INSIDE TODAY Local teams compete in softball regionals
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See pictures of area graduates.
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SPORTS, PAGE A7
THE WETUMPKA HERALD Elmore County’s Oldest Newspaper - Established 1898
Wetumpka, AL 36092
50¢
WEDNESDAY • MAY 17, 2017
THEWETUMPKAHERALD.COM
VOL. 119, NO. 20
Snail Trail, armory transfer discussed by council
By DAVID GRANGER Managing Editor
The Wetumpka City Council heard plans Monday from the executive director of Main Street Wetumpka to dedicate three areas in the city to a multi-faceted effort based around the tulotoma magnifica, or river snail, which is native to the Wetumpka area of the Coosa River and once was very near extinction, but saved “through the efforts of human hands and the Clean Water
Act.” Main Street Wetumpka Executive Director Jenny Stubbs outlined plans for the green space adjacent to the Elmore County Historical Museum, the “fall line” between the city’s driver’s license office and Coaches Corner and the alley connecting Company and Hill streets. Stubbs said the fall-line area would be the premier location of the trail, which she described as “an art history project of sorts that would promote and reinforce the
identity of our downtown as a safe, familyfriendly, multigenerational and multicultural place to live and work.” The areas would be branded by the river snail, much as black bears brand similar areas in Cherokee, North Carolina and other creatures and items similarly brand other cities across the country. “We intend this as being complementary to the revitalization of our downtown,” Stubbs said. Stubbs said the project would be called
the Tulotoma Snail Trail and would serve many purposes, including tourism, art, and various educational efforts, such as conservation and other sciences. In the action portion of the meeting, the Council voted 4-1 to transfer the old armory property on U.S. 231 to the recently established Coosa River Health Authority for the purposes of providing additional healthcare in the city and community. See COUNCIL • Page A3
Officials respond to WPD police chief’s public grievances By COREY ARWOOD Staff Writer
David Granger / The Outlook
Troopers work truck crash An eighteen-wheeler barely missed a series of brick columns in front of Hillside Mortuary on Alabama Highway 9 Friday evening in an effort to avoid a flat-bed trailer that had come loose from a Chevrolet pickup truck. The eighteen-wheeler missed the columns, but did destroy a large bush on the south side of the Hillside entrance. An Alabama State Trooper could be seen administering the driver of the pickup a series of field sobriety tests, but he was not arrested. No one was hurt in the accident.
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The city’s top cop took to the pages of a local monthly publication for area events and city government communications to air his grievances with federal legislation that banned imprisonment for failure to pay. The banned practice, called modern day debtor’s prison, actively locks up those who cannot pay their fines. Multiple nearby cities have faced penalties for its practice. But it was not all Wetumpka Police Chief Danny Billingsley had to write about in The Wetumpka Gazette. In the six-graph column he also referred to talks with “a municipal judge” and advice that judge allegedly gave him about his department and the way it operates. Billingsley, in his column, begins with the challenges and dangers his officers face policing traffic in the city, largely along Highway 231. Billingsley states statistics from the WPD for moving violations, and then municipal court numbers on cases that See CHIEF • Page A3
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By COREY ARWOOD Staff Writer
In what could be viewed as a statement supporting what are referred to as “modern day debtor’s prisons,” Wetumpka Police Chief Danny Billingsley wrote a column for a paper detailing his beliefs the “system is not working.” The system that he was referring to was one in which those who cannot afford to pay their fines are not locked up for being unable to pay for traffic violations, however minor. His comments were restricted solely to nonviolent misdemeanor See SPLC • Page A3
Heroin overdose call leads to multiple drug arrests By COREY ARWOOD Staff Writer
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Southern Poverty Law Center responds to Chief’s remarks
Elmore County Sheriff’s Officials released a report describing a residenceturned drug den, an overdose and a sevenmonth pregnant woman admitting to the use of heroin, painkillers and likely harming the unborn child. Sheriff Bill Franklin said there were three people arrested, a heroin overdose and a charge of chemical endangerment to an unborn child. For more details, he said the ECSO had prepared a written statement. All information was taken from the report. It states that on Thursday morning ECSO received a call to an address in the 600 block of Lake Eagle Nest Drive, where deputies found a man, Cody Ingram, unresponsive. Details of his condition indicated he
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Mobley
had been carried outside from within the residence and at some point dropped resulting in a cut to his mouth. He was later transported to Elmore Community Hospital, where he was reported to be in critical condition. The three individuals charged were listed as Timothy Dare Lacy II, 28, Monica Nicole Mobley, 28, and Joseph Keon Bowe, 30. Lacy was charged with three failures to appear for Wetumpka police and possession
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of drug paraphernalia. Mobley was charged with chemical endangerment to a child and possession of drug paraphernalia. Joseph Keon Bowe, 30, was arrested on charges of obstruction and resisting arrest. Mobley was said to be the girlfriend of Lacy who told deputies he suspected Ingram had overdosed when they arrived. Lacy was reported to have had prior warrants for his arrest, and after investigators spoke with them about the incident the report stated they said another man, a Michael Austin, sold the heroin to Ingram resulting in his overdose. However it was said that neither saw the transaction nor Ingram using the drugs, “but Michael admitted to them that he had done so prior to fleeing the residence with the rest of his drug stash,” the report stated. Futher, according to the report of their testimony to investigators, Austin, his See BUST • Page A2