Weekend
OPINION: OUTLOOK ENDORSES CANDIDATES IN LOCAL RACES, PAGE 4.
The Outlook
$2 of every $100 spent here funds local schools
Lighting the way for Alexander City & Lake Martin since 1892
August 20-21, 2016 • Vol. 124 • No. 168 • www.alexcityoutlook.com
SPORTS EXTRA INSIDE!
City’s ‘missing’ funds located in files By CLIFF WILLIAMS Staff Writer
Nearly $1,500,000 in unaccounted City of Alexander City funds have been found. Wallace Farr of Opelika accounting firm Brantley, Boucher and Farr, found the ‘missing’ funds Friday while the firm was in town helping reconcile the city’s books. “Now, we have found the pieces to
the problem,” Farr said. “I knew none of the money was lost. It was in the paperwork. This is the one I have been looking for. The majority of it is two payments that are wires out for bond payments in August 2014.” The mistake was a procedural one. According to Farr, payments totaling $1,338,000 were made in August 2014 for payments on bonds 204 A and 204 B. The bonds were taken out in 2004 and the city makes yearly payments of
principal and interest on them. Another $43,000 payment for gas was found in that same month that again was not recorded properly. Alexander City Mayor Charles Shaw could not be happier. “I am happy to announce to the citizens of Alexander City that it has been found,” Shaw said. “I never thought we were missing the money. It was not posted in the correct place. Finding this should allow us to be able to move on the
Eight-hour surgery saves HBHS teacher’s fingers
By MITCH SNEED Editor
A veteran Horseshoe Bend High School science teacher endured more than eight hours of successful surgery at UAB Medical Center in Birmingham Thursday night and Friday morning to reattach three fingers lost in an accident at the school Thursday afternoon, a family member said. David Crouch, who has been a science teacher at HBHS for 16 years, lost the fingers in a miter saw while working on a wooden tank to represent the Generals, the nickname of Horseshoe Bend’s athletic See SURGERY • Page 9
Today’s
Weather
88 73 Low
Lake Martin
Lake Levels
489.12 Reported on 8/19/16 @ 7 p.m.
LACEY HOWELL 256.307.2443
laceyshowell@gmail.com 5295 Highway 280, Alex City, AL
6
54708 90050 USPS Permit # 013-080
See FUNDS • Page 9
Council work session on finances cancelled
By DAVID GRANGER Staff Writer
High
fiscal year 2014 audit.” Farr found the problem as he was going over the August 2014 statements as part of the process to make sure the books for fiscal years 2014, 2015 and 2016 are in order for an audit by accounting firm Carr, Riggs and Ingram. “I was going through the August statements,” Farr said. “I came across that and thought there it is. I was very happy
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Cliff Williams / The Outlook
Incumbent Mayor Charles Shaw, top left, is challenged by three candidates in Tuesday’s election: Jim Nabors, top right, Mark Fuller bottom left and Mark Lamborne bottom right.
BIG DECISION: By MITCH SNEED Editor
On Tuesday voters in Alexander City will cast ballots in one of the most important elections in recent memory. Voters will choose from four mayoral candidates and three candidates compete in each of four city council districts. They also have the question on Sunday alcohol sales on the ballot. While picking city lead-
Four men vie to be mayor in pivotal election
ers is always an important task, with lingering financial issues facing the city government, there is a renewed sense of urgency acroscontest s Alexander City. More than 600 people attended forums to educate themselves on the candidates and on social media there is an unmatched buzz surrounding Tuesday’s vote As of Friday there were about 145 absentee ballots received at city hall, a number that no one could
remember being larger in a municipal election. Alexander City resident Sean Bland, a former city council candidate and talk show host who has started a website to offer candidate See ELECTION • Page 12
SAMPLE BALLOTS Look to page 11 for a district map, voting locations and sample ballots for each contested district.
A Monday city council work session designed to lay all the cards on the table over Alexander City’s governmental finances has been cancelled. Council President Jim Spann said that after three days of trying to get commitments to attend from representatives of the two accounting firms currently working with the city failed, he made the decision to cancel rather than “frustrate people further.” “I have been working with Carr, Riggs and Ingram and Wallace Farr all week to try to make sure that they could be there,” Spann said. “But most of those folks have a conference next week and simply can’t be there. “Without them there, we would have no one who could provide the answers See SESSION • Page 9
Coleman named interim principal at Stephens By DAVID GRANGER Staff Writer
Shireen Coleman, a retired educator who spent 25 years mostly in the Cullman County School system, was approved by the Alexander City Board of Education as interim principal at Stephens Elementary School Friday morning in a 10-minute, specially called meeting. Coleman takes over from the resigning Kim Smith, who has been principal at Stephens for seven years, but recently accepted a position as assistant principal at Dothan City Schools’ Girard Middle School. “Mrs. Coleman was a successful administrator in Cullman County,” Cooper told the board upon its See STEPHENS • Page 12