Community in Action Progress 2024

Shining a light on community heroes, activities and places that shape the Lake Martin Region

Firepits and birthdays. Starry nights and laughter. There’s no life more wonderful than The Heritage on Lake Martin. Set among Lake Martin’s over 40,000 acres of pristine water and nearly 900 miles of shoreline, The Heritage is a 1,500-acre waterfront development along 12 miles of sparkling shoreline All from Russell Lands, one of the South’s most respected land companies. The stunning community features spectacular waterfront and luxury interior homesites, as well as a flagship residentowned lake club and private Coore & Crenshaw golf course Don’t miss your chance to start your own cherished traditions

Opportunities to rewrite your Heritage are now open.

256.215.7011

RealEstate@RussellLands com

RussellLands com

WELCOME

Superheroes are the first thought that comes to mind when I hear the word ‘action.’ They are people and characters important enough to warrant miniature action figures resembling their likenesses. Most are given the honor because of the good they create.

It stands to reason that a community in action is a powerhouse collection of superheroes, all of whom take action for the greater benefit. Their mission is to do good, to be better, to grow together and to provide for others and to enact change.

Our progress edition for 2024, Community in Action, is a celebration of this powerhouse collection of individuals, businesses and organizations that work together to make our area great. These are your community’s superheroes working for the greater good. These are the people who take action. They produce results. They know no limits. And they are your neighbors.

Read about Scott Hardy to learn about the epitome of a community superhero. Although too humble to admit it, Scott has spent his life serving others. His days – and most nights – are booked months in advance with service and activities that don’t always translate to his own personal interests. Check it out on page 72.

Jay Dowdle, Vice President of Madix, Inc., said his team had a vision that began with a simple idea: to take care of the company’s employees by creating an environment that focuses on people. Doing so increased employee satisfaction and decreased turnover. Read more about it on page 26.

Russell Lands is in the quality-of-life business. The corporation is heavily invested in the area, supporting dozens of annual events and entertainment series that are completely free to the public. Flip to page 16 to hear more from Russell Lands Vice President, Roger Holliday, on how the corporation continues to make an actionable difference in our communities.

The actions of many following the April 15 shooting continue to reverberate throughout our towns. From police, to fire, to healthcare, to our very own media team, these community superheroes would have done anything in their power to comfort and save lives in the aftermath of one of our community’s largest tragedies. Read more about these real-life superheroes on page 122.

We publish this economic development magazine annually to promote those things that make our area unique for growth and to recognize the leaders making it happen. Our ultimate goal is to get magazines into the hands of people who we’d like to have a vested economic interest in moving to the area. What better way than to spotlight the all-star team of action-driven community superheroes who are already here?

OUR TEAM

Chairman - KENNETH BOONE

General Manager - TIPPY HUNTER

Editor-in-chief - BETSY ILER

Art Director - AUDRA SPEARS

Audience Development Manager - SAMANTHA HIMES

Newspaper Managing Editor - LIZI ARBOGAST GWIN

Business Manager - ANGELA MULLINS

ALEXANDER CITY

Multimedia Reporter - MELODY RATHEL

Multimedia Reporter - ABIGAIL MURPHY

Sports Editor - HENRY ZIMMER

Production Manager - LEE CHAMPION

Production Assistant - MAC DAVIS

Office Clerk - LINDA EWING

Advertising Manager - RENEE TRICE

Advertising Sales - HALEY INGRAM

Advertising Sales - HIDEY ARRINGTON

ELMORE COUNTY

News Editor - CLIFF WILLIAMS

Sports Editor - DALTON MIDDLETON

CONTRIBUTORS

KENNETH BOONE

BREANNA MANLEY

BEN SMITH

AUDRA SPEARS

ABIGAIL MURPHY

MELODY RATHEL

CLIFF WILLIAMS

HENRY ZIMMER

LIZI ARBOGAST GWIN

MEGAN MULLINS PHOTOGRAPHY

SARAH VAN HECKE PHOTOGRAPHY

DAVY WHITENER PHOTOGRAPHY

Tippy Hunter, General Manager

Stop in and try our à la carte lunch to sample a mix of featured dishes. For dinner, enjoy our elegant tasting menu— curated by our Chef In Residence—a multicourse dining experience with wine pairings from Thomas Price, the only Master Sommelier in Alabama.

On select Sundays, bring friends and family to our popular Tea on Thach, an ever-evolving twist on the English classic.

Weddings on the Water

STORY BY BETSY ILER PHOTOS BY SARAH VAN HECKE PHOTOGRAPHY, DAVY WHITENER PHOTOGRAPHY & MEGAN MULLINS PHOTOGRAPHY

One look at Lake Martin is all it takes to comprehend that Alabama’s only Treasured Lake is the perfect background for a destination wedding. With three outdoor chapels and countless lakeside venues to choose from, as well as the area’s quaint churches and jaw-dropping private homes, weddings are a special category of tourism in

Tallapoosa County.

The wedding bug struck the area about 10 years ago, as Lake Martin’s pristine beauty was showcased in social media posts, and tourism grew. Brides tour the area weekly, hoping to capture Lake Martin vistas as the background for their special days.

With at least half a dozen popular settings for nuptials,

Russell Lands hosts dozens of weddings throughout the year. Among the favorites for spring, summer and fall is Church in the Pines.

Tucked into a quiet slough near the bridge at Kowaliga, this moss-covered A-frame chapel surrounded by tall pines and greenery seats 850 guests. Couples say “I do” as the waves lap against the bank beside them. Affordable and

comfortable in any season, Church in the Pines has seen generations of families return to become the traditional wedding destination for many.

Church of the Living Waters at StillWaters near Dadeville offers an on-site electronic keyboard, sound system and lighted walkway to help brides create their dream weddings at Lake Martin. Nestled among ferns on a large, wooded lot

inside the gated community, this covered outdoor chapel recently was renovated to increase seating capacity and upgrade lighting.

New Water Farms, also in Dadeville, offers a panoramic view of Lake Martin in a rustic pole barn setting for weddings, along with indoor reception space on a working farm that features grape vines, blueberry bushes and

vegetable fields. This charming venue includes a variety of picturesque backgrounds for the photos that recall one of life’s most treasured memories.

Or choose a spectacular mountain lodge wedding in scenic woods or on a grassy lawn at Overlook Farms in Dadeville. Opened just two years ago, this charming wedding venue can accommodate

Mallory Hamrick Byrd’s wedding reception was held on the beautiful lawn at Willow Point Golf & Country Club.

Kiri Fields and Spencer Waldrep had a gorgeous ceremony against the sweeping view of Lake Martin at Overlook Farms in Dadeville.

large ceremonies and receptions against the backdrop of beautiful Lake Martin.

Non-traditional venues also are scattered throughout the area, from a Victorian setting at Mistletoe Bough Bed and Breakfast in Alexander City to the Grand Oak at Russell Crossroads, a plantation wedding at Dadeville’s historic The Mitchell House or the intimacy of a private estate at The Orchard on Washington Street. Barn weddings have

grown in popularity in the last decade, and Lake Martin fulfills that dream with a number of choices, including several setting options at The Stables at Russell Crossroads. Here, the bride can arrive in a horsedrawn carriage as horses frolick in the adjacent pasture.

Kylee Cooper Farms makes the day special with plenty of room for outdoor games and even a little fishing.

It’s easy to make a weekend of a wedding event at Lake

Martin. In addition to more than 40,000 acres of fun on the water, the lake area boasts a bevy of activities for wedding parties and guests, from golf at exclusive courses to shopping the boutiques in the area’s quaint downtowns. For active fun, take a zipline tour at Wind Creek State Park or shoot antique machine guns at Lake Martin Machine Gun. Paddling trips on the Harold Banks Canoe Trail are popular with bachelor parties while brides treat their attendants to elegant luncheons at lakeside gazebos.

Local wedding planners can help brides coordinate the details from afar, so everything is perfect when the special day arrives, from the flowers to the spectacular dining fare at the reception. Local decorators can create outdoor living rooms at Cocktail Slough and dance floors on Heaven Hill. From caterers to music for the ceremony and the party after the main event, the area knows how to host a wedding.

Begin planning at explorelakemartin.com.

Alexander City natives Richie and Randi Li Bradshaw were wed at Azalea Cove Waterside, which offers lake frontage, spectacular views and spacious outdoor venues.

On the Way

Publix making progress in Alexander City

STORY BY LIZI ARBOGAST GWIN PHOTO BY CLIFF WILLIAMS

Excitement brews as the Publix development makes serious headway on U.S. Highway 280 in Alexander City.

After months of site work, walls are going up, and the upscale-grocer is expected to open later this year.

“It is very exciting to see the growth and the progress of the construction,” Alexander City Chamber of Commerce President Jacob Meacham said. “We saw several months of the dirt work and how massive an undertaking that was. Watching it across the street every day, those guys are working day and night, sometimes on the weekends, so it’s great to see.”

The new shopping center, named the Gateway at Lake

Martin, will be a 93,000-square foot retail facility anchored by Publix grocery store and seven outparcels. While it has not been made official what other retail stores will be joining Publix, a ‘Coming Soon’ sign for Five Below was placed at the developmentin mid February.

The project is being developed by Venture South Investments.

“Excitement in the community is building because of how anticipated these new retail options are,” Meacham said. “Everybody knows Publix is coming and a lot of other options will be along with that. Everyone is seeing the growth on 280 and around the lake area. For Alexander City to be positioning itself with that type of retail project, it’s going to be a big deal initially, and long term,

I think it’s going to be a big deal, too.”

According to Venture South’s site plan for the development, other stores could include a boutique nail salon, Starbucks, Rack Room Shoes, Marshall’s, T-Mobile, Jersey Mike’s Subs and Barberitos. The new shopping center at the intersection of U.S. Highway 280 and State route 63 is one of many signs of the area’s growth and potential.

 Publix is currently under construction and being developed by Venture South Investments.

RUSSELL LANDS ON LAKE MARTIN

STORY BY BETSY ILER PHOTOS BY KENNETH BOONE & COURTESY OF RUSSELL LANDS

Russell Lands is in the quality of life business through neighborhood developments, restaurants, marinas, building supply and hardware stores – as well as hosting or supporting an extensive list of free and philanthropic events year-round.

“Russell Lands’ investment in its places is an investment in its people, residents, and customers,” said the corporation’s Vice President Roger Holliday. “We like to do things where everybody benefits.”

Those benefits filter to the community in a variety of ways, including jobs, sales tax revenues, environmental conservation, education, aesthetics, recreation and entertainment.

In addition to supporting nearly 600 fulltime positions throughout the year, Russell Lands and its subsidiaries hire about 250 more employees for seasonal jobs during the summer months, Holliday said. Each Russell Lands employee living and working in the community contributes to additional jobs in the area, as they purchase groceries, patronize eateries, pay utilities and more. But direct jobs are only a small part of the corporation’s economic impact in the Lake Martin area.

Slow, deliberate and intentional building

in Russell Lands neighborhoods maintains a steady job market for trades and subcontractors. Electricians, carpenters, drywall finishers, plumbers, tile layers and more find a consistent income from lake home construction work at Russell Lands neighborhoods.

Sales tax revenues from Russell Lands’ retail stores – Russell Do it Centers, Russell Building Supply, The Company Store, Russell Marine Boating and Outdoors and four local marina locations, as well as six restaurants, support local infrastructure.

Russell Lands also supports the lake area’s booming destination wedding market with a variety of ceremony and reception catering and venue options. Weddings at local venues impact the community through sales taxes collected by florists, additional caterers, gas stations and lodging taxes paid by wedding guests.

In addition, approximately 25 percent of Russell Lands’ nearly 3,000 property owners live fulltime at Lake Martin, supporting local grocery, home décor and clothing stores, as well as restaurants, pharmacies, utilities and more.

“The people who move into Russell Lands neighborhoods get involved in the town. This is a community of people who want to be involved. They get on boards for

charitable organizations. They join the community theater,” Holliday said. “You can see the quality of stores downtown – like Jes and Gray Living – that tells you who’s moving here.”

With last fall’s opening of Wicker Point Golf Club, designed by the highly regarded Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw architectural team, even Alexander City’s airport is seeing increased traffic. GolfDigest included the course among last year’s best new private courses across the country.

“The golf course is the big draw. We hope to have national members flying in to the local airport to play golf here,” Holliday said.

Russell Lands also hosts and/ or supports more than 30 annual events or entertainment series that

 Previous Pages: Russell Lands annual July 4th concert and fireworks.

 Clockwise from top left: The Stables offers horseback riding; Russell Marine has several locations around the lake and sells everything you need to get out on the water; The Watussi cattle at The Stables at Russell Crossroads; The Heritage is the latest Russell Lands development.

are free to area residents and their guests, from the weekly Friday

On The Green summer music presentations to carriage rides and children’s games at the Fall Family Festival. The corporation supports Alex City Jazz Fest, a free concert series coordinated by the Alexander City Chamber of Commerce every June, and invites families to Russell Crossroads each spring for photos with bunnies and chicks. The corporation retains an experienced naturalist, who provides seasonal insight into the wildlife of Russell Forest, highlighting the local ecosystems, lifecycles and needs of the local flora and fauna.

From Halloween’s Turpentine Tails to RXR Fest, Derby Day and Women on Lake Martin boat-driving classes, Russell Lands provides free opportunities for anyone – not just residents of the corporation’s neighborhoods – to live a richer, more vibrant life in the Lake Martin area.

“If we charge for an event, the money typically goes somewhere else, to the schools or to Children’s Harbor or other service organizations,” Holliday said.

February’s annual

Russell Forest Run has raised close to $120,000 for the Alexander City Schools Education Foundation. Those funds have purchased iPads for students, installed air conditioning in school busses and provided funding for other supplemental programs and equipment.

“All of that money goes to the schools. We don’t keep any of that,” Holliday said.

The company hosts a junior leadership program for high school students to spend the day learning about economic development.

“There was a period when kids left here when they graduated high school and didn’t want to come back. Nobody stayed. We’ve supported entrepreneurial programs at the chamber, and young folks are coming back here to open their own businesses,” Holliday added.

Russell Marine helped to develop the marine technician curriculum at Central Alabama Community College to foster jobs for local youth and alleviate a lakewide technician shortage.

“We now have marina managers who started here as dock hands in the summer,” Holliday said. “Same

with the culinary programs. Folks who started as dishwashers are now sous chefs. We’re focusing on young adults, elevating positions and promoting from within.”

Monies raised through the Lions Lake Martin Charity Poker Run – more than $100,000 thus far – are donated to local charities through the Alexander City Lions Club. Derby Day festivities at The Stables at Russell Crossroads benefit Children’s Harbor.

Russell Lands signs on as sponsor for numerous other local events, including the Lake Martin Young Professionals Polar Plunge, which benefits Lake Martin Resource Association’s lighted buoy program.

Russell Marine recently hosted an invitation-only event for members of local high school fishing teams, at which professional bass anglers and equipment suppliers offered tips to the aspiring youth and glimpses of life in fishing’s fast lane.

“We now have a Bass Cat specialist, sponsorships and tournaments,” Holliday said.

Since its inception, Russell Lands has been committed to another important cultural

aspect of corporate operations – environmental responsibility.

“We’re committed to responsible development,” Holliday said. “The biggest thing is that our neighborhood development is slow, deliberate and intentional.

“Through a careful prescribed burning program, we’re seeing wild quail come back naturally. We’ve seen baby quail at Wicker Point. And Claude Jenkins with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources developed a seed mix that attracts Monarch butterflies. We use it at the Wicker Point Golf Club.”

The Russell Lands commitment to quality of life is rooted in the corporation’s history. The Russell family has called Tallapoosa County home for more than 150 years. For Russell Lands, this is home.

“This is not like some company with a faraway corporate headquarters. We’re all here,” Holliday said. “The corporation is here. We live here. We shop in the grocery stores and chip in on the campaign to build the Imagination Station playground at the sportplex. We go to church here. This is our home, too.”

Events and Activities hosted or sponsored by Russell Lands

n Russell Forest Run

n Pride Drive

n Friday On The Green

n Alex City Jazz Fest

n Yoga on the Green

n BRHS Halloween Concert

n Derby Day

n Wildlife Presentations

n Marine technician apprenticeship

n Labor Day at Crossroads

n July 4th Concert and Fireworks

n RXR Fest

n Turpentine Tails

n Arti Gras

n Art on the Lake

n Songwriters Festival

n Lions Lake Martin Poker Run

n LMYP Polar Plunge

n Russell Forest hiking

n Bunnies and Chicks

n Fall Festival

n Holiday Bazaar at Russell Crossroads

n Christmas at Crossroads

n Fourth of July Boat Parade

n Guided Hikes

n Horse & Carriage Rides

n In-Water Boat Show

n Women on Lake Martin

n Boating Safety Course

n Lake Martin 100 Ultra Run

 Russell Lands hosts a wide array of events and activities. Stop by Russell Crossroads to attend Friday on the Green for live music and entertainment.

Alexander City Schools

Alexander City Schools (ACS) strives to inspire hope and create pathways for student and community success. At ACS we provide an educational environment that promotes high levels of rigor, innovation, collaboration and high expectations for all. The primary goal of ACS is for students to become graduates who are fully equipped to contribute as productive members of an ever-changing society.

ACS is proud to offer an introduction to career exploration at the elementary level, allowing students to realize their unique talents and interest early on. The system's Career Technical Program is a Pre-K through 12th-grade model. ACS students are also provided rich opportunities to participate in a variety of after school and fine arts programs, including athletics, music, visual arts and drama.

A special thanks to our board members for their selfless dedication to Alexander City Schools: Dr. Chante´Ruffin, Mr. Brett Pritchard, Mr. Michael Ransaw, Mr. Kevin Speaks, & Mr. Adam Wade

375 Lee Street • Alexander City, AL • 256.234.8600 alexcityschools.net

Alexander City Schools alexander city schools

Economic Development

STORY BY BETSY ILER PHOTOS BY AUDRA SPEARS & CLIFF WILLIAMS

“The first thing that gets them to look at the area as a potential site is a building. They have to have a place to land.”

~ Denise Walls, LMAEDA Director

Setting sights on opportunities to attract new industry, Lake Martin Area Economic Development Alliance is considering building a center that could put Tallapoosa and southeastern Coosa counties on the must-see lists of more prospective companies.

While cooperation among local

entities is the primary consideration for companies seeking new locations, having a building – even just a shell of a building – often makes the area eligible for a visit, said LMAEDA Director Denise Walls.

“The first thing that gets them to look at the area as a potential site is a building. They have to have

a place to land,” she explained. “That’s one of the ways the state culls projects. If a prospect comes to the State for location sites, the State chooses where to refer them based on what sites are available. Some only want to look at sites that have a building. Some prospects have visited a site and then put up their own building instead of using what is available, but having a building is what got them to visit in the first place.”

