Full Sail University bus pays visit to Leeds High School

From The Tribune staff reports MONTGOMERY – Over 100 disability advocates from across state will gather in Montgomery on Wednesday, March 15, to meet with policymakers. The day will begin with a rally on the State

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Trussville Council honors teachers, student athletes with proclamations

By Crystal McGough Associate Editor

TRUSSVILLE – The Trussville City Council recognized two teachers of the year, as well as individual HTHS 7A State Indoor

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Trussville Chamber, library team up to host job fair

From The Tribune staff reports TRUSSVILLE – Preparations are underway for the 2023 Trussville Job Fair, set for Thursday, March 16, 1:30 to 5:30 p.m., at the Trussville Public Library. Presenting sponsor for the event is Darrell Walker Workforce.

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Moody Council names

By Nathan Prewett For the Tribune

LEEDS – Sometime in the future some of the visionaries and technicians in video games, the music industry and film could come from the city of Leeds after Full Sail University paid a visit to the high school on Friday, March 10.

The event was organized by Jessica Kennedy, who teaches business and computer science at Leeds High School.

Kennedy said that she received an email about the program and then looked into it before finding out that the university sends the bus to campuses at no cost to them.

It is promotional for Full Sail but offers students a glimpse of their potential career paths.

The “Full Sail Experience” is a program where a bus is driven out to a school to give students an insight into some of the majors that the university offers.

The bus is a Kenworth T2000 truck with a featherweight trailer and measures 85 feet by 20 feet. There are five interactive workstations inside exhibiting art, animation and design; game design and esports; as well as video production, VR and audio engineering.

“We’ve had a couple of students that said that they were interested in audio, music engineering,” Kennedy said. “So they were really drawn to that one station and kind of inquired about this school but maybe what was also offered in Alabama in terms of audio engineering, music engineering, video production. Several kids were super interested in that as a possible career in the future.”

On Friday Kennedy led her students into the bus where Full Sail staff members Ari Paris and Pat Stewart gave a presentation and then helped the students as they sampled the different demos. Several donned a VR headset and got to experience a type of gaming that is gaining steam in the industry.

Full Sail is located in Winter Park, Florida and has graduated students who went on to get involved with game

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From

“Saturday night and early Sunday morning, we had a very scary event in Irondale,” Stewart said. “Thank God for all the wonderful people that participated in helping to rescue Mrs. Fredericia Spencer.”

Spencer, who suffers from dementia, wandered out of her home on Moss Rock Lane late Saturday afternoon and got lost. Irondale Police and Irondale Fire & Rescue were joined by concerned neighbors and other area search teams to locate Spencer.

Members of the Red Mountain Search Dog Association joined in with a specially trained Doberman Pinscher rescue dog named Talitha. Stewart asked for members of the Red Mountain team to join him at the podium where he presented them with a $1,000 donation.

The Red Mountain Search Dog Association is a Birmingham-based nonprofit team of search and rescue volunteers. The association was organized in 2014 to assist first responders in searches for missing persons.

Mrs. Spencer’s daughter, Malinda White, and grandson, Robert Spencer, were also present to offer a word of thanks to everyone who assisted in the search.

“To know my grandmother, not too long ago, was very sharp mentally. For us to basically have her walk out of the house and not know how to get back home, we were at a loss for how to get her back,” said grandson Robert Spencer.

“This city, your team, the people in her community, her neighborhood, family, friends, everyone showed up,” Spencer said. “We’re very grateful to everyone who assisted in getting her home. Not only home, but alive.”

“My mom wanted to be here tonight. She’s still a little weak but she’s at home,” White said. “She wanted me to blow kisses to everybody and she said the people that got her out of the woods, she remembers, and she said you were gentle and you were kind and she’ll never forget that.”

In his report to the city, Stewart also announced the winners from the 2nd annual Irondale Young Entrepreneurs Day, which was held March 4. In total, the city awarded $2,950 to the participants.

The Council appointed councilmember Aaron Sims as the voting delegate for the Alabama League of Municipalities annual convention. Councilmember Cindy Cuellar will serve as the alternate for the meeting.

The owner of a home located at 1815 4th Avenue South in Irondale was granted an extra 120 days to bring the house up to code. The property was recently declared a public nuisance by the Council but the owner has made considerable improvements and renovations to the building since that time.

An agreement with Pastor

Michael D. McClure Sr. to serve as chaplain for city employees. The contract renews annually and pays a monthly fee of $2,500.

The Council approved a resolution to purchase the former Regions Bank property at 1845 Crestwood Boulevard for a price of $850,000. Last month, the purchase of the former Marks Fitzgerald Furniture store, located at 1847 Crestwood Boulevard, next to the bank was approved for $1 million.

The city plans to develop the properties to be used by Irondale Police Department and Municipal Court. District 3 Councilwoman Cindy Cuellar raised concerns about the short time frame for due diligence on the property and the recently raised asking price for the building.

The Council approved an intergovernmental agreement with Jefferson County to pave Amber Hills Road. The road crosses jurisdictions and Jefferson County has agreed to pave the entire road and split the costs. Irondale’s estimated portion for the job is approximately $260,000.

The next meeting of the Irondale City Council will be held at 6 p.m. on March 21, at Irondale City Hall.

On April 1, 2023, Patti’s on Main Street Flea Market and Consignment Shop, along with other shops up and down the historic street, will host their first monthly “Parking Lot Yard Sales” event from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m.

Patti, of Patti’s on Main Street, founded Pinson’s Trade Days in November 2021 as a way to help save the struggling businesses of Main Street after the 2020 pandemic. The Pinson City Council gave Patti approval to hold Trade Days the first Saturday of each month, with exceptions for other city events such as the Alabama Butterbean Festival and CityFest.

