INSIDE TODAY SPORTS, Page 11
Local, Page 10
Opinion, Page 4
Edgewood falls in Final Tourney.
Commission releases voter information
Signs are all around us.
THE WETUMPKA HERALD Elmore County’s Oldest Newspaper - Established 1898
Wetumpka, AL 36092
50¢
WEDNESDAY • MARCH 9, 2016
THEWETUMPKAHERALD.COM
VOL. 118, NO.10
More votes found, Faulk retains seat Memory stick with uncounted votes found Tuesday and total means that no runoff needed for District 4 seat percent, with a total vote of 50.17 percent and 1,591 votes. Livingston, Enslen said, received 1168 votes and Ford 412 with the new totals. It was purely human error, Enslen said. Enslen said they were votes that had not been counted and were from a missing memory stick used in one of the two voting machines located at the Church of Nazarene in Millbrook.
By COREY ARWOOD Staff Writer
There will be no runoff election for Elmore County Commission District 4 between Joe Faulk, Steve Livingston and Johnny Ford as votes were discovered late morning Tuesday, March 8 that pushed the incumbent, Faulk, over the 50 percent mark. According to the new figures, Elmore County Probate Judge John Enslen said that Faulk had 11 votes more than 50
He said they were discovered at the same time the local Republican Party officials were canvassing for provisional votes that morning. The mistake occurred on election night, Enslen said. Only four precincts used more than one voting machine and Enslen said the precinct in Millbrook was one of those. The protocol, Enslen said, was to use two separate envelopes to transfer each memory stick that held votes from
Some employees will see $3 an hour more, as minimum raised to $10 By MITCH SNEED Editor
STAFF REPORT TPI Staff
See TAXES • Page 5
See VOTES • Page 3
Local Walmart employees get big pay hike
Study says Alabama property taxes 2nd lowest in U.S. While taxes may be a way of life, people in Alabama should consider themselves lucky when it comes to property taxes. According to a study by WalletHub, Alabama property owners shell out the nation’s second lowest tax rate, averaging just $538 a year, according to the study. The average American household spends $2,127 on real-estate property taxes each year, and residents of the 27 states with vehicle property taxes shell out another $412. Considering these figures and the
that precinct, in this case the Church of Nazarene. He said the problem arose when both memory sticks were placed in one envelope at the polling place, where presumably they were then transferred to the Wetumpka Civic Center where the votes from the county were counted. There, Enslen said, it was likely that only one memory stick was removed from the envelope and then counted.
Corey Arwood / The Herald
Troy and Jenny Stubbs are the proprietors of the new frozen pop shop in downtown Wetumpka, Frios, which is set to open on Friday, March 11. A ribbon cutting ceremony will be held the day before at 4 p.m.
Frozen pop shop opens this weekend Jenny said their iced pops are an all-natural, all-Alabama-made product. She said the ingredients for the brands fruity flavors and creamy flavors, come from four farms in the state and even the dairy in the creamy flavor comes from a dairy farm out of Dothan, called Working Cows Dairy. “In fact, even our Popsicle sticks come from an Alabama vendor, so it is truly an See POPSICLE • Page 5
By COREY ARWOOD Staff Writer
Frios Gourmet Pops is a new downtown business that’s opening just in time for spring and is set to have a ribbon cutting ceremony with the Wetumpka Chamber of Commerce on Thursday and a grand opening Friday of this week. The owners are local couple, Troy and Jenny Stubbs.
Monday was like Christmas for many of the 303 employees at the Walmart in Wetumpka as well as the 299 at the Millbrook store. The employees all saw their pay increase as a result what the retail chain called “the largest single-day, private-sector pay increase ever.” According to Walmart officials, the move will mean that the minimum amount paid to any non-probationary employee will be $10 per hour. The move essentially means that the minimum wage for Walmart employees is now $10 per hour. Walmart officials say the actual amount of the increases will vary, depending on where the employee is on the scale and the job classification. Officials said increases can be as much as $3 an hour and in some cases the increase may be less than $1. See RAISE • Page 5
Extension hosts fourth-grade Farm City Day By COREY ARWOOD Staff Writer
Fourth-grade students from area schools went to Wetumpka’s “Farm City” to learn about the wide world of 21st century agriculture and the careers in forestry, biosystems engineering, conservation and farming that make up a new approach to agriculture. The days and ways of Old MacDonald have changed to include a comprehensive and all inclusive view of what agriculture is, and the students from both Wetumpka and Red Land
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Elementary Schools had a first-hand chance to see this in practice. Hundreds crowded around any number of the several exhibits at the Elmore County Extension Office on Friday. There were informational stations about cotton and the spinning process, aquariums to explain fisheries, beehives for honey production and a whole list of farm animals that make up traditional “livestock.” Auburn University’s BioSystems See FARM • Page 3
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Corey Arwood / The Herald
Grass Cutting – Wetumpka area
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Wetumpka and Red Land Elementary fourth graders learn about livestock at “Farm City.”
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