Having a building offers the area the chance to make a positive impression in other ways. One of the most important of these is cooperation among regional entities – county and city governments, utilities companies, education leaders, transportation officials and others.

“Every prospective company wants to know that everybody here is on the same page. They don’t want any discord at all between entities in the regions they are visiting,” Walls said.

Fortunately, LMAEDA partners and participants excel at this allimportant qualification, she said.

“We do a great job of that. We’re not always of the same opinions, but we’re always able to present cooperation. The mayors, the councils, the county commission and the people who work for them – everyone presents really well. It’s a great team to work with,” Walls said. “That makes a difference to a prospect.”

And having a spec building could give LMAEDA more occasions to demonstrate that teamwork to more industry prospects.

For the last year, many of those prospects have had interests in the forestry industry, Walls said.

“We are located in a robust wood basket. We have a lot of har-

Clockwise from Top Left: Westwater develops mineral resources necessary for clean energy production; Sprinturf is a turf manufacturing company with one of its two plants located in Dadeville; Kraem USA is an auto-parts manufacturer located just off Highway 280.

vestable but renewable resources. The EV market also could be a good fit for us with the graphite project that landed in Kellyton,” she said. “And being in the South, we have been interested in locating some type of gun industry: ammunition or manufacturing some component of the gun or the gun itself.”

While these target industries could be well-suited for the area, Walls said, local elected officials are open to almost any type of industry that would be sensitive to keeping Lake Martin clean, preserving natural resources and creating well-paying jobs.

Though the area does not yet have a building, it does have sites.

“We have land available at Lake Martin Regional Industrial Park and also at Thweatt Industrial Park in Dadeville. Alexander City owns property on Comer Street and also about 50 acres on Elkahatchee Road that backs up to the airport,” Walls said.

In addition, the city also has given permission to market some privately owned property in the area.

“Before a company visits, they want to know that we have done our due diligence in providing information about the sites they want to visit – Geotech, environmental and archaeological studies, as well as

clearance from Fish & Wildlife that there are no endangered species on a site. We have to do those on the front end, because prospects always ask us to provide that,” she said.

Prospects also ask questions about the communities in which sites are located.

“They always ask questions about the community – anywhere from five to 25 pages long. They want to know about the labor force, transportation, education, crime rates, amenities, and this is another area where we do well,” she said.

Developing relationships with State project managers also is helpful in attracting prospect visits, Walls said.

“There have been times when we have gotten visits simply because the project manager knows us. A recent prospect was driving through Alexander City on the way to Auburn, and they stopped to look here only because the project manager was familiar with us. We stayed in the project for a long time. In the end, we were their No. 2 pick.”

The Lake Martin area currently is in the running for a forest products industry that has spent nine months looking at prospective sites and buildings.

“They have made two or three visits to the area every month. They started by looking at one site, and when that didn’t work, they looked at another. Now, they are looking at a third site. Prospects don’t usu-

ally look at that many sites, but they have seen that we are able to serve their needs. We’ve been able to prove to them that we can roll with the punches and will work with them,” Walls said.

“Getting them here is just the first step. It’s like a marriage. To make it last, we all have to work at that. We want them to be successful, to know that when they are having issues, we want to help them solve those issues. Who can we call to help them? Let’s find solutions. We want them to bring good jobs here, and we want to help them keep those jobs here.”

Having a building to show to prospects opens the doors to more conversations, more opportunities to make a good impression, so that objective is high on the LMAEDA board members’ list of priorities, Walls said.

“We’ve had buildings at different times, and it works well for us. We are just in the early stages of building one again, choosing what might be attractive to some of our target industries,” she said. “We’re always trying to find more opportunities to encourage visits.”

Metal roofing and auto parts are just two examples of industrial manufacturing products made in the Lake Martin area.

Madix, Inc.

STORY BY BEN SMITH PHOTOS BY KENNETH BOONE & COURTESY OF MADIX, INC.

Ashift in priorities had a positive impact on a local manufacturing company that six years ago was plagued with high turnover and disgruntled employees. Around 2018, Madix, Inc., Vice President Jay Dowdle and other leaders at the company saw it was time for a realignment of their organization’s values. Employees complained of long, monotonous hours and an uninspired workload.

Dowdle could see the writing on the wall.

“I think we probably got caught up in the whirlwind, rather than focusing on what we’ve always done, what piped us into the community. What made us better as a company,” Dowdle said. “We lost sight of what was really important.”

Exacerbated by a workforce that was increasingly made up of younger workers who held different values than preceding generations, Dowdle began searching for solutions.

“It all started pointing back to one thing,” said Dowdle. “Were we really thinking about what our teammates needed or wanted or what made them thrive and be happy? And I don’t think we were.”

The company, which produces shelving and storage frames for retail stores, has two locations in the Lake

Martin area: one in Goodwater and another in Eclectic.

Restructuring the company led to hiring Craig Kilgore, who now heads up the Madix workforce culture and leadership development program. This program proved vital in the reinvigoration of the workplace environment and, by extension, the lives of Madix employees. The innovative initiative was aimed at addressing employee needs and desires. Kilgore wanted to encourage a workplace environment that promoted employee happiness and job satisfaction. Doing so could reduce job turnover, as well as build employees’ pride in their jobs.

Kilgore wanted to fix a common workforce issue that is present in many manufacturing companies; namely, that managers are not explicitly taught how to lead their teams.

“Many organizations put the highest performing team member in the role of leadership,” said Kilgore. “This does not teach them leadership. They make the best product. They have the most knowledge. Whatever those things are, they do not equip a person to actually lead a staff of people.”

Kilgore researched many other manufacturing companies before finally finding a commonality among the most successful ones.

“The most important thing was that we had to develop our purpose, our vision for the organization,” he said.

Madix leaders began to reconsider the company values and fell on five new tenets to guide their workforce in the future: integrity, accountability, learning, teamwork and positive attitudes. These newly adopted values, and the programs that were born from them, led to positive outcomes in the Madix workplace environment and beyond.

“You make people your focus, and you do the right thing. In turn, we’re helping them gain a life outside of Madix,” said Dowdle. “You know, their life outside is their main focus; and then, they come to work, and they’re happier. They do a better job; they go home at the end of the day; and they feel good about what they did. So, in turn, they’re

better citizens. They’re better community leaders.”

Culture and leadership development coaches at Madix hold monthly meetings with team leaders to discuss not only their work and their ability to lead, but also their lives. The team is not HR, Kilgore emphasized. They don’t hire or fire employees; they talk to them as friends would.

Kilgore recounted a conversation he shared with a young, struggling employee who was a single father having a difficult time balancing his work with his family. Kilgore and the employee talked about his home life, and they talked about his struggles and desires. Kilgore said the employee was slightly shocked at the level of interest Kilgore took in his personal life.

“He said, ‘I never have forgotten how we had a conversation about

Previous Pages: Jay Dowdle stands on the Madix factory floor.

 Clockwise from Top: Madix, Inc. produces shelving components; Volunteering together can serve to increase trust between employees; It all begins with the most important part of the company: the employees.

me, and not just how I lead people.’ And that was very gratifying to me,” Kilgore said.

Madix’s focus on employee satisfaction has led to the company becoming more connected to the surrounding communities where their plants are located. This year, company leadership plans to institute two apprenticeships for local community college students, hoping to educate young adults who may soon begin careers in manufacturing and tool and die.

“We had classes offered here in our training room that Central Alabama Community College came out and taught; and then, we sent people to their campus for classes,” said Sabrina Wood, who was a culture and leadership development coach at Madix. “It’s just continuing that education and growth, so those that are in our care have all the tools necessary to do their job to the fullest extent.”

Madix has added internships and co-op positions at both the Goodwater and Eclectic facilities. By branching out into multiple school systems, the company hopes to provide early on-the-job experience to high school students who could become valued employees in the future.

“To see those students get on a pathway so young, and that we are part of that development, is very rewarding,” said Wood. “And it’s a huge testament to what this company is doing.”

All these positive changes happened because company leadership was able to think critically about their business and commit to improving it. Now, their employees, and the surrounding community as a whole, have benefitted from this shift in priorities.

David Cothran 334.410.7071

Parks & Rec

STORY BY BEN SMITH PHOTOS BY CLIFF WILLIAMS, HENRY ZIMMER AND COURTESY OF ALEXANDER CITY PARKS AND RECREATION

lexander City Parks and Recreation began fundraising for its Imagination Station last June with a goal of raising $400,000.

AThe proposed playground would be completely ADA accessible. From the wheelchair-friendly turf to the sensory station for children with auto-simulation needs, it would provide a place for children to play regardless of their physical or psychological limitations.

$400,000 is a lot of money, thought Alexander City’s Parks and Recreation Director Kasey Kaschak.

He figured it would take two to three years of solid fundraising, at best, to meet that goal.

Nine months later, the project has already raised more than $300,000.

“I’m shocked at how fast this process has moved,” said Kaschak. “I think it really shows how invested a lot of people are in this community.”

The project received money from the city but was also funded in part by private businesses and individuals who simply believed in the importance of a handicap-accessible playground.

At its initial proposal, the

Imagination Station would have included engineered wood fiber mulch, a common inexpensive from of playground mulch, or “fancy mulch,” as Kaschak described it. Using this mulch would have required almost half the fundraising of the current project, but it would have also made it more difficult for wheelchairs to traverse over and would require more upkeep.

The committee overseeing the project chose to opt for turf. The decision made the project much more expensive, and it would require more time to build. However, the

turf provides better ease of access for those with mobility disabilities. It requires far less maintenance and will be safer for children.

“We just decided, ‘Let’s go all out,’” said Kaschak. “The folks in the city have really bought into that. The ADA compliance and making it accessible have been really big goals of ours. And having that surface makes it a little easier for people in wheelchairs and people with mobility issues are able to access those areas.”

The rapid funding the Imagination Station has received speaks to the power of the Alexander City community to join together in accomplishing a goal, according to Kaschak. There’s pride to be had not

only in upgrading the city’s recreational footprint, but also in knowing when Alexander City residents want to accomplish something they know is worthwhile, they do.

“We want to have something that the people of this city can be proud of,” said Kaschak. “And when they come up here to the Sportplex and see the Imagination Station, it’s almost like, ‘Hey, we helped build this. This was part of what we did.’ We didn’t allocate $10 million over some long term. We made it happen in like a year. And that’s a testament to us, because there’s not a lot of towns in Alabama can raise that amount of money in a year.”

At this rate, said Kaschak, this project should be slated to break

ground this coming summer, with the structure being completed and operational a month or so later. Kaschak said that it is vital for Alexander City residents to value these parks and recreational facilities, such as the Imagination station or the Charles E. Bailey Sr. Sportplex.

“It is so unique to have something like the imagination station. There are others like it, obviously. But the fact that we kind of have this [beautiful area] surrounding it is pretty incredible. And it’s our job to make improvements to it, to keep things as pretty and as nice as we possibly can. Which I feel like we’ve done a good job at doing.”

From Left: Kids cool off at the Splashplex in Alexander City; The Benjamin Russell football team fills Martin-Savarese Stadium on Friday nights; The BRHS football stadium is located in the Charles E. Bailey Sr. Sportplex.

 Renderings show the planned Imagination Station, which will be located at the Charles E. Bailey Sr. Sportplex.

Electric charging station coming to Dadeville

STORY BY ABIGAIL MURPHY

The growth of Dadeville is a conversation that has been buzzing for a few years now. It seems as if more events are held each month, restaurants are increasing their hours and new businesses are popping up around the area.

As more shops, restaurants and businesses come to the area, one fact remains: people need places to park so they can eat at restaurants, shop local and attend events and festivals.

For the average car, this is no problem. Parking is typically not an issue around the square and beyond. But for anyone who owns an electric vehicle in the area, charging stations are sparse. The closest available stations are in Alexander City and Auburn, both areas that require long drives to satisfy a constant need.

It is an issue that will become more relevant as electric vehicles grow in popularity. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of electric vehicles on the road jumped from 22,000 to just over 2 million in only a 10-year time span.

Back in November, the Tallapoosa County Commission approved the installation of electric charging stations at the municipal complex parking lot at the corner of South Broadnax Street and Columbus Street. Once completed, the lot will have eight parking/ charging spots and one handicap spot. The stations will be Tesla Level 2 EV charging stations, which accommodate both Tesla and other electric vehicles.

Resident Anne-Marie Jones recognized early that charging stations were a need in the Dadeville com-

munity.

Jones said she realized this when a visiting friend could find nowhere to charge her electric vehicle. She found that the stations would benefit those who lived in the Dadeville area, but also people who are visiting during the summer months, or those who are just passing through on U.S. Route 280.

The charging station installation will not cost the city anything. Tesla will pay for the installation, and the drivers will be billed for the electricity they use. The charging stations are expected to be fully operational by this summer.

Besides helping electric vehicle owners, the stations could draw more people to the Dadeville square, and by extension, to the shops, restaurants and other businesses around the square. Many electric vehicles have built-in maps that shows the nearest charging stations. For the plenty of drivers on U.S. Route 280, Dadeville could

be a stop that would not have been made otherwise.

“People who might not have ever come into Dadeville now will be directed to Dadeville to charge their vehicle,” Jones said. “While they are here, they will be encouraged to go shopping or eat. It’s another way to support the growth of the new businesses coming in.”

Tourism Director Sandra Fuller agreed this is a great opportunity to drive more people to Dadeville. Some may shop and eat once, and others may become lifelong visitors. To encourage returning visitors, Fuller said, the tourism bureau hopes to stock shops around the square with visitor guides to show what the Lake Martin area has to offer.

“Hopefully, they will find it’s just a beautiful town, and they put it on their bucket list to come back and visit,” she said.

FIRST RESPONDERS

Alexander City Police and Fire Department

STORY BY BEN SMITH PHOTOS BY CLIFF WILLIAMS, LIZI ARBOGAST GWIN & COURTSEY OF MARLEY MCALISTER

To be a first responder requires sacrifice. It often means long shifts and sleepless nights. It requires a giving up of oneself to deal with the moments of tragedy, pain and suffering that are so commonplace.

Ask any firefighter or police officer who cares about their community, and they’ll tell you: To work as a first responder is to serve. It is not a job, at least not for those who have served long enough to know so. It is more than a paycheck, more than an entry on a resume or a handful of benefits. It is a calling.

Smaller towns, such as Alexander City, where salaries and resources available for first responders may not be as great as larger markets, require each first responder to have an even deeper sense of duty to their communities.

“You hear the same thing from

a lot of professions, whether it’s medical doctors, nurses, paramedics or firefighters or law enforcement. They’ll all tell you it’s a calling,” said Alexander City Police Chief Jay Turner. “It’s something that they knew they wanted to do. And if it ever becomes a payday, then you’re in it for the wrong reasons. And you won’t last.”

“I’ve always liked helping people,” said Alexander City Fire Chief Reese McAlister. “I still do. I try to help anybody I can. And I think that’s something that you had to have instilled in you to be in the fire service and in public safety as a whole. You can recognize the people who think that way, just by being around them. And that’s our goal, to have everybody who works for us to think just like that.”

Both McAlister and Turner have spent considerable amounts of time

The Alexander City Police and Fire Department respond to the scene of a crash.

Facing Page: Alexander City Fire Chief Reese McAlister; Alexander City Chief of Police Jay Turner.

serving the Alexander City community. McAlister was born and raised here and became a firefighter in 1995 while working a job in criminal justice. Turner is not originally from the area, but in the 32 years he’s spent with the Alexander City Police Department, he has come to know and love the community as much as anybody else.

It’s that commitment to others –an often unreciprocated commitment – that is at the heart of what drives each Alexander City officer and firefighter to face pain, grief and loss on a daily basis.

“You have to want to serve,” said Turner. “And sometimes it’s the serving the public don’t understand. Because they feel like you are forcing them to do certain things when it’s just part of the servitude, part of the laws we have to abide by. Sometimes, you have to be the person to say, ‘You can’t do that.’”

These are positions which are often without their thanks. But the thanks they do receive, as appreciated as it is, are not the driving forces behind the men and women who sacrifice so much for people they’ve never met.

“You just have to care about your fellow man,” said McAlister. “You got to be able to work a third of your life. Think about that; these guys spend more time with their coworkers than they do with their wives. So,

you got to be able to adapt and be able to get along well with people and care about the people you take care of.”

But for all those who may not understand or care for the service they receive, there are just as many whose lives have been touched by these officers. There are still those who, in their darkest moments, received the help they needed.

“Some of the children

of people I have dealt with will come up and tell me that even in an arrest situation, that it changed them,” said Turner. “At the worst time of their life, somebody came in who cared. It stuck with them. So, they like to look you up and tell you about it. And it feels good. You feel like everything you put forth, it worked. You’re seeing the results.”

A New High School

STORY BY BEN SMITH PHOTOS BY BEN SMITH & COURTESY OF ALEXANDER CITY SCHOOLS

Construction is underway at the Charles E. Bailey Sr. Sportplex for the new Benjamin Russell High School. The project is still on pace for completion by December of 2025.

Since the ground breaking ceremony last August, the area has undergone some preparative mea -

sures, which include leveling the hilly area and blasting rocks. The next phase of construction will involve laying the foundation and putting up walls.

The new high school will be a two-story, 262,000-square-foot building with more than 40 classrooms, two gymnasiums and a performing arts center, along with

other amenities. It will have an initial capacity of 1,000 students, with room to expand. The campus also will include a practice football field, a track, a field house and campuswide lighting.

One of the more unique aspects of the new high school will be the enhancement of its Career Technical Education resources,

which provide students with training and hands-on experience to teach skills necessary for success in a modern workplace. These resources will bolster the current CTE program in place at Benjamin Russell High School, providing students with more opportunities for real-world experience in a variety of fields.

“It will let us give our students an opportunity to actually get the feel for what a certain career or certain occupation will look like, what it will feel like on a day-to-day basis,” said Alexander City Schools Superintendent Dr. Beverly Price. “So, before they spend a lot of time and money on something that they actually find out they really don’t like, they can

find out now. And on the flip side of that, if they really like it, they can go more in depth with it.”

Dr. Price said keeping up with the constant innovation of technology is a vital aspect in ensuring students are being educated in an effective, efficient way that fosters practical learning.

“We want our students to have access to a 21st century high school,” said Price. “And I think there’s pride in being exposed to those different workspaces. Some classrooms will look like typical classrooms, but there will be others that will look like workspaces. That bridges the gap between our students going to college and our students going directly to the workforce. And that’s what we

want to do. We want that transition to be seamless when they leave us and go to whatever they desire to do after they graduate.”

Price hopes to see the early development of these technical skills lead to greater retention of skilled labor in Alexander City.

“I love this area. And I want to see businesses come in,” she said. “I want to see our students – even if they go off to college or the military – I want that to see them come back to live here and to be able to work in great careers here. So that’s what we’re doing, especially in the CTE department and with the new school. We’re trying to implement workforce simulation-type platforms that will let us give our students an opportunity to actually get the feel for a certain career or certain occupation.”

