OPINION: GET READY FOR A WEEK OF FUN, PAGE 4.
THE CHAMBER PULSE City gears up for Sun Festival festivities! Pages 6-7.
ADAPTABLE ATHLETE
TUESDAY
Lawson’s versatility for Wildcats takes shape.
Lighting the way for Alexander City & Lake Martin since 1892 July 19, 2016
Vol. 124, No. 144
Sports, Page 12.
www.alexcityoutlook.com
Sunday sales officially on ballot Questions about golf course funds resurface at Monday council meeting, but officials say it’s not theft By MITCH SNEED Editor
Do you favor the legal sale and distribution of alcoholic beverages within this municipality on Sundays as further provided for and regulated by ordinance of the municipal governing body? With a vote of the Alexander City City Council Monday night, that is a question that city voters will be able to answer when they go to the polls on Aug. 23 for the city’s municipal election. The council voted 5-0 to approve the language and
officially place Sunday alcohol sales before the voters. The only questions on the resolution came in questions about the hours when alcohol would be sold on Sunday should it be approved by the voters. “I think we should specify the hours now, so that the voters have no question as to whether they want to vote for it or not,” Council member Bob Howard said. After looking at neighboring communities where Sunday sales is already legal, the council specified that if passed by the voters, sales would be limited to the hours of noon on Sunday to 11 p.m. “We had given people with concerns our word that
we would be mindful of their thoughts about not allowing sales that went to extended hours,” Howard said. “I think by adding those hours, that should put their minds at ease.” While it wasn’t on the agenda, funds from the golf course were again on the minds of some on the council. Late last week, concerns were raised that funds shown as deposits for LakeWinds Golf Couse didn’t match the numbers that recreation department officials believed they should. Finance Director Sandra Machen said it doesn’t See COUNCIL • Page 2
PSC’s Beeker talks energy woes, waste in government
Parks and Rec scrambles to make sure kids get pool time Pump issue at Laurel Pool creates need to bus swimmers
By DAVID GRANGER Staff Writer
Chip Beeker is on a crusade against American energy policy. Beeker, who serves on the Alabama Public Service Commission, place 2, was in Alexander City on Monday as a part of that crusade. “This Clean Power Plan is designed to do these Beeker political things that the federal government wants,” Beeker said. “If you’ll print in your paper how many pages the Obama administration has added to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), it will stagger you. 25,000. You can’t read ‘em. Let alone implement them. It seems like that cannot be. But we’ve researched it. We’ve looked. Nobody can read See BEEKER • Page 3
Weather
95 72
Lake Levels
489.43 Reported on 7/18/16 @ 6 p.m.
LACEY HOWELL 256.307.2443
laceyshowell@gmail.com 5295 Highway 280, Alex City, AL
54708 90050
Barbara Sokol blows out candles on her birthday cake Saturday evening at the Russell Pool in Alexander City. Family and friends threw a surprise 70th birthday party for Sokol, inviting generations of people she taught to swim and trained as lifeguards at the pool.
JUST KEEP SWIMMING
Family, friends celebrate 70th birthday with Sokol By CLIFF WILLIAMS Staff Writer
Like so many times as manager at the Russell Pool, Barbara Sokol attended another birthday party at the pavilion Saturday, only this time it was for her 70th birthday as her children and grandchildren surprised her a few days early. “I celebrated my 40th right here,” Sokol said. But Saturday’s event was a little more special as many in her extended family attended and former employees who have worked for her over the years were on hand for the celebration. Some even delayed their vacations to attend the special occasion. Those in attendance shared fond and often funny memories of Sokol from over the years. “This is really wonderful,” Sokol said. “I was really surprised and overwhelmed.”
See POOL • Page 3
By DAVID GRANGER Staff Writer
Low
Lake Martin
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Cliff Williams / The Outlook
A problem with a pump at Alexander City Parks & Recreation Department’s Laurel Pool near the Cooper Community Center has forced officials to improvise to make sure that youth in that area can take a cool dip if they desire. Alexander City Parks & Recreation Director Sonny Wilson said that a pump and motor at the pool forced the facility to close recently. To have the issue repaired would mean a $5,600 cost and getting parts and the repair completed would take three weeks at a minimum. “As soon as the pump and motor went out we started scrambling to see how we could get it back up and running,” Wilson said. “But with the age of that equipment, we were told it was going to be at least three weeks to get the parts so it could be repaired. “As far as we are into the season and with our normal schedule being closing the pool when school reopens, we really didn’t have the time to get it done, drain the pool, refill it and have it open before it was time to close again.” So Wilson called on members of his staff to meet at Cooper Community Center with a bus to take children wishing to swim to the Russell Pool each
Walls’ book details century of Tallapoosa County gold mining
Today’s
High
By MITCH SNEED Editor
Peggy Jackson Walls was born just three short miles from Hog Mountain, located northwest of New Site in Tallapoosa County, in a community that included a number of Depression era gold miners. So, naturally, she had an interest in the subject. “Other than the gold rush at Arbacoochee (in Cleburne County) in the 1830s and the gold rush at Goldville (a few miles east of Hog Mountain), which lasted 1842-45, the highest productivity came from Hog Mountain, where gold is found in the quartz rocks and is unique in the state of Alabama,” said Walls at a recent book signing at Alexander City’s Queen’s Attic. “Hog Mountain accounted for one-half to three-fourths of Alabama’s gold production.” Walls interest in Hog Mountain and in gold mining in Tallapoosa County has resulted in “Alabama Gold: A History of the South’s Last Mother Load,” a 175-page See BOOK • Page 11
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Cliff Williams / The Outlook
Peggy Walls, right, signs a copy of “Alabama Gold” for a reader at a recent book signing at Queen’s Attic.
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