WED THU
FRI
SAT
SUN MON
TUE
63 54
61 53
68 61
75 52
64 41
62 48
63 46
100%
80%
80%
90%
0%
20%
60%
HTHS Baseball begins this week at Field of Teal event
Page 2
Leeds PD requests help in identifying suspects
Huskies represent well on signing day
Page 12
Page 5
The Trussville Tribune www.TrussvilleTribune.com
Feb. 20 - 26, 2019 Clay Council opens waste services bids, discusses schools By Crystal McGough Copy Editor The Clay City Council held a bid opening Tuesday night at its regular council meeting for waste services, since the city’s contract with Republic Services will expire on March 31. Five companies responded to the bid invitations. See CLAY COUNCIL, Page 3
New song by Trussville native is climbing the gospel charts From The Trussville Tribune staff reports PIKE ROAD — James Keith Posey, a Trussville native, Hewitt-Trussville graduate and executive pastor at Century Church (Pike Road, Alabama) released “Out of the Water” (featuring Laurel Taylor) on Feb. 14. In less than 24 hours, the song See NEW SONG, Page 4
Man arrested for shooting recklessly in Center Point street From The Trussville Tribune staff reports CENTER POINT — A man in Center Point who was wearing an ankle monitoring device was arrested for firing a gun recklessly in the street, Capt. David Agee of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said. On Saturday at approxiSee CENTER POINT, Page 5
$5,000 reward offered for arrest in gun thefts on Old Springville Road From The Trussville Tribune staff reports BIRMINGHAM — The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in conjunction with the Birmingham Police Department and the National Shooting Sports See DANCEOFF, Page 5
50 Cents
The Poetry of Home: Classroom assignment inspires poem about Simmons Mountain By June Mathews For The Tribune CLAY — As a student at Clay-Chalkville High School, Harrison Hornsby was best known as a musician – a tremendously talented musician who started taking guitar lessons when he was 10, sang in the school choir throughout middle and high school, and taught himself to read music and play the piano. During his sophomore year, he became the piano accompanist and served in that role for every choir concert at CCHS for the remainder of his high school career. He also wrote music, including two acapella choral works and other compositions, and winning the Young Composer’s Competition for the state of Alabama for six consecutive years. Now as a University of Kentucky freshman majoring in Choral Music Education and Piano Performance, Hornsby continues to expand his artistic horizons, though not always in musical directions. Prompted by an assignment in an ENG 107, Intro to Creative Writing class, Hornsby recently delved into poetry. “I had always enjoyed
Pictured Harrison Hornsby. Photo submitted
writing of all forms, especially poetry, so I was excited to find out that I could take a creative writing class as one of my core classes,” he said. “Our class is basically structured where the professor talks about a type of writing then gives us fun, insightful readings of published pieces in that genre. We then do inclass writing exercises in the style of that certain piece to inspire us to think creatively. After a couple weeks of exercises, the professor tasks us with picking one of our favorites, adding more to it, cleaning it up, and overhauling it to
make it a piece of our own.” Hornsby chose a poem by Kentucky author George Ella Lyon called “Where I’m From” for his inspiration for writing a poem about Simmons Mountain in Springville. Before he left for college, Hornsby had never lived anywhere else, so “where he’s from” would naturally be there. “With some poetic embellishments focusing heavily on personification that turned the giant mass of stone into anyone’s grandpa, I was able to create a piece that not only describes where I’m from, but also comments on themes of
identity, innovation, belonging, duty, love, and longing—extending my roots further than I could’ve imagined,” he said. But once he’d written a handful of lines, the structure of the poem came into play. “I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if the piece itself looked like a mountain range, with the final stanza being a representation of Simmons Mountain?’” he said. “Then I looked up to see that, more or less, this “mountainification” had happened naturally. With some tweaking, line breaks, and exaggeration of this effect in the final stanza, I created a physical image of a mountain separated from the rest of the mountain range—a detail and theme that I focused on in the piece.” (Rotate a printed page 90 degrees counter-clockwise to view the mountain “shape” of the poem.) “There was a point in high school where I was very into writing poetry,” Hornsby said. “I loved words and tried to imitate beautiful writing. But it wasn’t until I got to college in this creative writing class that I was truly challenged with creating poetry that only I could write.” See POETRY, Page 4