Facing page: Renderings show the planned entryway for the new Benjamin Russell High School.

Clockwise from Left: The new high school will be home to a state-of-the-art media center; Construction is slated to be completed by December of 2025.

INDUSTRIAL PROGRAMS SHAPE

THE FUTURE WORKFORCE

STORY BY ABIGAIL MURPHY PHOTOS BY AUDRA SPEARS AND CLIFF WILLIAMS

As career technical education grows across the state, Central Alabama Community College is bringing the area forward with career and technical programs.

CACC offers 14 programs under CTE, including cosmetology, nursing, office administration, automotive infrastructure technology, marine tech, welding, computer information systems, commercial truck driving and childhood education.

Dean of Workforce and Economic Development Programs Michael

Barnette said CTE is a great way for students to get a fast turnaround between education and employment.

“We see a lot of students that come here who are really geared toward finding a job,” he said. “That’s the positive of CTE programs. They can come in for shortterm training. They come in to get their associate degree, and a lot of credentials go with it.”

CACC’s CTE curriculum includes both non-credit and credit options. With the credit programs, students earn an associate degree and the credentials for their industry of study.

For example, Barnette said, with welding there are some 15 certifications available. Machine tooling offers five or six more in that program.

Barnette said the CTE industry is quite nuanced. For instance, industrial maintenance involves robotics, as well as knowledge of machining and belts, and there’s marine tech, which teaches engine repair, balancing props and drive shifts. There’s also industrial electronics, which focuses on repairing electrical equipment and installing or disassembling it.

One of the main noncredit programs available at CACC is heavy equipment training with skid steer and dozer. So far, over 70 students have gone through the skid steer training, and another 30 have completed the dozer training as well.

Barnette said the non-credit programs are good for individuals who want to upskill their trade. These programs also are good for students who want to get into a job faster than they could with some of the other CTE programs.

With CTE jobs being in high demand, Barnette said, most students get employed fairly quickly

after graduation.

“CTE-wise, we are very proactive with getting students in. We get them what they need. We want to make sure they leave here trained; and then, we help them with finding jobs,” Barnette said. “With the high demand, we have a lot of employers coming to us. The problem is we can’t put enough students out to fill the jobs. Everybody needs somebody.”

Most of the manufacturing programs are jobs in high demand, and on the transportation side, commercial driver’s license is also in high demand.

CACC has two tracks for the CDL program. The Class B program is for sanitation and dump trucks and is a three-week course. Then the Class A program is for the 50-foot box trucks and is a sixweek course. Barnette said that, especially for the Class A program, employers are starting to recruit the students in the first or second week of classes.

The CTE programs also provide viable career paths for some disabled students.

Barnette said deaf people are a population that tends to be severely under served. According to the National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes, 3.8 percent of deaf people are unemployed, and 42.9 percent are not in the labor force.



In the spring of 2023, CACC had its fifth and sixth deaf students complete the CDL program. One of the students that came through the CDL program now is an owner and operator with his own truck. Going into 2024, the college will have its first deaf student in the nursing program.

Barnette said CTE has grown a lot statewide over the past few years. He said CACC President Jeff Lynn is also big on keeping students in the county by training them at CACC and finding them jobs in the area or, if they go off elsewhere, provide them opportunities to come back. Barnette said it’s all about homegrown talent.

In order to work in conjunction with the community, the college’s programs sometimes come from certain skills or jobs employers in the area are requesting.

“We are fortunate to have the industry instructors that we have, and we have a lot of industry partners. They tell us what we need; they are in our industry advisory committee meetings,” Barnette said.

Along with industry partners, CACC also has close relations with

Students get tangible experience in simulated work environments at Central Alabama Community College.

Facing page: Welding is a program that has grown quickly at Central Alabama Community College.

the school system. Across the four campuses, CACC services 39 high schools.

With that, the college system has a large dual enrollment population with over 1,000 enrolled high school students. The college also offers Career Readiness Indicators for high school students as part of the high school level CTE pathway.

Barnette said CACC wants to see CTE programs expand to attract more students to the programs. CACC has recently added injection molding courses, and the college is upscaling its 3D printing area. The college is also adding an asphalt roller option to the noncredit heavy equipment program.

CACC is also getting an Industry 4.0 unit, a mini production unit that will allow students to work with belts, programmable logic controllers, robotics and variable speed drive. Barnette said students will be able to do multifaceted work with that one piece of equipment.

As part of the college initiative to increase enrollment, especially locally, CACC has a success coach.

Part of that role is organizing tours for prospective students.

“We are all for tours,” Barnette said. “We had a tour with Benjamin Russell, Edward Bell, Southern Prep and homeschoolers. The thing is to get them in here, let them look at what we have; and then, that may be their career choice – providing an opportunity for pathways.”

The Alexander City and Childersburg campuses offer a majority of the career technical education programs. The Prattville campus is growing quickly, so the college is working to put more CTE programs there with industrial electronics and welding. The Talladega campus will start a practical nursing program and industrial electronics soon.

When it comes to keeping up with industry needs, Barnette said, “We listen. We are very good listeners. That’s how we are going to keep people.”

Clockwise from Top: CACC offers advanced training in many forms of technology; Robotics is a budding area of study among CACC students and the United States’ workforce at large.

Dadeville High School Band Director

STORY & PHOTOS BY ABIGAIL MURPHY

Mardracus Russell is well known at Dadeville High School as a history teacher and the track and field coach, but recently, he also stepped in as director of the school’s band, the Sound of Gold.

Russell is no stranger to the Sound of Gold. During his time as a DHS student, he was in the marching band from the beginning band to his senior year. He played pit percussion, drumline and later was the drum major. At Jacksonville State University, he continued his band career while pursuing a degree in social science, followed by a master’s in public administration and education.

He returned to Dadeville to begin his teaching career and said it was an easy choice because of the students and the community. Before stepping in as interim and now permanent band director, he worked alongside other DHS band directors.

“I feel like so many people have given to me over the past several years,” Russell said. “I feel like it’s time for me to be able to give back to the community. I think I have done that, and I think I can continue to do that. As we move forward, we will work together to make this program like it used to be.”

Former Dadeville band director

of 22 years, Barry Reed came back to assist during the transition. Reed had been Russell’s director when the new director was a student at the school. Reed said he could not be prouder to see one of his former students take over. He loves the band program and is there to support whatever the new director may need.

Russell said a band director leaving in the middle of the season could really shake things up. Band captain and DHS junior Lillian Turner said losing the previous band director during the season affected the show and the students’ responses to attention. In many ways their pride was lost, Turner said.

“Having a new spark of hope and getting it back, it felt really good,” she said of Russell. “Personally, it felt like I was really back in band again.”

Percussion captain and senior Kirklyn Dark added that a quick turnover of band directors over the past few years has been difficult. With Russell, it feels like the band has someone who is going to stay.

She said it’s been a big change, but since Dadeville added Russell, the band has gotten so much better in such a small amount of time. Turner added that, despite the trials the band has faced, she’s proud of how it has persevered.

With the change of command

Alabama’s honor band festival, and three band members were selected to go to Auburn University’s honor band festival.

For that process, the band members have to submit an application, the director fills out an evaluation, and the university selects from there.

mid-season, the Sound of Gold still received superior ratings and won some best-in-class standings at competitions. This year, the band competed at Lake Martin Invitational, Gordo West Alabama Marching Band Festival and Pell City Marching Band Festival.

Drum major and senior Tekevious Heard said the Pell City competition was the first time he did not win best in class over the past three years, which motivated him to work harder. He feels all of the band finished out the season strong.

Along with the competitions, two of the band members were selected to go to University of West

Now that the marching band season has come to a close, the band staff will soon begin looking at music for next year’s show. Russell said the students could not have succeeded without the staff, and as long as the students are excited about the band program, it will be an exciting program.

“I think they have a lot to be proud of,” said band staff member Amy Jackson. “They have worked really hard. I’m thankful for Mr. Russell coming in and taking over, Mr. Reed coming back and helping, and of course, Sumer Bryant always does a good job with auxiliary. These kids have worked hard, and I’m just proud of them.”

“I feel like it’s time for me to be able to give back to the community. I think I have done that, and I think I can continue to do that. As we move forward, we will work together to make this program like it used to be.”

~ Mardracus Russell, DHS Band Directtor

Facing page: The Marching Sound of Gold halftime performance.

 (From left to right) Auxiliary coordinator Sumer Bryant, band staff Amy Jackson, band director Mardracus Russell and music specialist Barry Reed pose together. The band staff and students are excited to welcome Russell as the new DHS band director.

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pastperformanceoftheFabulousFollies.

Visual Arts

STORY BY ABIGAIL MURPHY PHOTOS COURTESY OF GREG SHELTON & THE TALLASSEE TRIBUNE

Greg Shelton recently became the instructor of Reeltown High School’s newest visual arts class, which begins with an introduction to drawing. Students focus on photography, acrylic painting, charcoal and colored pencils or pastels, as well.

In groups, the students rotate to different media throughout the semester, an organization plan that saves money and makes the most of available equipment. For example, Shelton said, there’s one camera, and it’s a lot easier to share that camera with five people than 25.

The rotation also exposes students to multiple types of media.

The idea for this art class originated from the administration, which approached Shelton about teaching the class. It’s partially funded through the Mildred Blount Foundation grant, based out of Tallassee.

The school’s administration applied for and received the grant last year, which allowed Shelton to begin an art club. This year, Reeltown was awarded the grant again, to be used for the class.

“Administration was pushing for this,” he said. “I was really pleased to find out that was a goal of theirs. If we didn’t have the grant money, it would be hard to do this. The administration knew about the art grant, and they went to it immediately. There was no dragging of the feet.”

On top of that, students are interested. The class is full with 25 students this semester. Plus, through his own art, Shelton had students showing him their works before Reeltown even had the art class.

Since 1983, Shelton has taught and coached at various schools across the county, but he

never thought he would teach art. After seeing the work of a colored pencil artist, he was inspired.

“I told my wife, ‘I’m headed to Michael’s’ and she asked me, ‘Do you just want to sit in the parking lot?’ and I said, ‘No, I’m going in this time,’” Shelton recalled. “I bought pencils and a pad and a book that said, ‘How to Draw Anything in 15 Minutes,’ and I just haven’t stopped.”

From his own experience, Shelton knows some students just need the exposure to art, and it could be a love for life.

Part of what he hopes the class provides is a space for the students to display their work publicly. Artwork will be hung along hallways and in the cafeteria, so the students can show off their talents.

Shelton said he hopes the class helps some students foster art into a possible career. There are art programs at universities where students can get scholarships, and there are artistic career paths that could be viable.

“A lot of what high school is about is kids trying to find out what they are interested in,” Shelton said. “It’s another offering that lets kids dip their toes in something different and see if they like it, see if they are adept at it.”

Greg Shelton is the art teacher at Reeltown High School.

Graphic art is only one form of media studied by Reeltown High School students.

Reeltown Youth Sport Plex

A project over twelve years in the works is finally coming to fruition

STORY BY HENRY ZIMMER & PHOTO BY LIZI ARBOGAST GWIN

Youth athletes in Reeltown now have a place to compete, a project over a dozen years in the works. Three local Reeltown coaches and fathers – Bryan Lynn, Trey Lewis and Jamie Kelley – got together around 12 years ago and decided the youth in their community needed a place to play baseball.

For too long, Reeltown’s kids had to squeeze in practices and games at Reeltown High School’s fields – or travel to neighboring cities, like Tallassee or Notasulga. The trio tried to remedy this problem by acquiring about 20 acres of land down the street from the elementary and high schools with a vision for a centralized area for youth sports.

There, they wanted to build the Reeltown Youth Sports Plex.

But it is never that simple.

For five or so years, the small team of men cleared the land of trees and moved countless piles of dirt on their own time. Clint Lynn, the older brother of Bryan, said the group did the excavating themselves. After those first five years, the sons of the original group grew old enough to play for middle school teams that had clear and consistent playtime through the schools. But the team continued to work on the fields, handing the deed over to Reeltown’s baseball league. It became more of a passion project than something they needed to complete on a timetable.

“They kept trying to make it happen, but after their boys moved to school ball, they just could not be as involved,” Clint said.

Shortly after the trio stopped working heavily on the fields,

Bryan Lynn died from a heart attack. Nine months later, Kelley also died from a heart attack.

Within the span of less than a year, two of the three visionaries for youth sports in Reeltown had died. All the while, the project they had started still needed years of work.

As a result, the empty field sat dormant. The lot was a sign of hope that one day the project could be completed, but it was also a constant reminder of all that still needed to be done.

Last year, the project was jump started again. Clint saw the project get revived, and he was asked to help form a board that now oversees the sports plex and its development.

“Our long-term goal is to have baseball and softball and to at least give the football players a

place to practice,” Lynn said.

Since the formation of the board, the sports plex is now on track to host its first games this spring and the long-time dream has new life. The complex would have never been able to set a tentative completion date without the help of people around the community and in neighboring cities. Last summer, local contractors donated equipment and time to move dirt and spread topsoil. The topsoil planted for the fields was donated by the Reeltown Dollar General.

The City of Opelika recently announced upgrades to its youth facilities and was going to tear down and discard the old fencing on its fields. Instead, the city donated the fences, along with posts and infield dirt, to the complex.

“I am sure some of the fencing will have to be replaced, but still, we are hopeful to play now,” Lynn said.

The county also pitched in through the years, as work teams moved dirt on the property to keep busy during the winter. Much of what has been done on the sports plex property had to be donated because the board could not receive grant funding.

Because Reeltown is not an incorporated city, the board could receive only a 50/50 matching grant. With finding large sums of money a serious issue, taking on a 50/50 grant was out of the question.

“If all you have is a mayor and a post office, it is easier to get a grant because there is some kind of government over it,” Lynn said. “We just do not have those funds

to match.”

Even without funding, the board worked to get things ready for spring. Before the group ever got the fencing, they began planting the fields. On July 2, the topsoil was planted on what will be Field 1.

“We are babying it, watering it as best we can and praying all goes well,” Lynn said last summer.

“Probably, in our first year, we will only play softball because they have nowhere else to play,” Lynn said. “The boys will be OK eventually. Right now, the focus is on the girls. Softball has really struggled the last few years, so we are pushing right now to save softball.”

Eventually, the football teams will be able to practice at the facility during the day, instead of having to practice on the RHS baseball field.

“They need a place to practice,” Lynn said.

Admittedly, Lynn is not doing this only for himself. He coached youth baseball in Tallassee for 12 years. Getting the sports plex completed is something he wants to do for his brother.

Although his younger brother will never be able to see it, the elder Lynn hopes when the complex is complete, it can stand as a testament for three dreams that have come true.

“It takes time and lots of money, but the board and I are doing all we can to see Bryan, Jamie and Trey’s dream come to pass,” he said. “My whole purpose is to do this to fulfill the dream.”

Fields are being cleared for a new youth sports complex in Reeltown.

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Inspiring future

Dadeville athletes

A new facility is welcomed by its students and administrators with open arms

STORY BY HENRY ZIMMER

BY HENRY ZIMMER AND ABIGAIL MURPHY

PHOTOS

The day has finally come.

In a ribbon cutting ceremony Feb. 14, Dadeville High School officially unveiled its new gym. The multipurpose center welcomed guests for an opening tour of its many facilities, meeting and locker rooms, weight facilities and basketball court.

“Our facilities are something each and every one of you should be proud of,” Tallapoosa County Schools Superintendent Ray Porter said.

Students have already begun to utilize the gym for school purposes, but now the building has been shown off to the outside world. Before cutting the ribbon, Porter thanked the Dadeville community and the Tallapoosa County Commission for welcoming the 1-percent sales tax it took to help finance the building. With the gym’s completion, Dadeville now has a fully self-contained campus, with all buildings matching each

other’s styles and all located on the school property.

Porter also thanked McKee and Associates, the group behind the gym’s design. The gym’s completion marks yet another facility and school upgrade for Tallapoosa County.

When one first enters the gym, they are greeted with a concession stand to the left and a graphic wall display directly ahead. The foyer wall displays graphics of Dadeville athletes from across generations competing in various sports. The intention was to represent the generations of successful Dadeville athletics that have come, and to hopefully inspire future generations of winning to follow.

On either side of the wall are trophy cases for the school’s various athletic achievements. The ribbon from the gym’s cutting will soon join the many red and blue maps, championship trophies and plaques commemo-

Facing pages: The stands await for the next game where fans can cheer on the Tigers in their new home.

Above: Superintendent Ray Porter cuts the ribbon for the official opening of the Dadeville High School gym.

rating school accomplishments from over the years.

The gym floor is big enough to accommodate two volleyball games at one time, and it has separate locker rooms for boys, girls and referees. Coaches have their own offices, meeting spaces and gathering rooms large enough for entire teams. In the back of the facility is a weight room, with bench racks and free weights.

Across the home grandstand, the words “Home of the Tigers” are displayed in Dadeville gold and black.

“When you walk in here, you are going to feel like home,” Porter said.

Boyd & Vickers Hall of Fame

Two former New Site coaches are recognized for their hard work and dedication to high school athletics

“Since I have been in New Site, Horseshoe Bend, none of this would be possible without the tremedous help from parents, fans, and supporters. I have always had that in the community.”

~ Thomas “Mike” Boyd

Agreat example of leadership teamwork rose to the top last fall when the Alabama High School Athletic Association named two New Site coaches to the Hall of Fame. Thomas “Mike” Boyd and Kim Vickers each pointed to the other’s support, as well as that of the community, when they were inducted into the AHSAA Hall of Fame in November.

A former student at New Site’s Horseshoe Bend School, Boyd joined the coaching staff in 1992. That was the year Daviston and Hackneyville schools merged with HSB.

“Three communities tried to make it into one school that everyone felt comfortable at,” Boyd said. “It was difficult because at any school you have big fish and little fish. There was some bickering with kids getting along at first.”

The common ground between the varying personalities was sports, and the groundwork for the school’s athletic program was laid.

“I started out coaching football, and we built the tradition in foot-

ball that we never had,” Boyd said.

Eventually, Boyd coached boys and girls basketball, too. He finished with a 265-317 record in boys basketball and a 227-128 record in girls basketball. All together, Boyd helped coach his basketball teams to a combined record of 694 wins in 1,249 games.

In his final season, the boys basketball team finished state runner-up. The girls won the state tournament, and the football team finished 12-1 with its single loss in the semi-finals.

“Since I have been in New Site, Horseshoe Bend, none of this would be possible without the tremendous help from parents, fans, supporters,” Boyd said. “I have always had that in the community.”

Boyd recalled the Horseshoe Bend student population being overly excited for a particular football game. The excitement in the air finally got Boyd to question a student as to why everyone was so hyped up. It was over the cheerleading squad, of which Vickers was once a member and then the coach.

