OPINON: SUN FESTIVAL IS GOING OUT WITH A BANG, PAGE 4.
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July 30-31, 2016 • Vol. 124 • No. 153 • www.alexcityoutlook.com
SOUTH’S BEST KEPT SECRET GUIDE INSIDE
Council to review Machen dismissal By MITCH SNEED Editor
The dismissal of Alexander City Finance Director Sandra Machen is on the agenda for Monday night’s meeting of the Alexander City City Council, but the public is not likely to hear the discussion. Machen was terminated July 22 pending review of the council and Monday’s agenda calls for an executive session to discuss the matter.
The documentation supplied to Machen at the time of her dismissal cited “conduct unbecoming an employee, dishonesty and falsification” as reasons for the personnel action. In a released statement Mayor Charles Shaw said the inability to get accurate information from Machen was the reason for her termination. “The City of Alexander City cannot operate successfully without accurate financial information,” Shaw said in a press release. “Unfortunately for the
last approximately two years, the city’s finance director, Sandra Machen, has been unable to accurately report financial numbers and has not efficiently run our finance department. “The mayor and the city’s department heads must be given correct financial information in order to effectively do their jobs. Department heads were given their budgets for the remainder of 2016 and the majority of these were incomplete and incorrect. Most importantly, the 2016 numbers for the golf course were
wrong and it was discovered that numerous entries into the city’s accounting system were entered incorrectly. I assure everyone that city services will not be adversely affected during this transitional time.” The termination comes at a time when more issues over financial procedures and practices have surfaced in the way money has been entered into the financial system, when two years worth of audits are in the works, as a budget See COUNCIL • Page 2
BRHS assistant principal resigns
Kramer’s show to cap successful Sun Festival By DAVID GRANGER Staff Writer
By DAVID GRANGER Staff Writer
At its regular August meeting Thursday night, the Alexander City Board of Education approved the resignation of a Benjamin Russell High School assistant principal to accept a principal’s job and a number of additional personnel actions and accepted an award from a contractor for achieving more than $1 million in savings through the use of cost-saving controls and timers. The board also heard a report on its annual audit, termed “absolutely the best we’ve ever had,” by Chief School Financial Officer Rhonda Blythe. The board accepted the resignation of BRHS Assistant Principal Evan Blair, who is resigning to accept the principal’s job at Talladega County’s Lincoln High School.
Cliff Williams / The Outlook
Plenty of festival fun Trest Richardson, above, was the first of five groups up in the Band Battle Friday night at Strand Park to see who would open for Jana Kramer tonight to close out this year’s Sun Festival. Many of the bands brought a crowd to try to influence the judges. Look inside for a schedule of today’s Sun Festival events.
See SCHOOL • Page 5
Country music star and actress Jana Kramer performs tonight at the Alexander City’s Charles Bailey Sportplex in the finale of the city’s annual Sun Festival, coordinated by the Alexander City Chamber of Commerce. Kramer ‘s most recent album “thirty one” debuted with career-best sales numbers, landing in the Top 10 of the all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart and at No. 3 on the Country Albums chart. Her biggest hit to date, “I Got The Boy,” climbed to No. 3 in country radio and was ranked as one of the Best Songs of 2015 by the New York Times and was among the top 10 on Rolling Stone’s 25 Best Country Songs of 2015. Kramer, 32, grew up with country music, but initially pursued acting parts in Friday Night Lights, 90210, and Entourage, before she landed the recurring role of Alex in the CW’s One Tree Hill, quickly becoming a fan favorite. Since turning to music, she has released two albums, the first self-titled and “thirty one,” which was Kramer’s age at the time. The winner of last night’s Band Battle at Strand Park will open for Kramer and her performance will be followed See KRAMER • Page 11
Alex City native enters state’s Healthcare Hall of Fame By DAVID GRANGER Staff Writer
An Alexander City native who worked with polio-vaccine developers Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin at the Centers for Disease Control before beginning his half-century career in pharmacy was honored Saturday, July 23, with induction into the Alabama Healthcare Hall of Fame at Montgomery’s Alabama Activities Center. Melbourn Lloyd Sellers, a native of Alexander City and a 1951 graduate of Alexander City High School who owned and operated Dean’s Pharmacy in Opp for 38 years and ended his career as a “floating” pharmacist with the Rite Aid chain on Jan. 1, was among 13 doctors and pharmacists inducted in the Hall’s Class of 2016. Prior to receiving his degree in
pharmacy from Samford, Sellers, known as Lloyd, majored in biology and minored in chemistry at Georgia State and, after serving in the U.S. Air Force from 1950 to 1955, landed a job as a virologist at the CDC. In that position, Sellers and his future wife, Sara Margaret Meadows of Opp, worked with Salk and Sabin on a team in the viral and rickettsial division of prevention strategies. He performed numerous microbiologic analyses which would later aid in the development of the vaccines and worldwide reduction of polio. “I had personal contact with both Salk and Sabin on occasion,” said Sellers. “That’s where I met my wife, who was also a virologist. Sabin was interested in an oral vaccine and Salk had already established his injectable one. Both my wife and I did testing See HEALTHCARE • Page 5
256.234.0007
3775 Hillabee Street • Alexander City, AL 35010 www.candtelectricllc.com
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489.17 Reported on 7/29/16 @ 6 p.m.
LACEY HOWELL 256.307.2443
laceyshowell@gmail.com 5295 Highway 280, Alex City, AL
Submitted / The Outlook
Alexander City native Lloyd Sellers was inducted into the Alabama Healthcare Hall Of Fame on Saturday.
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