THE
TUESDAY
Lighting the way for Alexander City & Lake Martin since 1892
SPORTS, PAGE 11 Cotney is player of week
CALENDAR, PAGE 6
August 28, 2018 Vol. 126, No. 170 www.alexcityoutlook.com 75¢
Need something to do?
How are schools funded? Sales taxes, property taxes, state and federal government all contribute locally By CLIFF WILLIAMS Staff Writer
Everyone agrees education is the way to escape almost anything. Everyone wants to compete with the school systems from Mountain Brook, Huntsville and Auburn and improve the all areas of the state, from providing
better graduates for college or to developing the workforce. Tallapoosa County Schools Superintendent Joe Windle believes the K-12 system is instrumental to lifting an area economically. “I am not an economic developer, but I know we can educate our way out of poverty,” Windle told the Tallapoosa
County Commission at a recent meeting where discussion was centered on rescinding the 1-cent sales tax put in place three years ago. Everyone seems to think these popular school systems have endless money. But do they? How is education funded? Do school officials depend on the federal govern-
ment and its mandates? Do they depend on the state of Alabama and its restrictions? Do they try and come up with the funds locally? In Tallapoosa County and throughout most of the state, it is a combination of the three. The state provides funding based on enrollment and a contribution 10-mils of property tax through the Education Foundation system to be shared across the state, but most receive See FUNDS • Page 3
Officials seeking input during search for superintendent By DONALD CAMPBELL Staff Writer
When Alexander City Schools Superintendent Dr. Darrell Cooper announced he was retiring during March’s meeting of the Alexander City Board of Education, the board began to spring into action and start the search for a new superintendent. As Cooper’s tenure draws closer and closer to its end, the Alexander City Board of Education and the Alabama Association of School Boards have teamed up to hire the right person for the position. This week, the city school board and the AASB are asking for the public’s input, trying to gauge some of the things members of the community want to see in the next superintendent. To this end, there will be a special meeting Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in the meeting room of the Alexander City Board of Education building, while there is an online survey interested individuals may also fill out. “We are using the same process that we did last time, when we hired Dr. Cooper,” Alexander City Board of Education President Michael Ransaw said. “We found it to be very helpful last time, and I feel it will be just as helpful this time.” See SUPERINTENDENT • Page 9
Event takes guests back in time
H
Photos by Kenneth Boone
orseshoe Bend National Military Park held its annual summer ‘Muster on the Tallapoosa’ Saturday morning. The event included five speakers on topics from the maps of the Battle of Horseshoe Bend to Creek Indian culture and the life of James Moore, who was part of a mixed Creek-White family that includes current-day Tallapoosa County residents, to efforts to revitalize the Maskoke Creek language. The Muster included reenactors playing the part of 1814 Creek and American soldiers. Above, Pete Dunaway, a Creek reenactor from Opelika who has ties to Tallapoosa County, throws an atlatl during a demonstration of Creek Indian hunting techniques at Saturday’s event. The atlatl is a spear-throwing device that increases the power and accuracy of a hand-thrown spear. It is believed that humans have been using atlatls for more than 30,000 years. Dunaway said the atlatl point shown here is an actual artifact, not a recreation.
Today’s
Annual orders to be taken for cheeseballs
90 73
By CLIFF WILLIAMS Staff Writer
File / The Outlook
Jenny East, Pam Young, Fran Clayton, Sandra Moore, Linda Gunn, Willa Alford, Patsy Shreve and Peg Lawson pose for a photograph at First United Methodist Church last year. The ladies are getting ready for the annual Say Cheese cheeseball fundraiser.
We Care About You
Weather
It has become a local tradition in Alexander City to purchase homemade cheeseballs made by the women of the First United Methodist Church for the holiday season. The “Say Cheese” fundraiser has been around for a while. “We have been doing it since 2002,” Pam Young said. The biggest change this year is the number of different cheeseballs available. “We have four recipes this time,” Young said. This year the group is offering Spicy Senorita, Holiday, Old English Cheddar and English Bleu. The cost of the one-pound cheeseballs is $10, but the English Bleu is $12. The Spicy Senorita is a Mexican-style rolled in paprika. See CHEESE • Page 9
High
Low
Lake Martin
Lake Levels
490.45 Reported on 08/27/18 @ Noon
LACEY HOWELL 256.307.2443
laceyshowell@gmail.com 5295 Highway 280, Alex City, AL
6
54708 90050
8
USPS Permit # 013-080
FREE CONSULTATIONS
and Your Loved Ones!
•Home-like Environment • Specialized Dementia Care Unit •Physical, Occupational and Speech Therapy Services “It’s not the end ... It’s a new beginning”
256-329-1313
A DAMS HEALTH & REHAB 1555 HILLABEE STREET • (256) 329-0847
217 Madison Street, Alexander City, AL “We are a Debt Relief Agency. We help people file Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 under the Bankruptcy Code. Alabama State Bar requires the following in every attorney advertisement, “ No representation is made that the quality of legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers.”