STORY AND PHOTOS BY HENRY ZIMMER

“That is where I first got to know her,” Boyd said with a long laugh. “She really is a winner from the start. She is a hard worker. She is a really good teacher.”

Vickers began her work in Tallapoosa County with the Wildcats in 1989. She was an English teacher and eventually got into coaching softball with Benjamin Russell High School legend Pam Robinson. Later, she coached cheerleading.

At BRHS, Robinson asked Vickers to help coach softball, though Vickers had no prior experience coaching. She had played travel ball slowpitch softball but had never taught someone else how to play.

“I told her, ‘Well, I have never done it, but I can,’” Vickers said with a laugh.

Following the 1996 Olympics, which for the first time featured fastpitch softball, Vickers brought the fastpitch game to HSB.

“I had never played fastpitch or watched fastpitch, but after seeing that Olympics, everyone got fired up for fastpitch softball,”

Thomas ‘Mike’ Boyd coached at Horseshoe Bend when the school first opened.

Kim Vickers coached Horseshoe Bend softball for many years.

Vickers said. “Everything we did, we learned on our own. We went to clinics, called a lot of people. And the rest is history.”

At Horseshoe Bend, Vickers later became the assistant athletic director alongside Boyd.

“I joke, but he was the man in charge while I did all the paperwork behind the scenes,” Vickers said.

She thought she would spend the rest of her career coaching and teaching in New Site; she already had 27 years in the field.

But with a recommendation from Boyd and the school’s principal, Vickers sent an application to the AHSAA for a job opening, the job she has now held for almost a decade. Not knowing if she actually wanted to leave HBHS, Vickers applied to the AHSAA in secrecy.

“I didn’t even tell my husband, but I filled out all the paperwork out and sent it in,” Vickers said.

She sent her application late in the process, almost trying to elude the hiring cycle.

“It was due the week of Thanksgiving, and I sent it two days before it was due,” Vickers said. “I thought they wouldn’t receive it in time.”

Ultimately, she accepted the position but not without trepidation. Vickers wasn’t as concerned about the duties of her new career with the AHSAA; rather, she hesitated to leave Horseshoe Bend.

“It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do,” Vickers said of leaving the school in New Site. “I had to call a softball team meeting. We shed a lot of tears. I had to tell my students, and we all cried. They were all happy for me, but it was very bittersweet. I haven’t regretted it though.”

From that application sent on a whim, Vickers has broken down countless barriers at the AHSAA, among them was being named the first female AHSAA associate executive director in 2021.

“Going to Horseshoe Bend and working with Coach Boyd on the administrative side, it definitely prepared me for this,” she said. “I really thought I would be there for three years. Those three years have turned into nine. Nine years and going strong.”

The tradition of strong work ethic, leadership cooperation and support and an active, involved community continues at this small school that has big examples to follow.

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Carley Cummins

One woman spends a lifetime serving others

STORY BY BREANNA MANLEY PHOTO COURTESY OF CARLEY CUMMINS

Most of the hands-on philanthropic work done in the Lake Martin area is carried out by nonprofit organizations led by dedicated administrators. Take Carley Cummins for example, who has served for 28 years as part time director at Volunteer Connections of Central Alabama, an organization that offers assistance programs for seniors in Tallapoosa and Coosa counties.

Cummins organizes volunteers who help seniors complete and file tax forms every year, and she hosts medical personnel who explain screenings and procedures. She offers Medicare information workshops. Volunteers lead weekly Lunch and Learn gatherings, through which local police officers teach identity protection, computer skills, defensive driving, the power of positive thinking and more.

Cummins has been part of the Tallapoosa County community since age 14, when she moved here with her family from New Orleans. The move was a bit of a culture shock, Cummins said, but she’s come to love the community and its residents.

“We’ve got very special and very caring people in the community. For the most part, people are very supportive of one another. It’s like when somebody gets sick, they end up on four or five different Church prayer lists. The community members care about one another,” Cummins said.

Cummins, who dedicates 20 hours a week to VCCA, loves to spend her free time giving back to

the community she’s come to love so much.

“I serve on the literacy council board. Until the pandemic hit, I used to make jams, jellies, bread and pound cakes every single week for the farmer’s market. I did that for 10 or 12 years. I keep the sourdough starter going, and, in fact, one of the things I like to do during the tax season is make little sourdough bread loaves and cinnamon cranberry loaves. I’ll take 30 or so of those to the VCCA office and give those out to the volunteers,” Cummins said.

Cummins also loves to grow orchids, read, cook, cross stitch and make quilts.

“I tend to stay very busy.”

Before taking on the duty of caring for her aging mother who passed away two years ago, Cummins said, she was even more involved with the community than she is now.

“My mother kept me busy for four or five years. When you’re trying to care for an aging parent, it is very time consuming. I used to be much more active. I was a Girl Scout leader, and I helped with Campfire. I typically give 30 small loaves of the cinnamon cranberry bread and 30 small loaves of the sourdough bread to St. James Episcopal Church to help them with their fundraising for their bazaar,” Cummins said. Cummins credits her giving heart to her mother and role model Jean Williams Cummins, who was the first woman elected to the Alexander City City Council.

“My mother was the most caring, giving, patriotic – oh, she was so patriotic – intelligent woman I’ve ever known. I just had such a wonderful role model who never thought twice about doing something kind for others. I got my heart from her,” Cummins said.

Cummins and others like her, who lend their hearts and hands, make life a little sweeter in the Lake Martin area.

Cummins dedicates 20 hours a week to the Volunteer Connections of Central Alabama.

Joe Gantt

Southside Middle School custodian awarded for his service, dedication

and positive attitude

STORY & PHOTO BY CLIFF WILLIAMS

“Being around kids makes you feel young...Walking down the halls just makes you feel good.”

~ Joe Gantt, SMS custodian

Alot of education occurs in classrooms, but that is not the only place where students learn. Every time anyone encounters another person, there’s a chance to make a difference. As a custodian at Southside Middle School in Tallassee, Joe Gantt does just that. For his positive effort, Gantt was selected as the school’s Support Staff Member of the Year.

“He is such a phenomenal asset to our school because he works tirelessly to keep our school clean,” SMS Principal Brittany Spencer said. “He also brings such a positive influence to our students, staff and overall school climate. His presence and his efforts make Southside Middle School a great place to be.”

Gantt hasn’t been at Southside for long. He spent 38 years making dentures in the dental industry, but he had a good knowledge of schools, as his wife Angela has taught for 27 years at Tallassee Elementary School.

After retirement, Gantt followed a passion to be around teachers and students.

“I always wanted to work with schools and be around kids,” Gantt said. “I enjoy it. These are the greatest people in the world to work with.”

Gantt said he truly enjoys getting up in the morning and going to work at Southside

Middle School.

“Being around kids makes you feel young,” he said. “Walking down the halls just makes you feel good. I hear, ‘Mr. Gantt, Hey Mr. Joe. Hey Janitor Joe.’ I get a combination of them all. It’s the smile on the faces of these kids and building relationships with them that makes it special.”

Gantt goes about his day speaking with students and staff. He makes them feel special when he can, such as wishing librarian Sabrina Russell a happy birthday or just sharing a grin and an uplifting word. It is all for one thing.

“I want to give them a clean place to come to learn,” Gantt said. “I really want to give them the opportunity to be all they can be.”

The ever smiling Gantt doesn’t take much credit for what he does. He said he will be there at Southside as long as the good Lord lets him.

“I work with some of the greatest people in the world –teachers,” Gantt said. “I’m honored to be here with them.”

Joe Gantt’s positive attitude is what makes him stand out as the Southside Middle School Support Staff of the Year.

David Jones, Lifelong Learner

STORY BY HENRY ZIMMER PHOTOS COURTESY OF DAVID JONES

There is always enough time, according to David Jones. Time is something that every person has. Everyone who has ever lived has had some amount of time to do whatever it is they choose to do. And Jones is making the most of his.

“We all have the same 24 hours,” Jones said. “I try to encourage people to find the time every day. We have to find the time for the things that resonate with us and make a difference.”

Some people are lifelong learners, and Jones has chosen to use his time to learn as much as he can. He shares what he has learned with others.

For 30 years, Jones was a teacher and a high school coach. He’s educated others for a majority of his life. Jones retired from teaching and coaching in 2016. Since then, he has used his time to continue teaching in any way he can do so. He is a man of many hats. No one box can fit him.

“People ask me if I am actually retired,” Jones said. “I just laugh. But I am just not ready to sit down in the recliner yet. There is too much to do.”

While coaching, Jones decided to reach out to John Wooden, famed UCLA basketball head coach. Wooden is known to write back to anyone who wrote to him, so Jones gave it a shot, trying to glean whatever he could from the coach’s many years of leadership, of teaching and of learning. Years later, Jones found himself in Wooden’s living room, and later drove the coach to lunch.

“It was the greatest day,” Jones said. “It was incredible.”

That interaction got Jones interested in leadership speaking. Who better to learn from than one of college basketball’s greatest minds?

Jones also enjoys reading the leadership writings of John Maxwell. Those works led Jones to join The John Maxwell Team, a coaching and leadership organization.

Both men helped shape the idea in Jones’ head that after a career spent leading and teaching, he might as well keep going with it.

“I have always been interested in leadership,” Jones said. “That is what has led me into my business.”

Now, Jones has his own leadership business, David Jones Leadership Consulting. Through his leadership talks, he engages with high school and college athletics teams, along with business groups

David Jones combines his love of music and his love of leadership to help inspire young people in the community.

to discuss how to improve specific situations within those collections of people.

One thing Jones is known for within his leadership talks is tailoring his message to his audience. Many speakers talk through a broad narrative, or they have a prearranged outline of the information they want to share. Jones prefers to get to the heart of the matter beforehand.

“I like to find out what the challenges are, and what the problem areas are, so I already know,” Jones said. “I like to connect with people. When you connect with people, they understand what you want to say.”

Jones writes all of his speeches, apart from a few quotes he throws in here and there. He knows tailoring his talks will help his message to better resonate with people.

“I can write and craft a message specifically for that organization that speaks to the challenges at that time,” Jones said. “I get much joy out of that.”

The Tallapoosa County noncertified personnel told him his talk was uniquely engaging. Auburn Baseball Coach Butch Thompson has given Jones glowing reviews as well. Monthly, Jones speaks with the Tallapoosa County Tourism board. Speaking to others and learning from others is something Jones genuinely loves to do, and it is something he is good at. That translates to his other avenues.

“I love adding value to people,” Jones said. “And that bleeds through anything.”

Aside from his speaking duties, Jones is an accomplished musician

who plays the trumpet. He and his wife moved to the Lake Martin area three years ago, and it didn’t take long for him to find others who wanted to listen to him play.

From April to August of last year, Jones played 78 separate gigs. He plays about eight times a month at Grand National in Opelika. There, he encounters sporting teams visiting Auburn.

“I want to meet them and talk to them,” Jones said of the resort’s guests. “It is always neat to meet other people from different SEC schools. On my break time, I don’t get away from people, I greet the patrons. I get to know them and build those relationships.”

Auburn is like a second home to Jones. In addition to his forays into musicianship, leadership and education, he co-hosts the Auburn Blitz radio show from time to time. While not a graduate of Auburn, Jones revels in his newfound proximity to his favorite school.

“To be this close to Auburn is like a kid in the candy store,” Jones said.

Outside of music and speaking, people know Jones from his daily show. When he is pumping gas or around various local towns, he occasionally is stopped by someone who saw him talking Tigers.

“You appreciate people watching the show,” Jones said. “It is all about building those relationships.”

It may seem like Jones doesn’t have a single second of free time. But he doesn’t see it that way. He always makes time for the things he loves, like traveling to SEC sporting events and reading, something he

says helps him understand the power in learning and relationships. Jones reads an hour a day about things that help him to be a better person.

“I am one of those people that believes in being a lifelong learner,” Jones said. “I don’t think we should ever be done learning and adding value to people.”

Through his love for nonfiction, Jones is in the process of joining his mentor Maxwell in crafting a leadership book.

Time may seem like it is not on Jones’ side. However, the contrary is true. He has plenty of time, and while only in his 60s, time is still in his favor. He has spent a life preaching positivity and connectivity. In an age when people feel more broken and disconnected than ever, Jones’ message is that much more important.

“Life is too short for grudges,” Jones said. “We have to make sure the way we talk to people conveys love, concern, compassion and empathy.”

There is a quote by Maxwell that Jones uses in his talks from time to time. It sums up perfectly the message he hopes to get across:

“You can’t lead others until you lead yourself.”

Jones adds a bit on the end to hammer home that time is limited. What you do with it makes all the difference.

“And the hardest person to lead is you.”

Scott Hardy

STORY BY BEN SMITH PHOTOS COURTESY OF SCOTT HARDY

Rarely does a resume paint such an accurate picture of a person as it does Scott Hardy.

Hardy’s history portrays a man involved in seemingly every aspect of the Alexander City community. It’s as if he’s around every corner, behind every counter and seated at every boardroom seat. Turn on the radio to hear him calling state championship games or talking high school football on Saturday mornings. Drive around District 3 during election time, you may find his city council campaign signs planted sporadically in yards. Hardy has worked at the local newspaper,

sat on the Alexander City Planning Commission and is Regional Director of the Alabama State Games. And those careers don’t even begin to outline the full scope of his involvement with the community; organizations and speeches and volunteer work he doesn’t bother to include on his resume, probably because it’s long enough as is.

What Hardy’s resume says, plainly, is that he loves his community.

Despite his working life being flooded with leadership positions, advancement organizations and volunteer work – all in service to Alexander City – Hardy’s favorite method of relaxing, of getting

away from it all, is to attend high school football games at Benjamin Russell. Even on his breaks, he’s found at community events. Here, he is not expected to give a speech or cut a ribbon. All he has to do is be present at a place he describes as encompassing what a community should be.

If the Benjamin Russell High School Wildcats are playing at home, he’s there. No matter what. It’s where he’s always been Friday nights from August to November, ever since he was a child and attended games with his grandparents. When Hardy looks out across the field and sees the home bleach-

ers filled to the brim with local residents, all cheering and booing and throwing their hands up for a single, unified goal, he feels a sense of pride in his community.

“Sometimes I think, ‘Maybe I’m doing a little too much. I don’t want people to get Scott-fatigued,” Hardy said with a grin. “But at the same time, I’m going to do whatever I think best for the community. So, if that means I have to be here, or give a quote here, or speak here, whatever it may be, I’ll do it.”

Seeing a man commit his working and personal life to his community begs the question: Why?

Hardy has his reasons for spending his Saturday mornings commentating on high school football and his Monday nights at city council meetings. For one, he wants his 1-year-old son Hines to grow up in the same sort of city where Hardy himself was raised.

“My age group was the last to experience what it was like when Alex City was at its peak,” said Hardy. He wants to restore the same civic pride and enthusiasm that was present in the years before the city’s main industry closed down, leaving thousands without jobs and resulting in the local economy taking a downward turn as its citizens scrambled to recover. In a nutshell, Hardy wants his beloved city to be a place where his son could prosper.

“When Hines graduates high school, I want there to be things here for him. I hope it won’t be comical, or a joke, when I say to him, “I want you to stay here.”

That’s not to say that Hardy doesn’t have an independent, personal pride in Alexander City. He was raised here, and he involves himself in almost every aspect of the community’s functioning. He cares about this place for no other reason than that he simply loves it, whether it was the Alexander City of 30 years ago or the Alexander City of today.

“My desire to see Alex City grow is ...” He paused for a moment to gather the right words. “Well, you can’t quantify that desire.”

But one of the most poignant

motivations for Hardy, by far, is his sense of duty to the people that gave him opportunities to give back.

Hardy credits his father with giving him the chance to be where he is today. His father managed the local Lunch Bunch, which Hardy described as a country club that was in town. He said it was exclusive, populated by local people of wealth and means, from lawyers and doctors to bankers and construction company owners. Ever since he was 9 or 10 years old, Hardy went to work with his father every Friday and socialized with the sons and daughters of influential figureheads of the community. He was exposed to a group of people he likely never would have otherwise been around: good people, positive role models, people with influence and means.

handful of other titles, if it were not for his father and the people he surrounded his son with.

Hardy is motivated by the feeling of responsibility. He speaks about what he does in the community as if it were legally required of him, as if he’s repaying a debt.

“At the time, it wasn’t something where I really understood what was happening,” Hardy said. “But my father saw the advantage of me being around those types of people.”

Throughout the years, Hardy grew close with the Lunch Bunch members. His kinship and involvement in these circles eventually earned him a scholarship, sourced from the lawyers and doctors that made up his friends’ parents. He otherwise would not have attended college. As he described it, he would not be the city councilmen he is today, or the regional director of the Alabama State Games or hold a

“That’s the ideal role of a community,” he said. “This is how it’s supposed to work. The community invests in you, and then when the opportunity is presented for you to do the same, you reciprocate.”

Hardy feels as if he embodies the first part of that process perfectly. As for giving back, the schedulebuilding, time-allotting, busy-dayof-a-man said he has a long way to go before he feels he has repaid Alexander City.

“There’s still so much more to be done.”

Facing page: Scott Hardy spends his hours attending community events and service projects.

Hardy, right, wins a Wildcat Spirit Award presented by Alexander City Schools Superintendent Dr. Beverly Price.

Dr. Timothy Littmann

Rural health is personal for this young physician

STORY BY BEN SMITH PHOTOS BY ABIGAIL MURPHY COURTESY OF IVY CREEK HEALTH CARE

“There’s an inherent disadvantage to living in rural areas, because all the major things tend to go toward bigger cities, like Birmingham. People go to Birmingham to get the major surgeries done. As they should. But that’s why I’m passionate about rural medicine. The country mice need docs just as much as the city mice do.”

~ Dr. Timothy Littmann

Ifollowed Dr. Timothy Littmann and his dog, Remus, through the hallways of the Lake Martin Community Hospital. Remus, a spry, happy Labrador-mix, trotted in front of Littmann excitedly but never pulled on his leash. He stopped into every room to sniff around the baseboards and receive compliments from the nurses who scratched behind his ears.

Littman’s tour of the various areas of the hospital took no longer than five minutes. LMCH is a small, rural hospital that covers every slough across Lake Martin. The hospital has 20 beds and 11 doctors on staff, four of whom work there full-time. The hospital provides care to fewer people than hospitals in more populated areas, which means there are limitations as to the services provided here; however, the hospital has grown and expanded in recent years.

“There’s an inherent disadvantage to living in rural areas, because all the major things tend to go toward the bigger cities, like Birmingham,” Littmann said. “People go to Birmingham to get the major surgeries done. As they should. But that’s

why I’m passionate about rural medicine. The country mice need docs just as much as the city mice do.”

