OPINION: LOCAL INDUSTRY IS A TRUE SUCCESS STORY, PAGE 4.
TUESDAY
THE FOR SUBSCRIBERS
Lake Martin Living inside!
Lighting the way for Alexander City
& Lake Martin since 1892
Football roundup inside. Sports, Page 12.
October 18, 2016 Vol. 124, No. 209 www.alexcityoutlook.com
Idletime alcohol license approved By MITCH SNEED Editor
The Alexander City City Council approved the application for an on premises alcohol license for a local business in hopes it will help draw in more customers. In a 4-2 vote, the council approved a license request for Idletime Family Fun Center at 693 Airport Road. The center offers skating and bowlMitch Sneed / The Outlook ing, but peers said that numbers have Resident Chris Harvey, right, questions the council on the condemnadwindled in recent years. They hope tion process. He and his sister inherited a house which they decided to that by offering beer on the bowling donate making it eligible for demolition.
Billy Ray Wall said he was opposed to the move. “I’m opposed to this because for decades this has been a retreat for our children that was free of alcohol,” Wall said. “We now have beer at Strand Park at events. They’ve even had some at the Sportplex. I just think it’s going to endanger the children and take away one of the last safe havens they have.” Jones explained that there will be no food or drink allowed in the skate
side, more adults will patronize the business. “Our numbers are down and we are looking at any options to try to bring people in,” said Idletime’s Angela Jones. “We have skating on one side and bowling on the other. Our hope is that parents who bring their children to skate and just drop them off and leave, will stay, hang out and bowl with us. “We are kind of at a point where we have to try something or close the doors.”
County schools delay capital plans
See COUNCIL • Page 3
Alabama’s grad rate is nation’s second highest Stats show state graduated students at an 89.3 percent rate in 2014-15
By CLIFF WILLIAMS Staff Writer
By MITCH SNEED Editor
The Tallapoosa County Board of Education hit the pause button its list of capital improvements at Monday’s board meeting. Board member Randy Anderson raised concerns about where the money was being spent and why the board had not been included in on discussions about the plan. “My problem is, this is not the traditional way that we have done this,” Anderson said. “These have been put into place in the past that we would do this if we get the money…This is not a capital plan. This is an expenditure plan.” Tallapoosa County Board of Education Superintendent Joe Windle tried to explain there is no obligation in the plan. “There is no obligation with this plan,” Windle explained. “You are
For the second consecutive year, Alabama is graduating students at a higher rate than the national average. Alabama graduated students at a rate of 89.3 percent in the 2014-15 academic year, according to numbers released Monday by the U.S. Department of Education. That rate is more than 6 percent higher than the national average of 83.2 percent and 3 percent higher than the 86.3 percent grad rate that Alabama posted in 2013-14. That 89.3 ranking gives Alabama the nation’s second highest rate, second only to Iowa’s 90.8 See GRAD • Page 3
See SCHOOL • Page 3
Cliff Williams / The Outlook
People wait to go through a haunted house set up on a campsite at Wind Creek State Park by Sandra Capps and her friends.
GHOULISH GATHERING Thousands flock to Wind Creek for Fall Festival By CLIFF WILLIAMS Staff Writer
Transylvania maybe home to Dracula and some Halloween lore, but Wind Creek State Park’s Fall Festival is quickly making its way up the Halloween bucket lists. Saturday, the park hosted its 10th Fall Festival, one that has grown every year thanks to park staff and volunteers. Park Manager Gerad Martin said this year was a success. “We are full,” Martin said Saturday
evening. “The campground is full. We had 2,000 to 3,000 people at the carnival and people are still coming in to trick or treat.” Now many of the campers return each year and take part in the festivities. vThe Thornton family had been coming to Wind Creek for years but only recently discovered the fall festival. “I just love Halloween,” Sandra Capps said. “We had been coming to Wind Creek for years with my father.” See FESTIVAL • Page 11
Notasulga woman killed in Sunday ATV crash STAFF REPORT TPI Staff
Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s Alabama State Troopers were called to investigate a Sunday accident that claimed the life a young Notasulga woman. Troopers received a call at 7:48 p.m. Sunday with a report of an accident involving 2008 See CRASH • Page 3
Lake Watch celebrates 25 years of service
Today’s
Weather
87 63 High
By BETSY ILER TPI Magazine Editor
Lake Watch Lake Martin Sunday afternoon celebrated 25 years of monitoring water quality in Lake Martin with a luncheon and program featuring Dr. Bill Deutsch, retired director of Alabama Water Watch, at the Oscar C. Dunn Rotary Environmental Center at Camp ASCCA in Jackson’s Gap. The volunteer water-monitoring organization was founded in 1991 to protect and improve the water quality after a city landfill leakage in 1989 threatened the lake. Since then, Lake Watch has been instrumental in providing water quality data that led to the 2011 Treasured Lake designation for Lake Martin. Lake Watch also has worked on water quality issues that include the relicensing of Martin See LAKE WATCH • Page 3
Hardwood Floors Ceramic Tile Carpet & Vinyl Locally Owned for Over 45 Years
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Low
Lake Martin
Lake Levels
485.16
Reported on 10/17/16 @ 7 p.m.
Cliff Williams / The Outlook
LACEY HOWELL 256.307.2443
Horizons Unlimited holds last presentation Fryre Gaillard, a writer in residence at the University of South Alabama, speaks with Horizons Unlimited about his study of Jimmy Carter. Gaillard was the last presentation this semster as Horizons Unlimited celebrates 25 years in Alexander City.
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