OPINION, PAGE 4: AREA CELEBRATES LOCAL YOUTH
THE SPORTS, PAGE 10 Gracie Deason storms back after car accident
THURSDAY
Lighting the way for Alexander City & Lake Martin since 1892
June 29, 2017 Vol. 125, No. 128 www.alexcityoutlook.com 75¢
WARM RECEPTION FOR COOL TREATS Alabama axes ACT Aspire testing By DONALD CAMPBELL Staff Writer
Mitch Sneed / The Outlook
Customers wait in line for the grand opening of the new Dairy Queen on Wednesday. Doors opened at 10:30 a.m., but a crowd lined the building prior to the opening hoping to be one of the first 100 customers to buy a cake and earn two free blizzards per month.
Massive crowd welcomes Dairy Queen to Alexander City By MITCH SNEED Editor
To say that Alexander City was excited about the opening of Dairy Queen, you had to look no further than the scene outside the restaurant just before 6 a.m. Sarah Stone, Jake Fields and Collin Miller sat patiently in lawn chairs, waiting for the doors to open at 10:30 a.m. “I work part-time across the street at Days Inn and I called them at a little after 10 Tuesday night and asked them if there were already people up here,” Stone said. “They looked across and said there were people walking around in the parking lot. So I told my husband I’ve got to go.” Stone arrived at 11 p.m. and was the first in line to buy an Ice Cream Cake and get coupons for free Blizzards for a year. As it turned out, the people that were walking around in the parking lot were contractors finishing landscaping at the store so it would be ready for opening day. “They worked out here until midnight and they quit,” Stone said. “Look at this place, they had it sparking for today.” Fields and Miller arrived just before 4 a.m. and played cards to help pass the time. By the time the doors opened, that trio had plenty of
Within the last few years, the Alabama Department of Education replaced the Alabama Reading and Math Test with a nationally administered test, the ACT Aspire. Run by the same group involved with the ACT college entrance exam and given to students in third through eighth grade, the Aspire test measures a student’s comprehension of that year’s classroom material and is also able to help gauge the progress these students need to make in order to be ready for the college entrance ACT. Despite being able to analyze how students across the board were performing, the state Department of Education recently dropped its contract See ASPIRE • Page 5
Dadeville council moves forward on square renovation By CLIFF WILLIAMS Staff Writer
Mitch Sneed / The Outlook
Jake Fields, Collin Miller and Sarah Stone wait outside Dairy Queen just before 6 a.m. Wednesday. The lure of free Blizzards for a year had Stone in line at about 11 p.m. Tuesday and Fields and Miller joined the group at about 4 a.m. The first 100 customers will get coupons for two free Blizzards a month See DQ • Page 5 for a year at the new restaurant.
The Dadeville City Council approved a $12,000 geotechnical study to allow progress to be made on the courthouse square renovation project that the city is partnering with Tallapoosa County on. The council also approved a quote that will allow the demolition of dilapidated structures to begin. According to Jeff Harrison with CDG, the firm overseeing the project explained the design and planning part of the project is about 50-percent complete and is currently in a holding phase until the study is completed. “Things are moving along with DOT,” See COUNCIL • Page 3
United Way summer reading program draws to a successful close By DONALD CAMPBELL Staff Writer
More than 200 children from area daycares were on hand Wednesday at Stephens Elementary School to take part in the final session of the 2017 United Way “Story Laboratory” summer reading program. Bricks4Kidz joined in the fun, providing attendees the chance to use their imagination to build items out of Lego bricks, as well as allowing the children to take a small set home with them. Dr. Doug Roberts was the community reader for the day, reading the 1993 parody book The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig. The groups got to zumba dance alongside nursing students from CACC and Auburn University, and were able to go through the large book boxes one more time, finding another group of titles to take
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home with them and enjoy. “It’s amazing how the book boxes are still full after all this time,” Marketing Director Courtney Layfield said as she opened up a couple of the boxes, showing how many books were still able to be picked out by the children, including Frog and Toad are Friends, Black Beauty, and a number of volumes in the Hardy Boys series. The finale also included awarding trophies sponsored by Wells Fargo bank to the top three participants who read the most during the past few weeks. Carter Neese was recognized as the top reader of the program, logging 782 minutes read. Second place went to Mason Kim, who read 514 minutes, and Hannah Yates’ 405 minutes were good enough to claim third. Individual winners with each of the
Lake Martin
Lake Levels
490.51 Reported on 6/28/17 @ 6:00 p.m.
LACEY HOWELL 256.307.2443 6
54708 90050 USPS Permit # 013-080
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laceyshowell@gmail.com 5295 Highway 280, Alex City, AL
See READING • Page 3
Donald Campbell / The Outlook
Children from the Boys & Girls Club take part in zumba dancing Wednesday morning.
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256-329-1313 • 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.”