Littman has worked at Lake Martin Community Hospital for two and a half years. It was his first job after earning his doctorate in Medicine from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and he hopes that it is also his last. He’s a man with intense, humble passion for his community. During pre-med studies at Auburn University, he served as a volunteer firefighter in Lee County. He lived at the station and regularly was called out of classes to respond to fires.

“I’ve kind of been trying to take care of this whole U.S. Route 280 stretch my entire life,” said Littmann.

He committed to college studies and firefighting at the same time because the area needed it, he said.

“There was a need. I filled it.”

There is a shortage of rural healthcare providers in some of the less population-dense areas of Alabama, and the average age of Dadeville physicians sits around 64 years old, Littmann explained, meaning that in the coming years, there could be an

even greater shortage.

“Then you combine that with slowing down as you age. You can’t see 40 people over the course of a day at age 65,” he added.

So, as a young physician who grew up in the area, Littmann chose to forgo the greater resources and higher salaries of larger, more populated areas for something he thinks is more important.

He wants to become a fixture in the community, to be the ‘town doc,’ the man everyone has seen, the man everyone knows. He enjoys relating to his patients on a personal level. He enjoys running into them at the grocery store and asking how their knees are doing or asking about a patient’s mother by name during a routine check-up.

“You just know them,” Littmann said. “And the more you know about a person, the better you can treat them.”

To establish himself more prominently in the community, and because he believes it necessary, Littmann makes house calls. Like doctors in the old days who travelled from town to town with large leather medicine bags, Littmann visits the patients who are too unwell to leave their beds, and those near the ends of their lives. He wants to be their doctor, to provide them with his knowledge and expertise, but also, he sees the role of a rural doctor as something that involves more than just knowledge and expertise. He also wants to be someone they trust.

“Just knowing somebody’s there for you is probably the biggest thing,” he said. “I imagine this per-

son as my family member. If my mom went to a doctor, or my dad went to a doctor, I want them to have the best care. So, that’s what I tell patients, too. If my mom had this problem, this is what I would want done.”

Education is another of Dr. Littmann’s sticking points. When interacting with patients, he wants to make sure they can grasp the effects of their actions on their health.

“If you can do those two things: make people more knowledgeable about their own health, and try to give them the best outcome possible, I think that you’re going to create a spark. This patient-oriented spark, where now, they care about their health. ‘Oh, my blood pressure hard-

ens the arteries in my heart, which causes heart attacks, I probably need to get blood pressure seen to,’” Littmann said.

Working for a rural community hospital like LMCH is something Dr. Littmann has wanted to do since he began to study medicine. He hopes to continue providing healthcare to all the country mice around Lake Martin. Facing page: Lake Martin Community Hospital has grown and expanded in recent years.

Dr. Timothy Littmann is passionate about providing rural healthcare to the community he grew up around.

Lois Ann Murphree

STORY BY BEN SMITH PHOTO BY CLIFF WILLIAMS

It’s not rare to see convoys of trucks and sedans lined up outside the Chick-fil-A off U.S. Route 280, especially around lunch or dinner time. It seems like it’s always been that way, ever since the fast-food chain opened its Alexander City location in November of 2021. But while the demand for chicken sandwiches and waffle fries has always been high, the ability to quickly provide customers with their food has been a learned skill.

“In the early days, it sometimes took us 20 minutes to get a No. 1 meal out,” said Lois Ann Murphree, owner and operator of the Alexander City Chick-fil-A. “So, my employees endured that. But they didn’t give up.”

Like any new business, it took time to iron out the kinks. Murphree herself was in the restaurant almost every day, supervising operations. It wasn’t long before the staff was able to fill orders accurately and quickly. Now, Murphree said, their goal is to fill orders in fewer than three and a half minutes.

It’s this ability to quickly adapt and overcome challenges that earned Murphree and her 75 team members the Chick-fil-A Rookie of the Year Award, which recognizes successful up-and-coming franchises in the region.

“It’s so humbling. I mean, so many people could have been awarded,” said Murphree. “I cried. I cried for sure. I was just super honored and proud to receive the award.”

Many of the more measurable outcomes of owning a franchise go into award criteria. These include metrics such as order accuracy, order timeliness and high levels of revenue. Although the Alexander City Chick-fil-A excelled in those categories, it is not the full story. The workplace culture and leadership philosophy that Murphree cultivates makes her Chick-fil-A stand out among the rest.

“I’m here. That’s been the biggest thing in building this culture,” said Murphree. “I work in the restaurant on a daily basis. But we also involve our team and give them the opportunity to make choices about how we do things, really empowering them. Our leaders are empowered to make decisions. It’s a group effort. This past year, my name was on the Rookie of the Year Award, but I 100-percent could not have done that without the group that we have here.”

At her former company, Murphree was elevated to a leadership position by a boss who also served as her mentor. One of the best pieces of advice she received in

leadership, she said, came from this mentor, who told her she was going to make mistakes in her new position, and that it was okay to do that, as long as she learned from them.

Murphree took that to heart and incorporated the advice into her own leadership philosophy.

“I tell my leaders on a regular basis, ‘I’ve put you in this position, because I trust you, so I want you to make decisions. If it’s not the best decision, we’ll talk about it. And we’ll talk about how we could have potentially made a better decision.’” said Murphree. “That’s what growth is, right? I want them to grow and excel and become the greatest leader they can be, whether that’s here in this restaurant, long term or somewhere else in the community.”

Murphree’s leadership extends outside the brick walls of her restaurant. Last year, she partnered with the Alabama High School Athletic Association to create the Grit Award, given to high school students in Tallapoosa County who have shown outstanding resilience in their lives. Murphree wanted to emphasize the importance of pushing through hardships.

“That has just been really cool to see these kids that come in and want to know why they’ve been chosen for this. And I get to say, ‘Because you don’t give up,’” said Murphree. “And that’s what grit is about. Yeah, there are challenging times. There are difficult times, but they keep pushing, keep persevering. And just to be able to give those teenagers a little bit of encouragement has been really rewarding.”

Murphree hopes to encourage the younger generation to work through pain and struggle, and she wants them to know that in doing so, their efforts will often be rewarded. Whether it’s her employees or her community, Murphree hopes to encourage the growth and advancement of all.

Lois Ann Murphree is the Operations manager of the Alexander City Chic-fil-A.

Georgia Bolan

STORY BY BEN SMITH AND PHOTO BY MELODY RATHEL

Georgia Bolan has worked at the Super 8 Hotel since it was called the Jameson Hotel, back when it had beautiful green doors. She still has matches and coffee mugs bearing the old name.

She remembered seeing it being built, and like all locals do when noticing new construction in their hometown, she wondered what it was going to be. She guessed a bank of some sort.

The construction finished, and the hotel opened. Something told her to go visit. She had no exact reason to see the hotel, but she followed that feeling and applied for a housekeeping job on the spot.

Bolan would go on to work there for 35 years, cleaning baseboards, dusting tables, folding linens and emptying trash bins. Years went by, and she was promoted to a supervising position where she managed a team of housekeepers, took inventory of supplies and directed general housekeeping operations. She worked as much as she possibly could, coming into the hotel each week on her single day off to make sure there weren’t any hitches in her absence.

“I love it. I love it. I love it,” she said, shaking her head. “I go crazy when I’m not there. I feel happy there. ’Cause that’s my happy family.”

Last November, she was recognized for her work by the Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, winning the annual “Housekeeper of the Year” award given to only a single housekeeper from the hotel’s 1,435 locations across the United States.

Wyndham Hotels Regional Director Albert Fornini flew down from New England to personally congratulate Bolan.

It was a sort of unforeseen recog-

nition, one that she did not seek, or even necessarily want. But one she was completely grateful to receive.

“I wasn’t even thinking about it,” Bolan said. “I had forgotten all about it. It done slipped my mind, until Miss Janet called me in one day. She started crying. She broke down in tears. I thought she was crying, ’cause she had just had an operation. Oh no. It was ’cause I came in first place.”

Bolan didn’t believe her boss and friend, Janet Mason, when she told her she’d won the contest. It took her a second to digest that, for the first time in 35 years, she was being recognized for her work. It sank in, and she joined her friend in tears.

Bolan was gifted with enough hotel points for her to stay six nights free anywhere in the world. She received flowers and a Wynn-Dixie gift card from her supervisor. The Alex City Outlook took her photograph at the award ceremony, and she met the CEOs and executive

“You know, you don’t see too many peope love their jobs like I love my job.”

~ Georgia Bolan

officials of Wyndham. This humble, joyful, unassuming woman who had worked diligently for more than three decades was in the spotlight.

“The way people are talking about this makes me feel like a movie star,” Bolan said, giggling. “I ain’t no movie star. I’m a housekeeping supervisor.”

Georgia Bolan may not be a movie star per se, but she is no stranger to stories. Every thought is accompanied by a narrative of events and an exchange of dialogue. She can remember details from 20, 30 years ago, as if she were looking at a photo and simply describing what she saw.

When she speaks, she speaks with inflections that draw in and place her listeners in the moment. Her stories make folks feel as if they were there, working frantically in the laundry room with only a single washer in operation. Or showing up to work months after major surgery, against the doctor’s orders.

For many years, the Super 8 was Bolan’s second job. She used to get off her shift at the Russell plant and head over to the hotel, where she began a new shift with her eyelids drooping and her energy drained. She was a single mother at the time, and she did what she could to provide for her two daughters.

“It was hard,” she said. “But the thing about it, I was there. And when I walked through those doors, my eyelids just pulled on back up.

 Georgia Bolan has worked for the Super 8 Hotel for over 35 years, and she still finds joy in every day on the job.

’Cause I actually enjoyed working at the hotel.”

Over the years, the people Bolan worked with became family. The staff celebrates Christmas and Thanksgiving together. They gift each other birthday presents and joke around with one another. Bolan recounts all of this with a reminiscent, sweet smile.

“There’s one woman who doesn’t speak good English,” she said. “But she comes into work and says, ‘Good

morning, Miss Georgia. I love you.’ And I say, ‘I love you, too, darling.’”

Bolan never would have imagined herself finding meaning and fulfillment in housekeeping. But she does. It’s labor, but it’s labor that she feels is her vocation. Even on her days off, Bolan calls the front desk, making sure the hotel hasn’t burned down without her there.

It may not be what many would consider a passion at first thought. But Bolan speaks of her job like a

carpenter would speak of a wellcrafted chair, detailing her system for organizing supplies, the ideas she has for rearranging the bedroom layout and the way she relates to her housekeeping team, which she refers to as “her girls.”

“This is a wonderful job,” said Bolan. “You know, you don’t see too many people love their jobs like I love my job. ’Cause I been here for so long. I would be lost if I wasn’t here. I would be lost.”

Jeff Roman

STORY BY BEN SMITH PHOTOS COURTESY OF JEFF ROMAN AND HELLAS CONSTRUCTION

When Jeff Roman sees a need, he addresses it. His hope is to address as many needs as he can find in the Dadeville community. So he makes sure to keep his eyes peeled.

Roman manages the Hellas plant in Dadeville, which produces a yarn necessary to create turf used in football fields, soccer fields, baseball mounds and more. The plant employs anywhere from 60 to 120 people, depending on the time of year.

The first need Roman found came directly after moving to the city. He spoke to Mickey Forbus about the needs of the Dadeville Beautification Board, a group of volunteers who spend time and money landscaping, painting, building or performing whatever renovations necessary to keep public spaces in Dadeville looking well-groomed and neat. The group is one of the few organizations which oversee the general upkeep of the area. However, they do not have many members, and they receive little to no funding.

Roman approached his seniors at Hellas and laid out the situation for them. His initiative resulted in the creation of a plan to assist the Beautification Board. Hellas offered employees overtime pay to volunteer with the board’s Keebler Park renovations. The project resulted in three days of productive work, and Roman and Hellas hope to continue

the volunteer incentives as long as the Beautification Board required assistance.

“It was a really a good opportunity to get people involved,” said Roman. “A lot of them had never done something like that before… It’s a way to get out of the plant and interact with the community in a different way. I was just amazed at how everybody came around and helped out as well. So… it was just a great time together. I’ve gotten feedback from the people that work here and they’re like, ‘We need to do that every year. We want to do it.’ So, it was a good event. It’s just a good thing that the company can give back to the community.”

The Beautification Board was only the beginning of Roman’s investment into the Dadeville community. Roman went on to help initiate the creation of an in-house recycling center, which now recycles 99 percent of the total waste produced by Hellas. Byproducts that would otherwise go to a landfill are turned into pallets and plastic lumber. The 1-percent of waste that is not recycled goes to a nearby waste-toenergy plant, where it is incinerated to produce electricity.

“If we could find all the areas that need help, we could give back even more,” said Roman. “There’s so much out there that you never hear about. That’s why you have to keep your eyes and ears open for those types of opportunities where we can

use the stuff that we have to help someone.”

Recently, Roman met with leadership at Loaves and Fishes, a local food bank, to discuss ways in which Hellas could alter its shipping routes to aid in supplying the bank with food. In March, Hellas trucks will begin stopping mid-route in Atlanta to pick up loads of food for the nonprofit.

Roman believes employers have a duty to make every effort to take care of the area in which they operate.

“You can’t just do things for your company and not include the community,” said Roman. “This is where you live, and you’ve got to take care of where you live.”

Roman has managed others for a long time. It is truly his passion: to draw on his own experience to help someone else. And when that produces positive results in the lives of others, he feels inspired.

“I get a lot out of seeing somebody achieve something and

succeed,” said Roman. “I mean, I’m an old guy now. I got lots of experience. And sometimes I try to sit down and just kind of share those experiences with people. But you know, when they listen to it, and it actually impacts the way they work, it impacts the success of the plant, I get a big boost out of that.”

Roman hopes to continue inspiring his employees to donate their time to their community. These moments of self-sacrifice don’t serve

to only enrich the community; they help to mold the individual into serving something greater than his or her own interests.

“You just can’t take all the time. You gotta give time back,” said Roman. “You’ve got to make sure that the infrastructure is right, and you got to make sure that the parks are acceptable. It’s a belief that I’ve had for since I began working. I want to give back where we can, and especially when the company can

afford to do something like that. And you get other benefits from it as well, you get this kind of teamwork that comes with people seeing each other outside of work. It’s just a good allaround experience for everyone.”

From Left: Roman’s favorite part of his job is educating others; Roman and a crew of volunteers helped renovate Keebler Park.

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uabmedicine.org/HeartRussell

Performing Arts

STORY BY BETSY ILER PHOTOS BY ABIGAIL MURPHY, BETSY ILER AND JUSTIN CLAYTON

“Theatre is a lot of community involvement. It takes a lot of people to put on a play. Not just actors, but publicity, state managing, props, costumes and more. It brings together people who might not otherwise interact. They find similar passions and form new friendships and bonds.”

~ Karen Kison, Alexander City Theatre II president

Essential business skills like self-confidence, public speaking and stage presence are developed through the performing arts, and opportunities to learn and practice these abilities – and have fun in the process – abound in Tallapoosa County. From early elementary ages to retirement, the area nurtures local talent and promotes personal development through live productions.

The training starts with after school workshops for young children at Dadeville Performing Arts Center in Dadeville. Skilled volunteers – often retirees with the desire to contribute to the community – host a variety of activities from a beginning understanding of music to acting and other aspects of live stage productions. Rhythm, beginning dulcimer and musical theater classes are among those frequently offered after school. During the summer months, DPAC also hosts weeklong arts camps that are tuition-free for local children.

For adults, DPAC provides practice and performance space for the Dadeville Community Chorus, a

dedicated ensemble that welcomes newcomers of all ages and performs seasonal concerts throughout the year. The Lake Martin Dulcimer Club also meets regularly at DPAC, and the center frequently hosts visiting speakers, performers and readers theater productions in the intimate vintage space.

“We want to give people the opportunity to step up and be leaders and help people get together and share their skills,” said DPAC Director Kim Walls.

Tickets for DPAC events are typically $10 to $15. The schedule of classes and events is available at dadevilleperformingartscenter.com.

In Alexander City, ACT II stages four polished productions each year with free admission, so everyone has an opportunity to participate and see live plays.

“We give children and adults the opportunity to do something they love or try something new,” said Karen Kison, Alexander City Theatre II president. “Theatre is a lot of community involvement. It takes a lot of people to put on a play. Not just actors, but publicity, stage managing, props, costumes and more. It brings together people who might not

otherwise interact. They find similar passions and form new friendships and bonds.”

ACT II stages productions with the generous support of patrons who contribute to an annual drive to cover production costs and overhead. Plays are rehearsed at an old movie theater in downtown Alexander City, space that was gifted to the 501(c)3 community theater company by the City. The space also harbors the company’s numerous costumes, props and set components. With support from local schools and businesses, performances are held at the Benjamin Russell High School Auditorium, Central Alabama Community College’s stage at the Betty Carol Graham Center and Russell Lands stages at Russell Crossroads and Lake Martin Amphitheater.

Each year, the ACT II season consists of at least one children’s production that often includes more than 30 child actors. The annual classic Christmas play is always popular with area audiences, and the remaining season varies among dramas, comedies, thrillers and readers plays. This year, the troupe will stage Frederick Knott’s thriller, Wait Until Dark, in March and a rendition of Dicken’s A Christmas Carol. Open auditions are announced three to four months prior to production dates.

In addition to developing on-stage talent, ACT II productions mentors additional skills in the production process, from constructing sets to set design, preparing promotional materials, creating props, costume design, organization, directing and more. To learn more, visit actheatre2.com or check out the Alexander City Theatre II Facebook page.

Benjamin Russell High School offers a well-attended theater elective under the direction of Shannon Culver, who prepares students for annual regional and statewide competitions. Last year, the students staged The Wizard of Oz

For more than 50 years, Alex City Arts has invited touring professional actors, musicians and storytellers to local stages for the delight of area audiences. In March, the presenting organization will host Marty Raybon,

Cindy Morgan and Lenny LeBlanc in a The Heart Behind the Music production. The April show will feature Alabama Troubadours. The 202425 season had not been announced at presstime for this publication, but past performers have included Eagles tribute act 7 Bridges Band, The Vienna Boys Choir and storyteller Doris Haddock, as well as Eric Essix Group, Assisted Living: The Musical and John Williams, author of Monroeville and the Stage Production of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’

Visiting artists often offer workshops for high school and middle school students during the day and perform for public audiences in the evening.

“We are working on programming the next season to offer a variety of arts representations that will expand the arts outlook beyond music alone,”

said ACA President Mary Wood Perry.

ACA programs are held in a variety of local venues that are chosen to enhance audience experience, from the intimate setting at The Square downtown to Benjamin Russell High School Auditorium and CACC’s BCG stage. Tickets are generally priced at $21 and are available at alexcityarts.org.

Facing Page, Clockwise from Left: The Dulcimer club plays a variety of string-based tunes at community events around Dadeville; The hand bells concert around Christmas time is a great way to get into the holiday spirit.