The Ultimate Conway Twitty tribute show is coming to the Trussville Civic Center By Shaun Szkolnik For The Tribune TRUSSVILLE — Conway Twitty was a music powerhouse who honed his skills with the legendary Sam Phillips of Sun Studios in the 1950s before going on to be a legend in country music, rockabilly and rock ‘n’ roll. He has been gone since 1993, which means that an entire generation has grown up without having the chance to see one of the original masters live and in concert. On Feb. 24, however, audiences will get a chance to relive one of his shows as world renowned tribute artist David Lee presents the Ultimate Conway Twitty Show at the Trussville Civic Center. Lee is a 2X World Champion Elvis Entertainer and was the 2015 Ultimate Elvis as recognized by Elvis Presley Enterprise. “I have been performing a tribute to Elvis since 1995, literally all across North America, and over the last few years, I decid-
Photo courtesy of David Lee
ed to add Conway to my repertoire,” Lee said. For Lee, the choice of developing a Twitty show seemed like a natural fit. “Conway had 56 Number 1 Country hits in his lifetime,” Lee said. “Only George Strait has more. Conway’s real name was Harold Jenkin’s. He got the idea for (the) name Conway Twitty from the cities Conway, Arkansas, and Twitty, Texas. I have always enjoyed his music
and when I was in search of something new to do for a New Year’s Eve show I was doing over in Mississippi a few years ago, it seemed like a natural transition.” Lee’s process in developing a Conway Twitty show required painstaking attention to detail and hours upon hours of research to get the part just right. “I always like to watch YouTube videos of Con-
way’s performances in the days and weeks leading up to my show so I can etch all the little things he did into my mind,” Lee said. “Things such as which part of a song he used his customary growl on. Or the way his stance was on a certain song or line. He had this thing where he would turn sideways and kind of lean into the microphone and sing with such emotion. It really would excite the crowd and draw them in to what he was singing about. Conway, much like Elvis, had a way of making you believe everything he was singing about was real. Especially on the ‘hurtin songs.’” “I try to make the show as authentic as to what Conway himself might have done,” Lee said. “I usually practice every song dozens of times leading up to the show and I work as hard as I can on the Conway ‘sound.’ I pride myself a lot on the voice aspect of the show. I want to not See ULTIMATE, Page 4
2 arrested after Trussville police chase ends in crash From The Trussville Tribune staff reports TRUSSVILLE — An attempted traffic stop led to a car chase, vehicle accident, foot chase and two arrests in Trussville on Monday afternoon. According to Lt. Phil Dillon, of the Trussville Police Department, on Monday at around 4:40 See 2 ARRESTED, Page 5
Future looks bright for 3 Clay-Chalkville HS baseball players From The Trussville Tribune staff reports CLAY — Three youngmen from Clay-Chalkville High School have signed up to continue their careers as student-athletes at the next level. Khalil Bel, who is a second baseman and designated hitter, signed with Bishop See FUTURE, Page 12
Blount County Driver License office is relocating From The Trussville Tribune staff reports BLOUNT COUNTY — The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) is relocating its Blount County Driver License Examining Office in Oneonta from 220 Second Ave. E to 1000 Lincoln Ave., state officials said on Saturday. The current office will See BLOUNT, Page 6
Mayor of Fairfield ousted by city council From The Trussville Tribune staff reports FAIRFIELD — The mayor of Fairfield was removed from office on Tuesday night. The Fairfield City Council voted to remove Ed May II from office on Tuesday night. City Council President Eddie Penny was then sworn in as May’s replacement. In a Facebook post, May See MAYOR, Page 6
Inside the Tribune News - Page 1-7 Calendar - Page 8 Classified - Page 8 Obituary - Page 9 Opinion - Page 10 Faith - Page 11 Sports - Pages 12
$7.50 Lunch Special Menu w/ FREE coconut soup! Monday-Sunday 11:00-2:00, 4:30 - 9:00 445 Main Street Ste 121
205-537-1133
Order Online Thaibasilandsushi.com