OPINION: THE JOYS OF THE START OF SUMMER. PAGE 4
TUESDAY
THE CHAMBER PULSE
Get your business news, Pages 6-7.
DISTRICT CHAMPS!!
Girls softball team wins title, Sports, Page 12.
Lighting the way for Alexander City & Lake Martin since 1892 June 21, 2016
Vol. 124, No. 124
www.alexcityoutlook.com
Alexander City
Council OKs Sun Festival activities By MITCH SNEED Editor
Cliff Williams / The Outlook
Above, Brutus, played by rising third-grader Kaleb Adamson stands over the body of Julius Caesar played by rising fifth-grader Ethan Mitchell Monday. Below, rising first-grader, Hunter Batson works on decorating his costume.
IN THE NAME OF ART Summer Enrichment Program has students tackling Shakespeare By CLIFF WILLIAMS Staff Writer
Nearly 60 Horseshoe Bend School students are doing something that even the big theatre outfits rarely do – produce Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in less than four weeks. In just the third week of the Summer Arts Enrichment Program at the school, Ethan Mitchell is getting close to getting his lines down for the part of Caesar. “It is tough remembering all the lines,” Mitchell said. “Some of them are tough.” While running the lines through his head Mitchell finally was able to get through one that he has been stumbling on. “I am as constant as the northern star,” Mitchell said as he stood up from practicing how to be the dead Caesar. “Good job, Ethan,” Emily Rasbury said. Rasbury, the school’s high school English teacher, is heading up the See ARTS • Page 11
Outlook takes 17 awards in APA Better Newspapers Contest
Mayor Charles Shaw used his time for personal comments Monday night to again apologize for his role in the April 25 postmeeting fight that made the city the target of nationwide media attention, this time addressing his comments directly to Councilman Tony Goss. “I want to apologize to Mr. Goss for the part Shaw I played in the scuffle we had,” Shaw said. “I know I said it previously and have apologized in some other venues, but Tony wasn’t here and I’d like to apologize to him publically and in person.” The “scuffle” occurred following a heated meeting that was centered around city finances. Shaw went around the conference table and punched Goss a number of times before Goss could defend himself. Others rushed to separate the two, but Shaw’s wife Lavern also appeared to get involved in the altercation. Goss had his eyeglasses damaged in the fight and was checked out at Russell Medical Center following
See COUNCIL • Page 3
See APOLOGY • Page 3
By MITCH SNEED Editor
4-H, Quail Forever release birds in area
STAFF REPORT TPI Staff
The Alexander City Outlook won three awards presented Saturday at the Alabama Press Association’s awards banquet at the Hilton Golf & Beach Resort in Destin, Florida, giving it a total of 18 in the Alabama Press Association’s 2016 Better Newspapers awards competition. The Outlook added the Freedom of Information-First Amendment award for Editor Mitch Sneed’s series of stories on the City of Alexander City’s illegal and unauthorized pay raises and an award for Best Production and Printing. The award for print quality is a See AWARDS • Page 3
Mayor apologizes to Goss for his role in post-meeting ‘scuffle’
With a little more than a month before it begins, the Alexander City Chamber of Commerce got the thumbs up from the Alexander City City Council to use several city facilities for this year’s Sun Festival. Monday night, the council voted to approve nine of the Chamber’s 10 requests unanimously, but the allowance of alcohol at a pre-concert tailgate party at the Sportplex narrowly passed by a 4-2 vote. The Chamber asked the city for use of Strand Park for concerts and activities throughout the week, the Sportplex for the Sun Festival finale concert and fireworks, closure of roads for the Glow Run, closure of some roads for Praise in the Park, Band Battle and KIDS Fest and the use of Alex City Airport Park and Pavilion and access to the water supply for another children’s water event. The request that asked for a special event permit and waiver of associated fees to allow outside picnic items inclusive of alcoholic beverages to be allowed at the Summer Tailgate Party and BBQ Cook-off held at the Sportplex, drew some concerns. “I think what you all do is great and it’s great for the city,” Councilman Billy Ray Wall said. “But you all know my feeling on alcohol, particularly at a park like the Sportplex.” Wall was joined by Council member Sherry Ellison Simpson in voting
Today’s
Weather
91 68 High
By DAVID GRANGER Staff Writer
Special / The Outlook
Sophia, John and Sherena Rawls prepare to release a tote box full of quail in a wooded area near Wind Creek State Park Saturday.
The Alabama Covey Rise Chapter of Quail Forever together with 4-H students from Elmore County Saturday released more than 375 young bobwhite quail on four different locations in north Elmore and southern Tallapoosa counties, including three properties owned by Russell Lands and a site adjacent to Wind Creek State Park that is being developed as quail habitat. According to Mark Knight, president of the Alexander City-based Alabama Covey Rise chapter, the group released quail Saturday near Lake Martin Amphitheatre, See QUAIL • Page 3
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