Clockwise from above: The Benjamin Russell High School theatre is a great venue for experiencing the arts of Alexander City; The Alexander City T heatre is always free to the public.

Meet

LES WEBB

Dear Lake Martin Community,

Your Trusted Local Expert at the Helm

We’re thrilled to share some exciting news with you! Momentum Marine has joined your neighborhood with the recent acquisition of LakeSide Marina. Last fall, Andrew Campbell and Josh Russom, renowned for their successful boat dealerships in Georgia and Florida, chose to bring their expertise to our beautiful Lake Martin.

What’s New at Momentum’s LakeSide Marina?

. Les Webb, a familiar face and long-time Lake Martin resident, is leading our operations. Known for his deep community ties and exceptional service, Les is ready to bring his expertise to our marina.

. Upholding Momentum Marine’s legacy of transparency and unparalleled customer service, our Lake Martin team is committed to providing you with the best boating experience.

. We’ve spent the winter rejuvenating the marina! Enjoy our 25 new rental boats, enhanced facilities, and a diverse range of new manufacturer lines.

. We believe in strong community bonds. Stop by, say hello to Les and the team, and see the new face of Momentum’s Marine Lake Martin!

Join us for our Full Pool Party Saturday, April 20th to celebrate Lake Martin’s Seasonal filling! We will have Live music, BBQ, craft beer, acoustic music, boat demonstrations, and chance to meet Les and the team!

Come experience the new LakeSide Marina by Momentum Marine. Your friends at Momentum Marine Lake Martin.

Eat Well

STORY BY BETSY ILER PHOTOS BY KENNETH BOONE & COURTSEY OF GOOD OLE BOYS BBQ AND CARIB KITCHEN

From po’boys and authentic barbecue to fresh seafood and a variety of international options, the culinary scene around Lake Martin is growing with fresh, tantalizing menus in a spectrum of delightful venues. These local favorites draw diners back time and again.

When Darin Nesbit retired as executive chef at Dickie Brennan’s Bourbon House in New Orleans in 2016, he and his wife Kelly moved to StillWaters at Lake Martin to enjoy a peaceful lakeside respite. But Chef Nesbit’s reputation preceded him, and before long, a host of locals entreated him to open a small business just off the courthouse square on South Street in Dadeville. He named it the NolaBama.

“We fell in love with the downtown area and believed in being a part of the renewal and beautification that was emerging,” Kelly said.

It didn’t take long for the community to recognize the exquisite caliber of the little snack shack’s entrées, and before long, the walkup window and outside picnic tables weren’t enough to accom-

modate the lunch crowds.

“We quickly outgrew the outside walk-up window concept and opened the main building for ordering inside while adding a small amount of retail. We added a few tables here and there to accommodate indoor seating. Two-and-ahalf years later, it was not what we anticipated in Darin’s retirement years. He was working around the clock,” she said.

Though Chef Nesbit supplied a local artisan grocer with frozen grab-and-go dishes throughout the COVID pandemic, the couple took advantage of the restaurant shutdown to reorganize, add dining space and bring their son Josh into the business as sous chef. The new flow includes a 16-foot bar fronted with 200-year-old barn wood. Bar seating accommodates single diners and small groups, leaving the tables open for larger dining parties. There is ample outdoor seating as well.

While the menu will change occasionally, the local and New Orleans favorites are constant.

“We will always have shrimp and grits, gumbo and bread pudding,” Kelly said. “There will be

weekly specials, take-home sides and single meal options in the grab-and-go section.”

For hours and current menu options, visit nolabama.com.

Barbecue aficionados know the best food in the South often is found in gas stations, storefronts and barns. Around these parts, there’s all three, and it’s hard to find one you wouldn’t revisit. That’s particularly true at Good Ole Boys BBQ. This popular gas station variety barbecue has four locations in Central Alabama, and Alexander City is blessed to be one of them.

Ribs, chicken and pork butts are smoked fresh over cherrywood every morning. Grab a sandwich, a plate or buy in bulk to take home, so there’s plenty of leftovers. The only tough part is deciding what to order – the St. Louis ribs? Jumbo wings? Something else? Hot, mild, BBQ, lemon pepper or Porky’s Ranch? The locals will say you can’t make a bad choice.

And don’t forget the sides. Porky fries topped with barbecue, the restaurant’s signature sauce, melted cheeses and bacon bits. Or choose Porky’s mac and cheese,

generously enhanced with barbecue, Good Ole Boys BBQ sauce and bacon bits. Pick up an order of fried pickles, too, just for good measure.

If you’re not in the mood for ‘cue, choose shrimp, a beef slaw dog, a cheeseburger or a smoked turkey sandwich – topped with a fried green tomato, of course.

On the way out the door, pick up a bottle – or a gallon – of that sauce.

Visit goodolebbq.com for locations, hours and the menu.

On the lake, visit Kowaliga for a boat-in taste of the South with a spectacular view. As country music icon Hank Williams was writing his posthumous hit, Kaw-liga, in 1952, the restaurant on the bay was under construction.

Williams’ song relates the heartbreak of a wooden Indian statue by the name of Kaw-liga who sat outside an old Pontiac dealership. Having fallen in love with an Indian maiden statue at the store across the road, poor Kaw-liga had no way to confess his feelings to her. The original wooden

statue was lost to history, but when Russell Lands opened the restaurant on the grounds of the original story, they commissioned a chainsaw artist to re-create the namesake. Patrons love to take selfies with the statue that now resides in the restaurant’s entry.

Children love to play at the beach just outside the restaurant. And if you can snag a railside table on the porch, be sure to watch for big turtles in the water. Hundreds of them swim in at mealtimes looking for French fries that stray from the plates on the porch. Kowaliga management has installed a kiosk that dispenses free servings of turtle food, which the children love to throw out for the hungry reptiles and fish.

While the beach, the turtles, the history and the view draw diners to Kowaliga, the food does not disappoint. Kowaliga’s catfish tacos were named among the 100 Best Dishes in Alabama by the state’s tourism department. The Conecuh dog is close behind. Or try the brisket po’boy with Wickles Pickles. Yum!

Visit kowaligarestaurant.com.

Speaking of Wickles Pickles, you have permission to slip just barely over the county line into Chambers County to visit The Waverly Local. Opened some five years ago in the tiny tri-county burb of Waverly by Chef Christian Watson and Wickles Pickles brand co-founder Andy Anderson, this out-of-the-way restaurant attracts a wide following with locally sourced food, an unpretentious atmosphere and stellar musical entertainment. Everything on the menu is awesome, and many items are gluten free. Definitely try the bacon-wrapped Wickles okra snack.

Reservations at The Waverly Local are highly recommended. Check them out at thewaverlylocal. com.

Visit Wharf Casual Seafood on U.S. Route 280 in Alexander City for fast seafood done right. Tallassee native and former executive at the company behind Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., Noah Griggs partnered with Florida chef Stephen Duggar to open a chain of

Facing page: Stop by the NolaBama restaurant for tasty, on-the-go meal options; Darin, Kelly and Josh Nesbit staff the NolaBama restaurant.

Clockwise from Left: Serene sunsets grace the Kowaliga restaurant patio; Good Ole Boys BBQ signature fries, topped with bacon, BBQ sauce and cheese; Stop in for a drink at the Waverly Local.

seafood restaurants that now includes locations in Florida, Georgia and Alabama.

Order a glass of wine or a crafted beer at the counter along with a wide array of entrees, bowls, sandwiches and sides and enjoy it at your table inside or under the roof outside. The Wharf’s own cakes are a unique twist on the traditional crab cake. Made with shrimp, mahi mahi and salmon, these delicious menu items are soft and flavorful. Order blackened, broiled or crispy.

See the full menu at wharfcasualseafood.com.

was 10 years old, so when they decided to relocate, they chose this little known corner of heaven. The restaurant idea was sparked after they cooked for a local martial arts group.

“When our son and his friends come and they get food, they go crazy,” Reyard Khan said. “For a soccer game, for a football game, we got to cook for them, and they’re in the 30 to 35 years old bracket.”

While the area offers excellent Italian and Mexican dining options, the star on the international restaurant scene is a tiny kitchen with great personality in the heart of downtown Alexander City.

Caribbean immigrants Reyard and Dianne Khan moved to Alexander City from Trinidad and Tobago nearly 25 years ago. Dianne began corresponding with Dadeville’s Faye Edmondson when she

In 2019, the couple opened a small restaurant at Broad Street Plaza, serving a blend of Caribbean cuisine. The Khans do not have a freezer, so everything is made with fresh local ingredients. The menu changes every day, but it’s always fabulous food in a loving atmosphere. On summer days, enjoy lunch under the umbrellas on the sidewalk. Visit carib-kitchen.webnode. page for menu details or find this gem on Facebook at trinidadfoods.

Carib Kitchen offers authentic Trinbago cuisine like the Carib seafood chips and dip.

Church Life

In the Southern tradition, more than 150 churches in Tallapoosa and southeastern Coosa counties support the community through regularly scheduled Sunday services and programs, as well as an array of outreach programs. Some 20 denominations of the Christian faith are represented among the faithful, in addition to one churchaffiliated private school and several church-based childcare programs.

St. James Episcopal Church in Alexander City feeds more than a hundred local residents through a drive-through soup and sandwich ministry every Tuesday evening. Initially a program designed to offer safe distancing social interaction during the COVID-19 pandemic, the response was so great that Church members continued the ministry after contact restrictions were lifted. There are no income qualifications to meet, no forms to fill out and no identification to provide. Just drive through the church parking lot around 5 p.m. on a Tuesday and pick up a brown bag supper. The outreach program is as popular with moms

picking up light suppers for kids on their way to athletic programs as it is with elderly residents who pick up a couple of extra bags for lunch during the week.

St. James also has an ongoing potter’s guild, through which volunteers craft intricate crosses for patients at the Russell Medical –UAB Cancer Center. Potters also create a variety of platters, bowls, decorations and gifts that are sold at an annual Christmas bazaar, raising more than $20,000 annually to support outreach ministries.

To find out more about St. James Episcopal Church and its ministries, visit stjamesalexcity. com.

Cornerstone Global Methodist Church in Alexander City feeds a sit-down meal on Thursday evenings to anyone who might be food deprived. Meat, sides, dessert and fellowship are on the menu. The Church also coordinates a Project 412 summer ministry that recruits high school youth from the community to make home repairs, build ramps and take on other maintenance and enhancement projects for elderly and lowincome residents. This program is

popular with student athletes and their coaches.

Cornerstone also is home to Jacob’s Ladder Creative Learning Center, a pre-school and kindergarten childcare program available to the community. The program often fills up quickly, so contact the center early for registration.

Red Ridge United Methodist Church in Dadeville provides special music programs to the community every year. These programs often include narrators, actors, extra musicians, dance or drama. The Christmas and Easter music presentations draw large, standing room only crowds.

The Chancel Choir at First Presbyterian Church in Alexander City presents a summer concert each June, offering traditional sacred music, spirituals, instrumental music and occasionally a popular secular tune.

In addition, outdoor summer services are held at three lakeside chapels in the area. New Water Farms offers a Methodist service on Sunday mornings, coordinated with a church in Auburn. Church of the Living Waters in Dadeville hosts a schedule of speakers and musicians from Easter to Labor Day, and Church in the Pines just over the county line into the Kowaliga area offers a 9 a.m. guest speaker program every Sunday, as well as Episcopal services at noon on the second and fourth Sundays and occasional Roman Catholic evening services.

There’s no shortage of churches in the area that offer a wide choice of community connections, ministries and programs. Visit Facebook pages and church websites to learn more.

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Lake Martin

STORY BY BETSY ILER

PHOTOS BY KENNETH BOONE & AUDRA SPEARS

As a driver of the local economy, Lake Martin actively supports the community by providing a wide variety of jobs, recreation opportunities and housing for those who live, work and play here.

The lake directly supports more than 1,000 local jobs, and that number continues to grow, season after season. The list includes marine technicians at the area’s 13 marinas, as well as waterfront property Realtors, wait staff at more than 50 restaurants on and off the water and staff at the area’s many charming boutiques that offer unique shopping experiences. Hotel staff, grocery store personnel and construction workers around the lake have jobs because Alabama Power dammed the Tallapoosa River at Cherokee Bluffs almost a hundred years ago.

The services these jobholders provide contribute greatly to Lake Martin’s unique lifestyle. Boating,

fishing, water sports and soaking up the relaxation are favorite pastimes along the lake’s 880 miles of shoreline.

Boating

With 41,150 acres of water, Lake Martin is a popular boating destination in the nation’s South. A reservoir created when the Tallapoosa River was allowed to fill the valley, the lake is home to large expanses of open water and hundreds of quiet sloughs. Dozens of public islands dot the lake, which is famous for its spectacular sunsets and long summer season. From kayaks to wake boats, Lake Martin has room for everyone to make the most of time here.

Dixie Sailing Club offers a free introduction to sailing class and two youth sailing camps every year. The club hosts several regattas and welcomes spectators and newcomers to the sport. The club’s Catalina 22 fleet has brought home back-

to-back national championships in recent years as well.

Among pleasure boaters, favorite activities include cruising the shorelines to admire the lake homes and perhaps shop for one of their own. Boaters congregate near Chimney Rock to watch the brave and the foolish jump from the 60-foot height of Acapulco Rock, and they raft up just around the corner at Wishbone Island to pass a hot summer day floating in the cool water.

Sunset cruises to lakeside restaurants are popular in summer, as is towing grandchildren on tubes behind pontoon boats. Follow safe boating rules (visit alea.gov/dps/marinepatrol) and be courteous on the water, allowing space for everyone to enjoy the lake safely.

Length and speed restrictions are enforced by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s Marine Patrol, which has an office at Wind Creek State Park and maintains a fleet at Lake Martin. The Marine Patrol dictates the location and type of safety

Facing pages: Sailing is a great pastime on the water. The Dixie Sailing Club holds an annual Regatta every April.

Lake Martin provides picturesque views, great for lounging on the porch and watching the sun rise or set.

buoys on the lake, but the buoys are placed and maintained by Lake Martin Resource Association (see Advocacy Organizations below).

If slow boats and quiet water make your best boating afternoon, kayak rentals are available at a number of outlets, and shuttle services are happy to ferry kayakers to and from put-in and take-out locations. The Tallapoosa River above Lake Martin meanders through pristine wilderness on the Harold Banks Canoe Trail, a paddle that’s different every time you go.

Fishing

Summer’s boating season gives way in winter to fishing tournaments, as high school and college teams bring hundreds of competitors to the area each year. The lake is a popular destination for professional anglers and pro tours, too, filling hotel rooms and restaurants during events, as well as on practice days.

These tournaments keep restaurants and local stores open during the winter, making Lake Martin a yearround destination. In 2018, Alexander City hosted the opening tournament for the B.A.S.S. Elite Series, which netted the area with more than $1 million in revenues at local gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants,

hotels and other venues. The area also is a frequent stop for fans of professional anglers who want to fish where the pros fish.

While small- and large-mouth bass are a big draw at the lake, fishing guides do a brisk business providing striped bass outings for visitors and locals alike. The lake area also is home to fly fishing guides, and a number of crappie fishermen and fishing clubs frequent Lake Martin as well. Five professional anglers on the pro tours make Lake Martin their home. They’re probably onto something good.

Watersports

Local marinas carry equipment for a variety of watersports activities, from tubing to wake surfing. Whether you’re ready to try an invert on the wakeboard or drop a ski learning to slalom, the area offers expert instruction and quality boards, ropes, safety vests and the boats to pull you.

The area has produced many competitive skiers and wakeboarding pros, several of whom now offer coaching and private lessons. Inquire at local marinas for contacts or search online.

But water sports here are not limited to those behind the boat. Learn to ride a flyboard with Lake Martin

Flyboarding or dive the abandoned villages that were covered with water as the lake backfilled the valley. There’s even a contingent of competitive rowers at the lake. You’re most likely to find them on glassy water in early morning before the traffic picks up.

Home at the Lake

Most lake homeowners at Alabama’s only Treasured Lake would say they fell in love with the lake on the first visit and building or buying here was a dream come true.

The lake lifestyle invites as much respite and relaxation as it does fun for the whole family. Fishing cabins that were built in the 1960s still exist along the shoreline and offer a nostalgic brand of lake life for weekenders and vacationers. Lake Martin is a second home market for many who seek an escape from busy professional lives or the fast pace of cities. More often than not, the appeal of life at Lake Martin draws second home owners to move to the lake fulltime.

With home sales and starts at record levels, construction trades at Lake Martin are flourishing. Framers, roofers, carpenters, drywallers, painters, tile and carpet layers, plumbers and electricians call this area home and have no trouble finding work.

A Lake Martin dream home can be

expensive: The average selling price of a waterfront home on Lake Martin in November of 2023 was $1.5 million. But there are bargains yet to be found. Contact a local Realtor to find your lake home.

Alabama Power

None of these benefits would be possible without Alabama Power, the utility company that operates Martin Dam under a license issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, an arm of the U.S. government. Alabama Power operates under the most recent license, which was issued in 2015.

In the absence of flood control measures, water levels at Lake Martin are maintained at 291 mean sea level feet from April 19 to Sept. 1. The rule curve changes to 284 msl feet in most winters. Every seventh year, the winter level drops 10 feet to 281 to facilitate invasive species controls and extensive permitted repairs to docks and seawalls. When certain waterflow conditions can be met, the summer pool level is extended to Oct. 15.

The dam is named for Thomas Martin, a former president of Alabama Power, and stands 168 feet high and some 2,000 feet long. Its adjacent power plant houses four generators that supply electricity to a grid that keeps lights on and homes

warm all along the country’s eastern seaboard.

Operations at Martin Dam actually are conducted in Birmingham, but even at that, the local powerhouse supports eight or more local jobs. Journeymen at Martin Dam make onthe-spot repairs to turbines, intakes, spillway gates, cranes and other equipment necessary for the safe and efficient management of the facility. Their priority is flood control and maintaining the beautiful century-old art deco powerhouse.

Advocacy Organizations

Three non-profit organizations advocate year-round for the welfare of the lake and the safety of boaters.

Lake Watch of Lake Martin volunteers monitor water quality through monthly testing. Chemical test results are entered into the Alabama Water Watch statewide database and shared with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. Selected sites around the lake and in streams feeding into Lake Martin also are tested for E. coli. Lake Watch also

Left to Right: Wildlife abounds all around Lake Martin; Fishing is a favorite pastime and many fishing tournaments are held throughout the year; Watersports are popular during the summer, there’s always something fun to do at the lake.

monitors water quality at popular swim beaches on Lake Martin. These results are posted at theswimguide.org, which maintains swimming safety status of swimming areas around the world.

Results of Lake Watch monitoring were instrumental in Lake Martin’s designation as Alabama’s only Treasured Lake. To learn more, visit lakewatchoflakemartin.wildapricot.org.

