investment in Leeds, Moody, Trussville, Pell City, Talladega, Oxford, Anniston and other communities near and along Interstate 20.

“UAB Medicine-Leeds gives the chance to truly offer fullservice, evidence-based primary and preventive care at one location,” said Russell, who has practiced primary care in the Birmingham area for the past eight years. “We have a fullservice lab. We have a high-tech diagnostic facility. And all of these things will be available to patients at the same time as their annual appointments. It’s a tremendous convenience.”

A suite offering nationally recognized care in OB/GYN and neurology subspecialties is planned for the facility, and other subspecialty disciplines from both internal medicine and pediatrics also are being explored.

Leeds Mayor David Miller cuts the ribbon on the UAB Medical Clinic-Leeds Oct. 20.

The imaging facility at the UABLeeds clinic features cutting-edge technology, including a 1.5 Tesla GE MRI. Leeds Mayor David Miller cuts the ribbon on the Brookwood Medical Clinic-Leeds Oct. 7.

BROOKWOOD CLINIC

Brookwood facility is a primary care and sports medicine clinic led by Dr. Chris Carter.

Carter is board-certified in family medicine and fellowship-trained in sports medicine. He treats individuals of all ages and is committed to educating his patients about how they can take an active role in staying healthy. Originally from Dallas, he and his wife, an anesthesiologist, have two daughters.

According to Carter, the sports medicine clinic is already working with athletes from both the Leeds and Moody schools.

John Melton, director-Market Operations for the Brookwood Care Network, said, “After much analysis of the Birmingham market, we are pleased to fill a community need in the Leeds/Moody area.” He said the facility is poised for future growth. “At this time, we are considering specialty timeshares (to be determined) and will continue to expand upon the primary-care service line to meet demand.”

The Brookwood Care Network has 18 locations in central Alabama. l

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DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • December 2015 & January 2016

An examination room at Brookwood Medical Clinic-Leeds

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