Offering free booth space to vendors and ensuring that the items being sold were affordable for everyone, local shoppers would be hardpressed to find a better market-style event. This event, however, also came with purpose.

“The pandemic killed the whole street,” Patti said. “We didn’t have much business anyway on Main Street. Most everybody knows that Main Street was dead, but the pandemic just polished it off. … That’s why we do Trade Days … We’ve got to help people.”

Pinson Trade Days took place eight months of the year last year, with the City of Pinson helping out by hiring police officers to shut down the street and paying for portable restrooms for the event.

However, at the Dec. 8, 2022, meeting of the Pinson City Council, the council voted to reduce their support of Trade Days from monthly to quarterly.

“We’ve gave them a year, mostly every month, except for CityFest, Butter- bean (and) certain months we couldn’t do it,” Councilor Glenda Kirkland said. “It cost us $18,000 last year to support them with the officers and port-a-johns that we furnished. So, what we’re suggesting … the months that we think would be good would be March, June, September and November.”

Although the businesses of Main Street would no longer be allowed to use the entire street for Trade Days each month, Patti said she asked Mayor Joe Cochran if they could set up community yard sales in the parking lots along Main Street, which he said they could. design and visual effects for movies and so on. Young viewers may be familiar with games such as World of Warcraft and Call of Duty, which has designers who studied at Full Sail.

Now, Pinson Trade Days will be held the first Saturdays of March, June, September and November, but on the first Saturdays of every other month, there will be Main St. Pinson Parking Lot Yard Sales. Vendors and sellers will still be allowed to set up their space for free, but must sign up for their spot by visiting Patti’s on Main Street Flea Market and Consignment Shop, which is located at 4281 Main Street, Pinson. Patti’s is open Monday – Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Others have gone on to work with television, including MTV and ESPN. They’ve also been involved in films like Zootopia and other Disney and Pixar-related movies, as well as in the pop music scene with Cardi B and Rhiannon. This was the first time that Full Sail has come to the campus at Leeds High School but it will not be the last. Kennedy said that she sees this being a yearly occurrence. She said that she wanted to offer something new to the students and get them thinking about what possibly to go for in the future.

“I think realizing that there’s other careers out there that they didn’t even know about, that there’s other avenues,” said Kennedy on how the program will impact the students. “That’s there’s types of jobs, types of careers that they never even thought about before.”

Nathan Prewett can be reached at nthomasp6@ gmail.com.

11 years and has been in law enforcement for 27 years.

Mayor Joe Lee expressed his gratitude on behalf of the city.

“We want to thank Chief Hunt for his service to the city of Moody,” he said. “We appreciate it and it’s a better place with all you do.”

Hunt spoke and returned his appreciation to the council, emotionally addressing the crowd.

“It was a tough decision,” he said. “Twenty-seven years in law enforcement. Eleven years as chief. I’m always here for y’all. But you know when your time comes – I’m excited for the new chapter for Moody PD.”

Reese Smith, who had served as captain before, will now take up the position.

“I’m just excited and honored,” Smith said. “Thank y’all very much, and my family also. They’ve been with me since the start. I’ve been in a few different cities because of my career. This has been the best one. The citizens of this city, they are top notch.”

Afterwards the council heard reports from department heads for the month of February. Hunt reported 1,421 calls, 28 arrests, 26 warning tickets, 104 citations, 88 reports, 94 misdemeanors (73 closed), 26 felonies (closed 13), and police vehicles drove 15, 124 miles. $6,024.84 was spent on vehicle maintenance.

Fire Chief Larry Horton reported 176 responses, five fires (one residential, three vehicle, and one woods, grass or rubbish), 91 emergency medical calls, 14 vehicle wrecks, 15 public services, 34 lift assists, 17 false alarms and mutual aid was received twice. There were two annual inspections, three re-inspections and one fire pump inspection.

Later the council heard and accepted the city audit for Sept. 30, 2022 by Truitt, Tingle, Paramore and Argent. Among the highlights were that tax revenues increased by approximately $900,000 and expenses increased by approximately $400,000.

Approximately $600,000 in new capital assets were purchased that includes police vehicles, a new dump truck, tractors and equipment for public works, as well as the Whites Chapel Community Center upgrades and paving project.

The report also mentioned the ongoing sewer improvements project. The debt on the sewer system is still being paid with sewer revenues but not by the general fund.

“Overall, it was a great year for the city and its finances as we had a good surplus and we will continue to manage costs since we have a fiduciary duty to manage the funds received and make sure that they are used in a manner that benefits the citizens of Moody,” said Councilman Lynn Taylor, who chairs the finance committee. In other business the council:

Approved a request by Horton to have a valve rebuilt on E-2 for $911.20,

• Approved a request by Horton to allow him to attend the Summer Fire Chiefs Conference at a cost not to exceed $2,000,

• Approved a request by Horton to purchase a new Pierce Saber FR Custom Pumper Fire Truck through the HGAC program for $693,672 and will be funded out of the Reserve Project Fund and paid back annually from the Fire Department Annual general fund budget at $100,000 per year,

Approved a request by Library Director Sara Roberts to spend up to $2,500 for Summer Read Performers and program supplies,

• Approved a request by Hunt to purchase annual ammo for $5,015,

• Rezoned property totaling 20 acres off Kelly Creek Road AG-1 (Agricultural) to B-5 (Commercial Industrial Park District),

Approved a request by Lee to surplus two trucks,

• Approved a request to allow Mellissa Fraser to attend the Alabama Municipal Revenue Officer Maintenance Training in for $235 for class; not to exceed $750, and Agreed to upgrade the city’s accounting software to Local Government Nextgen General Ledger for $10,808.25.

Nathan Prewett can be reached at nthomasp6@ gmail.com.