Lake Martin

Homeowners & Boat Owners work to preserve, protect and enhance the quality of life at Lake Martin, from lake levels and water quality to zoning, boating safety, shoreline preservation, fishing and wildlife. HOBOs hosts boating safety classes and penalty-free boat inspections throughout the year and follows legislation that could affect Lake Martin.

HOBOs advocates for residents with concerns about construction activity around the lake. HOBOs also plants Neighborhood Watch chapters in areas where the service is requested.

Members receive updates through forums, seminars, social media,

emails and other activities. Visit the website at lakemartinhobos.com and check the Advocacy tab for current concerns.

Lake Martin Resource Association purchases, places and maintains hazard buoys at 440 locations designated by Marine Patrol. Some 200 of these are lighted for greater visibility at night. Buoys are purchased with donated funds and fundraising events, including the annual Lake Martin Young Professionals Polar Plunge.

LMRA also offers a cash reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of burglars at lake homes.

The Alabama Power “Renew Our Rivers” annual cleanup is coordinated in November by LMRA members, as is the spring Reuben Thornton Memorial Cleanup. More than 160 tons of trash have been removed from lake shorelines and roadways since these efforts began. Alabama Power’s Adoptan-Island or Shoreline program also is coordinated through LMRA.

Visit lmra.info for more Lake Martin Resource Association projects.

Martin Dam created our Treasured Lake in the mid-1920s.

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Historic Downtowns

STORY BY ABIGAIL MURPHY & MELODY RATHEL PHOTOS BY BEN SMITH & AUDRA SPEARS

Dadeville Square

Located just off Highway 280, Dadeville is home to a historic square filled with restaurants, boutiques and specialty shops. The downtown area has also welcomed a handful of new businesses.

In June last year, Dadeville welcomed The Funky Goat to the downtown business community. The Funky Goat is a handcrafted cocktail bar with dining options. Owners Stacey and Jeremy Jeffcoat also own and manage The Local at 41 Main in Alexander City. Stacey Jeffcoat said with so much growth happening in Dadeville, the two wanted to bring their second location downtown.

The Funky Goat’s interior pops with vibrant colors and a vibrant atmosphere. The restaurant and serves elevated bar food with a southern twist, its menu full of items such as pot roast paninis, smashed cheeseburgers and Tallassee street corn.

The Funky Goat has unique drink specialties, such as an old fashioneds made with Clyde May’s Alabama Style Whiskey, The Funky Mule and a Lemon-tini. The Funky Goat is also adding to the Dadeville music scene by hosting live music on Friday nights.

“I’d love to see people, since there’s a lot of other things coming, just walking around the square and going to different places and getting to be a part of the growth of downtown,” Jeffcoat said.

And how the growth has come. The Dadeville downtown area has seen the first section of The Miller Hotel open. The Miller Hotel is a staple of Dadeville’s historic identity, having stood in the same location on the square since the 1920s. Now, owner Dwayne Britton is renovating it to make space for a bakery, restaurant, bed and breakfast and specialty shop.

The Miller Hotel plans to open its businesses in stages; the first being the bakery. Taylor Nobles, formerly known for Treats with Tay, opened The Grand Bakery in October. It was a dream come true for Nobles, who had dreamt of having her own bakery since eighth grade.

Her love for baking was instilled early on, when she worked in the kitchen with her grandmother, who went by Grand and is now the namesake of the Grand Bakery.

Since opening, the bakery has been a place for both sweet treats and community connection. In the past few months, the bakery has hosted meet

and greets, fiber arts clubs and art workshops.

“We are really excited to be here in this community,” Nobles said. “We are super thankful we got to be in this space.”

What’s next in store for The Miller Hotel? Britton plans to begin the process of opening Fusion Grill; then, he will work on the upstairs space of the hotel, adding a bed and breakfast called Nora’s Place. Britton also plans to add The Cottage Creation to the back of the building.

Still, there have been plenty more developments to the Dadeville square. City native Amy Koon opened up Flutterflies – a gift shop with art pieces, candles, Bogg bags, olive oils and spices. Alabama Bee Company owner Ted Kretschmann opened The BeeN-B in November, which sells pure raw natural honey, beeswax candles and baskets.

With all these new businesses, plus an existing art gallery, boutique clothing shops, an event venue, a performing arts center and historical museum, Dadeville’s downtown has much to offer. But Dadeville is far from the only downtown area going through swift economical developments.

Downtown Alexander City In the heart of Alexander City lies a collection of downtown businesses. From retail to entertainment, downtown Alex City has a wide selection of options for the Lake Martin newcomer.

Right on Main Street is Cloud Nine, a boutique known for its longstanding history of quality gifts and apparel. Since 1999, Cloud Nine has provided Alex City with a variety of gift items and boutique clothing. From the shopper who prefers home decor to the avid clothing enthusiast, there is a selection for everyone. Owner Amanda Silavent is proud to bring a quality aspect to both Alex City locals and lake visitors alike.

“This community is so special to me,” Silavent said. “Just to be a small part of it brings me so much happiness.”

Across the street is Downtown Girl, another local boutique recognized for its head-turning clothing of bright patterns. Along with clothes, shoppers can browse from a selection of handbags, jewelry and more. Beth Haynie, owner of Downtown Girl, has brought a colorful and stylish aspect to the community, but she did not stop there.

Last December, Haynie and her husband Robbie opened Haynies Shoes & Clothier on Broad Street. Haynie wanted to bring a different element of fashion to the downtown area. There are several choices of women’s clothing on Main Street, but Haynies provides selections for men’s

clothing. The family-owned store carries a multitude of brands as well as various men’s fashion products.

“We’ve got anything from a leather duffel bag to a nice hat,” Haynie said. “We have belts, scarves, jackets, dress pants and more. You can literally find a whole outfit for a man in here.”

The Square on Calhoun Street may look like a store; however, upon stepping inside, patrons will quickly learn there is so much more.

Inside The Square, shoppers will see a town-like setup that is home to multiple businesses. The twostory arrangement creates room for several vendors: Half Moon Market & Interiors, Mattie Moon Women’s Clothing, Moon Pie Children’s Clothing & Gifts, Fab Four Shoe Room, Moon Mercantile Gifts and George E.’s Men’s Shop.

Shoppers can make a productive day at The Square. Dining experiences and various services can be found inside the establishment as well. Alana’s Place, Lake Martin Tan Bar, Plasma by Pita, Sarah Bella Salon Spa Boutique and Coalition Capital Management all provide services at The Square. Aside from clothing, the retail aspect of downtown Alex City goes far beyond fashion.

Scent Wizards has an enormous collection of candles, incense, wax melts and other aromatic products to stimulate the olfactory senses. Picket Fence Antique Mall offers distinguishable decor at an affordable price.

With plenty to do during the day,

the hustle and bustle does not stop when the sun goes down. The area has a budding night life in bars and restaurants such as Lake Martin Brewing Company, The Local at 41 Main, Jake’s, J.R.’s Sports Bar and Grill, 4th Quarter Sportz Bar and Lounge and Fermenter’s Market. Visit each one to discover unique beers and cocktails, delicious bar foods and special events throughout the week.

With a variety of shopping and entertainment options, downtown Alex City is a great area to explore, visit and enjoy. Its multiple establishments and tight-knit community allows vacationers and locals alike to feel at home.

Main Street Alexander City executive director Michelle West said Alex City offers a community feel that’s unlike anywhere else.

“Alex City has a great sense of community. More than I have seen anywhere else I’ve lived,” West said. “The strong community spirit is something that I noticed when I moved here 15 years ago. Not only do people want to know who you are, but they also want to help you get familiar with other people that have similar interests, so you feel more comfortable.”

Left: Downtown Alexander City offers a wide selection of retail and entertainment options; Right: Dadeville’s historic square located of Highway 280 is a great location for new businesses.

Keeping Dadeville Beautiful

Asmall contingent of volunteers brings out the beauty of the Tallapoosa County seat, as they plant and maintain landscaping around the courthouse square and other downtown businesses, decorate the square at Christmas, organize monthly cleanups and more. Some of the volunteers are Master Gardeners. Some have retired from careers in conservation or construction. Some just like to coax blossoms from the dirt, and volunteering with the Dadeville Beautification Board offers them that opportunity in spades.

Dadeville’s Beautification Board members meet once a month at the museum on Broadnax Street, and they communicate via a text thread to coordinate dates, times and necessary tools for the steady flow of projects. There’s never a lack of something to do – from fluffing the holiday garland downtown to adding seasonal decoration to the gazebo at Keebler Park and presenting Yard of the Month awards, this tight collection of laborers takes delight in making Dadeville beautiful.

“It’s a never-ending but very

rewarding job,” said Elaine Forbus, co-chair of Dadeville’s non-profit beautification board.

Though independent of city government, the organization performs many of the duties that normally would be handled by a larger city’s grounds department. They trim trees, update landscaping at the public library and maintain crepe myrtles and planter beds around the downtown business district. They track the 600 volunteer tree board hours required for Dadeville’s Tree City USA designation and tally more than 400 volunteer hours to install a breathtaking holiday display around the courthouse square.

“They see things that need to be done, and they jump in,” Forbus said.

This spring, the beautification volunteers are jumping into major projects at Keebler Park, including a memorial garden for victims of last April’s mass shooting (see page 122), landscaping the handprint wall, coordinating an Equitable Neighborhoods Initiative grant project that will add custom benches, bicycle racks and more to the park. The projects are focused on promot-

ing physical and mental wellness, and Keebler Park, with its .6 mile paved walking trail through a wooded landscape is the perfect setting.

From the Christmas decorations to these park projects and more, Dadeville Beautification Board projects are funded mainly through donations. The City of Dadeville supports DBB annually through a $1,500 line item on the city’s budget. And whenever possible, City workers provide equipment and labor to complete specific tasks.

“It isn’t much, but we appreciate all that the City does to help us,” Forbus said.

Because the volunteers enjoy the camaraderie and the hands-on projects, they’re able to use donated funds for plants and other landscaping features.

Much of the funding for the memorial garden project has been donated by local pediatrician, Dr. Eric Tyler, who hopes the peaceful space will promote physical and mental healing among first responders, students and others in the community who have been affected by the shooting. High school students will be encouraged to play roles in

STORY BY BETSY ILER PHOTOS BY AUDRA SPEARS & ABIGAIL MURPHY

this project to facilitate that healing.

Additional funding for beautification projects in Dadeville has come from the Tallapoosa County Area Realtors Association and a Grass Roots grant from Alabama Power, which also has offered inkind assistance for various projects. Hellas has provided monetary and in-kind assistance, as well, and a generous anonymous donor has given matching funds for a variety of projects. Smaller gifts also help to keep Dadeville beautiful, Forbus said.

“Every gift helps us do more for this community we love,” she said. “Community support for the Dadeville Beautification Board is growing, and the more help we get, the more we can do in the community.”

Clockwise from Top: Downtown Dadeville has revitalized over the last several years. Lake Martin Area Association of Realtors presents a $2,500 check to the Dadeville Beautification Board at a recent Dadeville City Council; Dadeville’s newest butterfly mural is a great place to take photos.

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100 Years of vision at Russell Medical

STORY BY LIZI ARBOGAST GWIN & PHOTO COURTESY OF RUSSELL MEDICAL

Jim Peace has been at Russell Medical for 17 years.

That may seem like a long time, but in the 100 years of the medical institution’s existence, Peace doesn’t take credit for much. He said it’s all about those who came before him.

“Probably the biggest (accomplishment) is just the vision of Mr. Benjamin Russell and the vision that he had for healthcare,” Peace said.

One hundred years ago, Russell Medical served a different purpose than it does today. It was simply a department of Russell Corporation.

“They had employees that were sick and couldn’t come to work, so they had to provide healthcare,” Peace explained. “That’s what Mr. Russell did back in the day. They brought healthcare to these men and their families.”

Since then, the medical center has grown into a multi-million dollar hospital with multiple rural healthcares and an affiliation with UAB, considered by many the best hospital in the state.

“The second big accomplishment was the vision that Bill Brown had to push for Hill Burton funds and build the new hospital,” Peace said. “That was in the early 1960s.”

Prior to that, Russell Medical was housed on Lee Street where the Alexander City Schools Board of Education building is now. But for the last 60 years, it has stood on Highway 280. It now includes a professional building, a fitness center, an urgent care and a cancer center.

Although there are countless accomplishments to celebrate over 100 years, the cancer center is amongst top of the list for Peace.

“I’m a family member of someone who has experienced cancer,” Peace said. “I grew up in a small town, and I know what it means to get in the car and have to drive to get treatment. I know what it means to the patient to have to bear that horrible experience of driving back and forth. This is not treatment that they want to go to, and it’s not treatment they want to drive home from. But this way, you’re delivering it here in town, right here at home.”

The relationship between Russell Medical and UAB is what really helps the cancer center excel.

In addition to providing care in Alexander City, Russell Medical has also expanded over the last decade to include rural healthcare clinics in Goodwater, Dadeville and New Site. That’s just another example of the vision of bringing quality healthcare to the small towns that need it.

The first 100 years is over for Russell Medical, but it’s already turned its sights to the next century.

Currently, the hospital is undergoing a major expansion with the completion date of the Benjamin Russell Center for Advance Care expected this spring. There is also ongoing construction of independent living cottages and a senior living facility.

Peace said there’s a master site plan now with three phases of expansion and construction, and Russell Medical is also working toward gaining revenue streams that aren’t government-funded. The rentbased independent cottages are one such example.

“A while back, our board said, ‘Look, we need to figure out what the future looks like, what are our needs based on what the community growth is, and what’s happening around our area,” Peace said. “That’s really what the vision for the future of this property is.”

Russell Medical employees gather at the entrance of the hospital during the building’s 100th birthday.

Wind Creek State Park

STORY BY BEN SMITH PHOTOS BY CLIFF WILLIAMS

After months of planning, Wind Creek State Park will begin construction on new amenities which will affect around 25 percent of the campground, beginning April 1.

The project will replace some 150 camp sites with larger, better equipped sites. They will have more space, running water, 50-amp power and a sewage system. The upgrades will mirror those introduced a few years ago to the areas in ‘C’ section – known affectionately by many campers as the ‘Hollywood section.’

“Wind Creek wasn’t designed for the way people like to camp nowadays,” said Park Superintendent Larrmy Warren. “It wasn’t designed to accommodate the size and power requirements of the campers that are sold nowadays. So that’s truly the benefit of the new upgrades. The park will better accommodate the type of units that are sold on the market today – the bigger units that people have – but it also accommodates the older campers. It’s just a better upgrade.”

Upgrades to campground sections ‘C’ and ‘D’ were planned to begin in October of last year; however, Warren said the construction was delayed to ensure campgrounds were compliant with ADA standards.

The sites were designed to be larger and on level surfaces in an effort to increase accessibility for those who may have a harder time moving around the camp sites.

“When Wind Creek was renovated in 1982, ADA wasn’t even really thought of back then,” said Warren. “So our new design process is going to be very accommodating to ADA as well.”

The park will also include upgrades to two bath houses and will add several three-bedroom lakefront cottages near the North Picnic area. Also included will be new picnic tables and fire rings with grills.

All construction is slated to be completed by the summer of 2025.

“Everybody’s excited,” said Warren. “I’ve been here since 2014. I was here when we renovated around 39 sites. And that was done most for the most part in-house. Not entirely, but the majority of the load was carried by the park. So, it’ll be nice. I think everybody is going to be glad to see the outcomes of this project.”

Warren was recently named park superintendent last January after the retirement of longtime superintendent Bruce Adams, who had served at the park for over 38 years. Warren had worked at Wind Creek since he

was a teenager, and little by little, worked his way up to positions that commanded more responsibility, until eventually earning the penultimate title of superintendent.

Warren’s new position comes at a time of major growth within Wind Creek State Park. The COVID-19 pandemic drastically increased park attendance, as camping revenue grew from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars’ worth of income. Last year, over 300,000 guests visited the park to camp, generating over $3.4 million in revenue. This fiscal year has already generated of $660,000 in revenue, despite the year’s most popular camping time, the summer, still to come.

Warren is the youngest administrator in the state’s park system, and he hopes that despite the changes

Camp sites by the water mean you only have to walk a few steps to fish.

Fourth of July celebrations at Wind Creek State Park are often full of plenty stars and stripes.

coming to the park, he will continue being able to carry on his predecessor’s legacy.

“Bruce had it right to start with,” said Warren in a separate interview with Lake magazine. “It makes a difference when everybody does their part,” he said. “We’re in the position that we get to do this, not we have to do it. That’s what Bruce did for us. I don’t feel like I come to work every day. Coming to work is part of my life. I enjoy it.”

Dadeville Chamber

If there’s one way to bring community, business and connection together, it’s through the chamber of commerce.

The chamber is all about promoting business in the area and advancing the local economy while bringing people together. One way the chamber does this is by hosting ribbon cuttings for every new business in the area, even if the business has not joined the chamber. Bullard said this is just one way the chamber works to welcome businesses into the community.

Executive assistant Molly Parker said this is a great opportunity to bring people into a business. This also provides a way for business owners to engage with the chamber and the community.

Quarterly luncheons provide similar opportunities. At the luncheons, the chamber hosts guest speakers and gives an update on the chamber as a whole. Bullard said the chamber also started doing open forums at the end of the luncheons to encourage more community engagement. Attendees are able to announce any upcoming events to the whole group.

Along with keeping the current community connected, the chamber is

also about bringing more people into the area. One of the biggest events the chamber hosts is the Dadeville Fall Festival, which brings in 4,000 to 5,000 people.

The festival takes place every October, and attendees can walk around to the multiple vendors, hear live music, have the kids play in bouncy houses and visit a petting zoo area. Parker said the festival introduces vendors and possible future businesses to the community. It also encourages visitors to walk around the square and go into the local shops.

With so much going on in and around town, Parker said, the chamber tries to provide as much exposure as possible for the community because it keeps people interested and engaged.

“Everything we do is a win-win as long as we keep our focus on the businesses,” she said. “We just want to see what our businesses need and try to fill those needs.”

Just this past year, the chamber saw 23 new businesses come to the Dadeville area, hosted eight ribbon cuttings and added 30 new members. Parker said the businesses coming to the Lake Martin and Dadeville area are all so different, which helps diver-

sify the existing commerce.

“One of the things we try and do every year is add to what we are already doing to try and make things better,” she said. “We look at what we did the previous year and see what things are missing and add to them.”

This year, the chamber will offer some workshops to help existing businesses continue to advance. For example, the chamber hosted a social media business class for members on Feb. 8.

Along with the business workshops, the chamber recently started an ambassador program with 10 members. The ambassadors are an extension of the chamber board and help in all aspects of what the board does.

With entering a new year, the chamber board also has new officers. Recently, Peggy Bullard stepped down as chamber president with Lesia Woody stepping in. Woody has been active in the chamber for the past five years and served as first vice president previously.

