FOOTBALL REGIONS REALIGNED
OPINION: A DAY TO REMEMBER, PAGE 4.
THURSDAY
THE
Lighting the way for Alexander City & Lake Martin since 1892 January 21, 2016
Vol. 124, No. 15
www.alexcityoutlook.com
See more on new FREE ON BOND classifications in Accused killer McDaniel Sports, Page 8 released from jail, Page 3
Busy year for road improvements begins
available through a half-cent sales tax passed by the city council in 2014. “We have been evaluating streets and putWhile the cool temperatures the area is ting a plan together for several months,” currently experiencing isn’t suitable for road Alexander City Engineer and Public Works paving, the Alexander City Public Works a Director Gerard Brewer said. “With the Department is busy planning for what will be projects planned by the state this year on a busy year for road improvements. Washington and Lee Streets, we feel like our Officials have gathered data after evaluatcollector streets will be in good shape. ing all city streets and have released a list of “So what you see on this list is the next Cliff Williams / The Outlook the projects planned for this year under the highest priorities, the projects that we feel will Alexander City Road Improvement Project. give residents the most bang for the buck.” Alexander City is planning ahead for summer road projects and aim to let peoThe estimated $1.1 million in funding is made See ROADS • Page 3 ple know well in advance so they will be aware of potential delays and issues. By MITCH SNEED Outlook Editor
Great Bethel begins expansion
CAMPERS ON MISSION
Lake winter pool increase goes in effect Alabama Power now operating under new 30-year license
By CLIFF WILLIAMS Staff Writer
STAFF REPORTS Outlook Staff
As of Wednesday, Alabama Power is now operating under its new 30-year license for Martin Dam, which means that a new higher winter pool is being used as the standard. Under the new operations plan that was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Dec. 17, 2015, the lake level a new winter pool of up to 484 feet mean sea level, which is 3 feet higher than the old level. The new license also allows the company to extend the summer water level at the lake into the fall, if there is sufficient water available. The company also plans several recreational enhancements around the lake as part of the new license. The Alabama Rivers Alliance and American Rivers, Atlanta Regional Commission and Georgia Environmental Protection Division have filed requests with FERC for a rehearing on the new license. Despite their requests, Alabama Power is required to begin implementing the new See LAKE • Page 3
Today’s
Weather
57 50 High
Low
Lake Martin
Lake Levels
482.80 Reported on 01/20/16 @ 6 p.m.
Linda Shaffer, REALTOR® C: 256.794.4641 • W: 256.329.5253 shaffer@lakemartin.net 5295 Highway 280, Alexander City, AL
6
54708 90050 USPS Permit # 013-080
8
Cliff Williams / The Outlook
Ted Thompson, above, from Jackson cuts lumber to help frame a wall at Great Bethel Missionary Baptist Church Tuesday. Judy Conaway of Wedowee, left, sews the waist of handmade pants that the ladies of the team create for their mission project.
By the first weekend of March, the second phase of construction at Great Bethel Missionary Baptist Church should be complete thanks to the help of Alabama Campers on Mission. “A few months back, we sat down and decided we had the funds to start the second phase of construction here at Great Bethel,” Great Bethel Pastor Rev. Emerson Ware said. “At that point we contacted the campers and got on their schedule.” The second phase of construction includes Sunday school rooms and bathrooms. Ware explained that it is not the first time the Campers on Mission have been to the Alexander City area. “About eight years ago they were doing some work at Early Rose,” Ware said. “I talked to some of them about what we See GREAT BETHEL • Page 2
A selfless deed: Dadeville woman extends service to child in need By MITCH SNEED Editor
A Dadeville woman is on a mission to help a little girl a half a world away to live a normal life, despite being born with a disfiguring condition. Patricia Maxey is hoping to continue to help a young Vietnamese girl who is need of an expensive surgery to complete a treatment she began more than two years ago when Maxey first heard the story. Nguyet Tran is a Vietnamese child who was born with a facial hemangioma. According to the Mayo Clinic, a hemangioma is a birthmark that most commonly appears as a rubbery, bright red nodule of extra blood vessels in the skin. Sometimes called a strawberry mark, a hemangioma grows during the first year of life, and then recedes over time.
+
256-329-1313 Free Consultations 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.”
But for Nguyet Tran, the growth that was about the size of an actual strawberry at birth, began to increase in size rapidly. “I became involved when the child was nearly one year old when a friend of mine showed me her picture and asked me if I could help,” Maxey said. “We had helped some others in the community when they had some issues and he just wondered what I might be able to do. “I didn’t even know where to start. It turns out that the doctors in Vietnam would not operate because the parents could not pay for the surgery in advance and they have no medical insurance. They are extremely poor.” Maxey turned to a family friend who is a doctor in Florida who was able to connect Maxey with several different groups that See SELFLESS • Page 3
Submitted / The Outlook
Dadeville’s, Patricia Maxey, above left, poses at the airport with Lam Ti Lee and her daughter Nguyet Tran after she received treatment for a disfiguring birth defect.
+ Buy
Here + Pay Here + + CLEAN USED CARS No Credit Checks
Cars• Vans• Trucks • SUV’s
Midway Auto,Inc.
Off Hwy. 280 • Alexander City, AL (On Right Past the River Bridge)
256.825.9830
Bill’s Electric ELECTRICAL CONTRACTORS
P.O. Box 673 1814 Airpor t Blvd • Alexander Cit y, AL
(256) 234-4555 “PROVIDING QUAALITYY ELEECTRRICALL CONSSTRUUCTIIONN SINCE 196 61”