THURSDAY
THE LOCAL, PAGE 9 Flor to head workforce development at CACC
January 24, 2019 Vol. 127, No. 17 www.alexcityoutlook.com 75¢
New Site approves gym use Bree Walton sat in her final New Site Town Council on Tuesday night but not before helping the council make an important decision about the old gym and hearing from town attorney Mack Clayton about the need to establish council districts. The council said again it wants to renovate the gym as a practice facility for Horseshoe Bend School, but some members had qualms over safety issues. Clayton told the council as long as certain issues such as closing the basement and bringing life safety measures up to code are addressed, the gym could be used for practice. “It is up to the town to determine if it is safe,” Clayton said. “The insurance company is satisfied.” Clayton said structural engineers had determined the building sound and the state fire marshal wants life safety issues brought up to code for the facility to be used for practice. Councilmember Toby Hanson was worried about the safety issue in regards to the balcony seating. It was decided the balcony will be blocked off and not used. Ultimately all members of the council approved the use of the gym as a practice facility for the school after the life safety issues were brought up to code and the balcony blocked off from use. Clayton said the town is in violation of state law since councilmembers are elected at large. “It is pretty plain,” Clayton told the council. “The statute says we have to have districts. We are not doing it.” Clayton explained the council would need to draw districts, approve them, pass them along to the county election officials and the next election run for office by district. Clayton said the issue needed to be resolved 60 days before the next election. Rep. Ed Oliver was at Tuesday’s meeting to award a proclamation to Virginia Yates in memory of her husband, coach Bryan Yates. See GYM • Page 3
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Woman survives tornado while roof comes off house; ‘Oz’ collectibles stay intact By JIMMY WIGFIELD Managing Editor
W
ith black skies cascading to the ground and a tornado threatening to suck the life out of her, Sharon Watson did the only thing she could do — she stretched out on her bedroom floor with her Chihuahua, Spook, pressed against her back as shattered glass hissed through the air like shrapnel. “I laid down on the floor next to the bed and didn’t know if I would live,” she said. “I felt glass hitting me. It was like knives being thrown at me.” She wondered about her “The Wizard of Oz” collectibles in another room of the house and if she would turn out like Dorothy, whose house was flung into another world by a Kansas tornado in the classic movie. “All I thought about lying on the floor before I blacked out was the house spinning in the tornado, like it did in ‘The Wizard of Oz,’” Watson said. “I could feel the house and the floor moving and I wondered if I would land in some other place.” The roof came off but she stayed put in Wetumpka, her Shangri La. As in the movie, the moral of the story for Watson is there’s no place like home. “I don’t want to leave,” she said. “I couldn’t be in a better city with more love.” Watson survived the tornado that wrecked See TORNADO • Page 5 Jimmy Wigfield / The Outlook
Wetumpka tornado survivor Sharon Watson regains her composure as she salvages what she can from her Tuskeema Street home Monday.
Moves being made on courthouse square project in Dadeville By CLIFF WILLIAMS Staff Writer
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The Dadeville City Council learned Tuesday bids will finally be opened next week for the courthouse square renovation project. The project has been in the works for more than a year and was combined with efforts from the Tallapoosa County Commission so work could be done on the sidewalks, lights and lawn of the county property. The state has provided grant funding through ADECA for the project with Dadeville and the commission. The project has also had to meet the approval of the Alabama Department of Transportation since state Highway 49 passes through the square. The project includes the moving of utilities, new sidewalks and paving of streets around the courthouse. Dadeville city clerk Debbie Minor said the council is also looking at starting
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