“Mrs. Peggy left some big shoes to fill. I am grateful and excited to be in the role as president,” Woody said. “My vision moving forward is to expand membership diversity by recruiting new members from different industries, backgrounds, young members, increase network opportunities, be active and visible in the community.”

The executive board officers for 2024 are Rhonda Gaskins as first vice president, Ginger McCollum as second vice president, Trey Foshee as treasurer and Peggy Bullard as parliamentarian.

STORY & PHOTO BY ABIGAIL MURPHY

Mike Bruce, right, recognizes Sandra Carlisle, middle, and Peggy Bullard with a certificate of appreciation.

Helping with the Grief

“She gives people a break. It helps us to have something to get away from grief. You know, we live in it every day. And having Radley here makes a big difference.”

~ Randy Anderson, Radney Funeral Home Director

You’d be hard-pressed to describe Radley as anything other than a good girl.

She sat contented on the couch, her paws stretched neatly before her, watching over the warmly lit living room at Radney Funeral Home. Her deep, dark eyes projected a sympathetic gaze from behind golden-brown curls. When she must, Radley wears a purple or pink vest stamped with her job title, “Grief Dog.” It isn’t her favorite, but she’s trained to put up with it. When told to sit, she sits. When told to lie down, she lies down, and she does so with a quiet smile. Radley is a carefree, loving golden doodle that always seems to gravitate toward the person

in the room who most needs her company.

At a funeral home, there are plenty of those kinds of people. Many who find themselves at Radley Funeral Home benefit from the company of this golden doodle, who looks at them with eyes that seem to reflect their own grief. And in Radley’s four years of working at the funeral home, her eyes have borne witness to plenty of pain, loss and despair.

“She gives people a break,” said Randy Anderson, owner of Radney Funeral Home. “It helps us to have something to get away from grief. You know, we live in it every day.

Radley sits calmly and patiently with her favorite toy.

STORY

And having Radley here makes a big difference.”

Radley isn’t overbearing or impolite. She is, as Anderson describes her, cordial. She lies quietly near people who visit the funeral home, inviting them to pet her but not begging for it. She doesn’t jump on anybody; doesn’t lick their faces or scamper around the building. She doesn’t whine, and she certainly doesn’t bark. She conducts herself with a certain decorum, a pious sense of understanding that she is in a place of loss and pain.

Radley is the epitome of what Anderson believes is the most common misconception about funeral homes: that they are meant to be only somber, quiet places, devoid of any semblance of happiness, enjoyment or contentment.

“I think some of the best times that I’ve seen after funerals is when people gather afterwards,” Anderson said. “I’ll walk in, and I hear them laughing and talking. Not just about the deceased, but about life in general, about things that have happened. Enjoying themselves. And I think that’s the first key to moving forward.”

Anderson has worked in funeral homes for 33 years. For three decades, he has been surrounded by thousands of different people grieving thousands more deceased loved ones. Having worked so closely with it, Anderson finds death is not something to be feared

or shunned. Despite its painful, shredding ways, it is natural.

Anderson isn’t a fan of giving any of his patrons closure. To him, closure constitutes a sort of backwards view of death, reinforcing the idea that death is something to escape, rather than something to accept. Rather, Anderson encourages his patrons to strive for resolution.

“I don’t like the word ‘closure,’” he said. “It sounds like you’re shutting the door; you’re closing the book. I like the term ‘resolution.’ You’ve come to resolve that grief. Because you never get over the loss of a loved one. You just learn how to deal with it.”

Anderson experienced the most acute sense of grief in his life three years ago with the passing of his father. He remembers his father in stories of unique benevolence; stories that, for a brief moment, bring him back into his father’s presence, if only in his heart.

Anderson remembers how his father used to carry a $100 bill in his wallet, but never with the intention of spending it. His father carried it for a single purpose: to give to someone who needs it. A $100 bill was never enough to cover the costs of whatever worrisome or grave circumstances the person faced. The $100 bill was a gesture, a starting place for a troubled stranger to begin rebuilding.

To this day, Anderson carries on that tradition with his own $100

bill.

“You don’t want to close the door on the memories,” he said. “You don’t want to close that book; you want to keep it open. So, you just resolve the grief because you want them to be part of your life from now on, even though only in a memory. Memories are great, because if we can remember them, they still live within us.”

Anderson remembers his father’s visitation. Radley stood with her front paws on the casket, waiting patiently for Anderson’s father to pet her.

That sense of hope, of remembering the good while one’s heart is constricted in grief, feeling as if it were branded by hot iron, is what Radley’s presence amplifies. The loving, happy dog reminds the afflicted that the throes of grief are temporary. She is a single ray of light, just like the $100 dollar bill Anderson’s father kept in his wallet. A ray of light that, by itself, seems inconsequential, but when thrown across the backdrop of grief, that light might almost be seen as prophetic. The money, the dog, a simple arm around a grieving loved one… they are all like a single candle, which seems to shine much brighter in the darkness.

Simple artifacts of kindness, of love, could be reminders that life after loss of loved ones is not an eternal void of anguish. In losing the people we love, we are reminded of why we loved them.

Sometimes, it just takes a good dog to point that out.

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First on Scene at the April 15 Shooting

In moments of tragedy, first responders are there to pick up the pieces.

STORY BY BEN SMITH PHOTOS BY LIZI ARBOGAST GWIN

“I don’t want the recognition. I want to know that in somebody’s worst moment, they can look, and they can see firefighters and police officers...I want to know that we made a difference in somebody’s life at their worst moment.”

~ Tracey Johnson, DFD Assistant Fire Chief

Last year, tragedy shook the community of Dadeville right down to its roots.

On April 15, 2023, a shooting at a ‘Sweet 16’ birthday party near the Dadeville courthouse square injured 32 and took the lives of four others.

The day was an unprecedented moment for the community of just under 3,000 people. Things like this did not – and do not – happen in Dadeville. This is a place where restaurants close on Sundays in observance of the fourth commandment. It’s a place where prayers are given out almost as often as mason jars of blueberry jellies and raspberry jams. It’s a place where people know each other, where webs of relationships are woven with such a wide breadth that strangers always seem to know you, or your grandmother, or your cousin.

In Dadeville, people do not commit such unthinkable acts of violence. But on April 15, someone did. For the wounded to be saved, the crime scene preserved, and the criminals brought to justice, there needed to be a mass coordination between the first responders. And there was.

The tragedy saw the joining of forces between Dadeville’s police, fire and EMS services. These public servants helped each other as they provided first aid to victims. They worked together to control the scene and to preserve it for future forensic investigation. They spoke with victims, recorded eyewitness statements and consoled the afflicted. The Dadeville first responders worked together on April 15, and they did it well because in a small town with limited resources, it’s not rare for police officers, firefighters and EMS to lend each other a hand.

“I have seen us all help out one another,” said Tracey Johnson, Assistant Fire Chief at the Dadeville Fire Department. “I’ve been doing it now for 30-something years, and I can remember a time when a law enforcement officer drove the ambulance for me. I can remember a time when a law enforcement officer pumped the truck for me when I was short on members. And this ain’t just here; this is throughout the county. I can remember the times EMS folks picked up a fire hose and helped drag the hose while they were standing

by… We change hands too often for it to ever be just one call.”

The tragedy last April necessitated help from resources outside of Dadeville as well.

“To put things into perspective a little bit, the definition of a disaster is relative compared to the amount of resources you have to handle the situation,” said Dadeville Fire Department Chief Scott Atkins. “In a big city, it might take 50 or 100 victims to be considered a disaster, to tax the system. But you have available equipment and personnel to handle it. In a small town like this, it takes a whole lot less to create what would technically be termed a disaster. In our world, that was a disaster.”

Police officers, firefighters, EMS services and federal and state forces came from all over to assist with the on-scene responsibilities. They came from the Tallapoosa County Sheriff’s Office, and from Lee County, Chambers County, Macon County, Elmore County and more. Federal and state agents from the FBI, the U.S. Marshall Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Alabama Law

Enforcement Agency assisted in the investigation.

“We had about 100 investigators here, doing everything from criminal analysis of tips and information that was coming in to actual, on-theground investigations, interviews and such,” said Dadeville Chief of Police Jonathan Floyd. “If I tried to name them all, I’d leave somebody out.”

Chief Floyd and Tallapoosa County Sheriff Jimmy Abbett coordinated the efforts of all the various agencies and departments from a command center set up at the First Baptist Church. They operated out of the church for almost a week straight.

The process took time. It cost officers, agents, firefighters, EMS and plenty more their sleep, their personal time and their peace of mind.

Four dead, and 32 others injured. As massive as those numbers may seem, Chief Floyd said they only scratch the surface of the entire scale of damage done to the Dadeville community.

“Those are your base numbers,” said Floyd. “That is not the total number of victims. Because for each person, you have so many people that loved them that were affected as well. And so, the job we were doing, it didn’t just stop at the immediate victims, because we knew that we had to put a case together that was worthy of being able to walk into a courtroom and have done our jobs to the point that our victims would feel like they had justice.”

There is some gratitude that first responders encounter every now and then. Both the fire and police depart-

ments received well-deserved ‘thank yous’ from the community they serve. But these men and women do not make such sacrifices for the gratitude or favor of others. If they did, both Floyd and Atkins said, they’d find themselves quickly opting for another career path. These officers and firefighters love their community. They serve because they want to serve, because they are called to do so, to put the needs of others above their own.

“If we did it for the recognition, we wouldn’t ever do it,” said Johnson. “I don’t want the recognition. I want to know that in somebody’s worst moment, they can look, and they can see firefighters and police officers … I want to know that we made a difference in somebody’s life at their worst moment. That’s the only recognition I need. Because that’s what motivates me to get back on that rig every time the tone drops for the next call.”

“It’s not about receiving,” said Floyd. “You have to be willing to sacrifice, if need be – your very life often times – for someone who doesn’t like you, someone who doesn’t love you or someone who wouldn’t give you the time of day. But you know, the reason we do this job is because we’re called to this job.”

Facing page: Students, family and friends created a memorial display outside the site of the shooting.

Dadeville Police Chief Jonathan Floyd on scene at the April 15 shooting.

AlexanderChamberCity

STORY BY BEN SMITH

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ALEXANDER CITY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

The Alexander City Chamber of Commerce serves more than 550 members across the Lake Martin community, encompassing an array of business interests, including construction, finance, automotive, retail, restaurant and agriculture. Offering a wealth of programs, the chamber supports the Lake Martin Young Professionals and the Women’s Entrepreneurial Alliance and hosts the annual Alexander City Jazz Fest, the Alexander City Sun Festival and the Christmas parade. They do it all with one goal in mind: to improve the quality of life of this community.

“First and foremost, we’re a business organization,” said Jacob Meacham, president of the Alexander City Chamber of Commerce. “Our responsibility is to provide events and programs that are engaging and valuable, to provide opportunities for people to learn and understand things about the community, to meet others, to network, to build relationships and to grow… If you don’t have an organization in your community doing those things, I think you’re missing out on a lot of opportunities to advance ideas, to promote growth, to actually participate in economic development.”

Meacham said increasing community connectiveness is one of the primary goals of the chamber. Doing so creates a business community in which members are united by a single goal: to contribute to the economic growth and prosperity of the city they operate in.

Another focus of the chamber has been retaining and attracting a larger labor pool to staff new and growing businesses in the Alexander City area.

“Job creation is great,” said Meacham. “But if your labor pool is not large enough to fulfill that, then you can’t take advantage of the opportunity that you have to really grow like you would want as

a community.”

Labor retention is part of the chamber’s broader goal to increase the workforce and career readiness of Alexander City. This goal is the primary tenet of the chamber’s new five-year strategic plan, titled “New Horizons.”

The events, programs, organizations and initiatives spearheaded by the chamber are all intended to increase that connectivity. They are aimed at fostering relationships between business owners from across the area. Doing so might have implications for the growth of the entire Lake Martin area.

“That’s why connection is important,” said Meacham. “Because commitment follows that. And when you have a bunch of committed people in an area, change happens.”

The level of commitment to the city’s economic growth is relatively high for a place the size of Alexander City, according to Meacham.

“The larger network you are able to create through community participation, the more support that you’re going to have for your businesses,” said Meacham.

The innovation center is one of the chamber’s most direct means of

stimulating the Alexander City business community. The center offers a space for fledgling businesses to work and grow, with low-cost rent and, flat-rate utilities and other amenities. The goal of the center is to provide some financial relief and support for businesses during the early stages of their development, when they are more susceptible to financial strain or when they are still in the process of figuring out steady streams of income. Some examples of businesses that have graduated from the innovation center and now have offices in the community are Beyond Home Care, Dylan Johnson Country Financial, VuePoint Diagnostics and Lowden Street Capital.

In myriad ways, the chamber is part of a network that contributes to economic development, leading to better outcomes for the people who live, work and play here.

Facing page: Liz Holland, Jacob Meacham and Kim Dunn comprise the Alexander City executive staff.

Sales tax revenue collected by Alexander City has steadily increased since 2019.

TPI News Team

STORY BY MELODY RATHEL PHOTO BY AUDRA SPEARS

On the night of April 15, 2023, Dadeville’s quiet and reserved charm was harshly disturbed. A mass shooting took the lives of four and injured 32, mostly teenagers who were attending a ‘Sweet 16’ birthday party.

Almost immediately after the shooting took place, Tallapoosa Publishers’ Managing Editor Lizi Arbogast Gwin showed up on site. A friend had called her just before midnight about shots having been fired in Dadeville. Gwin thought it might have been accidental gunshots, as such activity is rare in Dadeville, but does occur. That those gunshots were due to a mass shooting never crossed Gwin’s mind.

“It’s hard to explain exactly what it was like to cover the shooting,” Gwin said. “I think first and foremost, it was utterly shocking. I still remember when I first realized it was a mass shooting. I didn’t know the magnitude of the situation yet, but I heard people talking on the streets. I texted my brother in the middle of the night and said, ‘I think we have a mass shooting, friend.’ Somehow in that moment, I knew this was going to be one of those life-changing moments for us all.”

For several hours, Gwin and her TPI team were the only news reporters on the scene.

“I saw things I can’t forget,” Gwin said in the office later.

Students lost their classmates, parents lost their children, and the entire community mourned. This tragic event brought a new level of uncertainty not only to Dadeville, but

to the entire county. In the days following the shooting, the community dealt with shock, fear, anxiety, anger, sadness and more. Shooting victims and witnesses were left with treacherous memories, and the town of Dadeville was left in distress.

In this time of uncertainty, the community turned to the news outlets in an attempt to grasp the catastrophic events of that April night.

There was plenty of news to be read. National news teams kept the small community’s name in heinous headlines for days. And although major news networks were consistently updated, there wasn’t a news source that conveyed as much passion or provided as much detail or maintained the level of involvement as the local newspapers: The Dadeville Record and The Alex City Outlook, publications of Tallapoosa Publishers, Inc.

Prior to becoming managing editor at TPI, Gwin spent three years as The Outlook’s sports editor. She had developed close relationships with many local athletes, coaches and school officials, and she’d watched sports careers blossom. Learning that some athletes with whom she’d developed relationships were among the victims was earth-shattering for Gwin.

“I was texting with a student at the high school that night,” Gwin said. “I remember he was the first to tell me one of the victims was Phil Dowdell. I was walking down the alley near Dadeville City Hall, and my knees quite literally gave out.”

Gwin’s career as a sports editor

had introduced her to hundreds of local athletes; however, Dowdle was one who stood out.

“I spent most of my career in sports, and there were lots of special, special kids,” Gwin said. “Phil was one of them. Not only was he a star athlete, but he was such a goodhearted, nice kid.

“I felt this enormous responsibility and weight on my shoulders. For the kids, for the community, for Dadeville. I still feel that. I want to get every step right. I’ve lived, breathed and loved this community for many, many years. It was like the breath was taken out of me.”

As a member of the community and the managing editor of the local newspaper, Gwin wanted to make sure every angle of the story was covered in a timely, precise and respectful manner.

TPI sports editors Henry Zimmer, who’d just celebrated his 24th birthday, and Dalton Middleton helped

Gwin and Will Marlow, who’d only recently graduated college, cover the shooting. Other reporters picked up extra beats to maintain consistent coverage of all aspects of local news.

“From the onset, I think we all collectively felt a more personalized responsibility to be the voices for Dadeville,” Zimmer said. “While news stations from around the country and even abroad were telling stories in the macro sense, we wanted to get in the more community-focused, micro details of the event.”

Zimmer said the impact on the whole community was recognized, from its effects on the dance studio that was the venue for the party to the responses of Dadeville athletes.

“Specifically for sports, it felt wrong to even try to talk about how softball season would resume or the expectations for a track meet,” Zimmer said. “In my mind, all our effort needed to be focused on continuing to tell the news-centric

stories.”

The national news teams left the scene as soon as the country’s next mass shooting occurred elsewhere a few days later, but the TPI team stayed focused; there was still so much more to report. They visited recovering victims in hospitals, attended funerals for the deceased, held the hands of parents, family and friends. They covered memorials, prayer vigils and fundraising events for victims’ hospital bills. When the Dadeville Strong theme emerged, they photographed gold and black ribbons all over town and supported the sale of T-shirts.

“The teams used the tragedy as a rallying cry between them,” Zimmer said. “They still do. You can see the stickers on helmets and messages written on players’ shoes. At the time, it seemed like we may be forgetting what had just happened. But in the end, the contrary was true.”

Multimedia reporter Abigail

Murphy, 23 years old, upheld the responsibility of making sure the newspaper was filled with content despite the tragedy that had occurred. While Gwin, Zimmer and others focused on reporting from the scene of the shooting and beds of grief, Murphy made sure no other important event was missed.

“It didn’t feel like there was much going on other than the shooting,” Murphy said. “At the same time, there was a moment where we thought, ‘When do we start reintroducing day-to-day life stories like council meetings?’ I remember that being an interesting phenomenon of having to figure out how to filter in routine stories in the midst of stories surrounding the shooting.”

As the local news source, the young TPI team took on what was their inherent responsibility to inform the public, not leaving that up to the more experienced national news crews. In this case, the public felt like their family.

They worked around the clock, sleeping little – if at all – and eating only when food was brought into the office by gracious community members or kind-hearted editors. The team covered every aspect of the event. When local law enforcement could not yet release what had happened, the news team sat in the TPI conference room and mapped the crime scene, deducing for themselves the number of shooters and where the shooters had gained entry. They did not release their speculations to the public but used their suppositions to generate questions and requests for information.

And at the same time, they grieved: for their friends, their colleagues, their community and themselves. Through their grief and despair, they kept the community informed and worked to bring a sense of justice to families that were stripped of their own.

TPI’s award winning editorial staff includes Henry Zimmer, Melody Rathel, Cliff Williams, Abigail Murphy, Dalton Middleton and Lizi Arbogast Gwin.