NAEC Alabama Living April 2020

Stories | Recipes | Events | People | Places | Things | Local News April 2020

North Alabama Electric Cooperative

Two paws up Animal shelter gives pets new leash on life

North Alabama Electric Cooperative “Making Electric Energy available to its members at the lowest cost, consistent with sound economy and good management since 1940.”

ALABAMA LIVING is delivered to some 420,000 Alabama families and businesses, which are members of 22 not-for-profit, consumer-owned, locally directed and taxpaying electric cooperatives. Subscriptions are $12 a year for individuals not subscribing through participating Alabama electric cooperatives. Alabama Living (USPS 029-920) is published monthly by the Alabama Rural Electric Association of Cooperatives. Periodicals postage paid at Montgomery, Alabama, and at additional mailing office.

POSTMASTER send forms 3579 to: Alabama Living, P.O. Box 244014 Montgomery, Alabama 36124-4014.

F E A T U R E S

VOL. 73 NO. 4  APRIL 2020

home

6 FURever Shelter committed to saving animals

ALABAMA RURAL ELECTRIC ASSOCIATION

AREA President Fred Braswell Editor Lenore Vickrey Managing Editor Allison Law Creative Director Mark Stephenson Art Director Danny Weston Advertising Director Jacob Johnson Graphic Designer/Ad Coordinator Brooke Echols Communications Coordinator Laura Stewart

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ADVERTISING & EDITORIAL OFFICES:

340 TechnaCenter Drive Montgomery, Alabama 36117-6031 1-800-410-2737 For advertising, email: advertising@areapower.com For editorial inquiries, email: contact@alabamaliving.coop NATIONAL ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE:

American MainStreet Publications 611 South Congress Ave., Suite 504 Austin, Texas 78704 1-800-626-1181 www.AMP.coop www.alabamaliving.coop USPS 029-920 • ISSN 1047-0311

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11 Spotlight 29 Around Alabama 34 Cook of the Month 40 Outdoors 41 Fish & Game Forecast 46 Hardy Jackson’s Alabama ONLINE: alabamaliving.coop ON THE COVER

Look for this logo to see more content online!

Printed in America from American materials

D E P A R T M E N T S

Rescue pup plays at Safe Haven animal shelter in Scottsboro. See story, Page 6.

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WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

ONLINE: www.alabamaliving.coop EMAIL: letters@alabamaliving.coop MAIL: Alabama Living 340 Technacenter Drive Montgomery, AL 36117

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Sign up at alabamaliving.coop APRIL 2020 3

North Alabama Electric Cooperative Payment Options

By Mail: P.O. Box 628 Stevenson, AL 35772

By Phone: 800-941-3561 Online: www.naecoop.com/ pay-bill In Person: Monday - Friday 7:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Woodville Office: Monday - Friday 7:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Contact Us Headquarters: 41103 U.S. Hwy. 72 Stevenson, AL 35772 256-437-2281 Electric Service: 256-437-2281 or 800-572-2900 Fiber Service: 256-437-5000

MAKE A CHANGE THIS EARTH DAY Earth Day provides an annual opportunity for people around the world to make positive changes that can improve our environment. At North Alabama Electric Cooperative, the day is a reminder that being good stewards of the environment is part of our commitment to bringing our members safe, reliable and affordable power.

Electricity can provide a cleaner way to power vehicles and appliances that have traditionally depended on fossil fuels. In fact, according to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, a shift to full electrification for homes, businesses and transportation could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 70%. n

Try making these small changes around your house to be more efficient this Earth Day: 7Turn

off the lights when leaving a room.

7Unplug

appliances and other electronics when you aren’t using them.

7Adjust

the temperature of your water heater to 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

7Replace

inefficient incandescent light bulbs with efficient CFLs or LEDs.

Looking for more ways to reduce your carbon footprint on Earth Day and beyond?

7Use

environmentally friendly, nontoxic cleaning products.

7Carpool

or ride a bike to school or work.

7Recycle

paper, plastic and glass. Stop using single-use plastics like bottles, bags and straws.

7Switch

to online billing to save trees and the fuel it takes to deliver your bills.

7Choose

reusable bottles and mugs for water and coffee.

7Conserve

water by only watering your lawn early in the morning or late at night.

7Set your thermostat 2 degrees lower in the winter and 2 degrees higher in the summer.

7Use

rechargeable batteries, and recycle batteries from small appliances and electronics.

Office Hours: Monday - Friday 7:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

After Hour Emergencies: 256-437-1100 or 800-572-2900 Fiber - 256-437-5000 4  APRIL 2020

www.alabamaliving.coop

Calling 811 protects you and your community Digging before checking for underground utility lines not only risks service interruptions for your neighbors, but it can also lead to personal injury. Still, a 2019 survey conducted by the Common Ground Alliance found that nearly half of homeowners don’t call their local utility notification center before digging.

If you plan to dig on your property, even if only a couple of inches deep, call 811 to protect yourself and your community.

CALL — Dial 811 two to three days before work is set to begin to notify your local one-call center of your plans to dig. You can also make a request online by visiting al811.com. The center will notify affected utilities.

WAIT — Wait for the affected utilities to respond to your request. On average, it will take the center two to three days to provide you a list of utilities that were notified.

MARK — Confirm that all utilities have responded to your request and have marked any underground lines on your property.

STEER CLEAR — The marks provided by utilities are your guide. Respect them and steer clear of digging on marked ground. If you are unable to maintain the marks during your project, please call 811 to request a re-mark.

DIG — Be careful when you dig. If you can’t avoid digging near the marks, consider moving your project to another part of your property.

Alabama Living

APRIL 2020 5

A safe haven A SCOTTSBORO ANIMAL SHELTER DOES GOOD WORKS

She may not have known it at the time, but even as a young child growing up in Scottsboro, Melissa Utech had one calling in life – to save lives.

Utech recalls she had a “normal” upbringing, and after graduating from Scottsboro High School, she went on to work in retail, for a local bank and in various other “normal” jobs. At one point, she landed a position as a driver for a local limousine company, a role that lasted eight years.

“I loved that job, and I was living a good life at the time,” Utech says. “But then the company moved to Nashville, and I was left wondering what I was going to do next. That wasn’t a good feeling.”

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One key piece of career advice came from Utech’s father while he reminded her of her habit as a young child of “dragging up” stray animals of every kind to the house. Unbeknownst to the rest of her family, she would even sneak them into her bedroom to take care of them.

“Dad recommended I try and do something about my passion for animals and see what happens,” Utech says. “So I started pet sitting for people, and next thing you knew, I’m pet sitting for the owners of High Country Toyota, who had six rescue dogs. I did that for two years, and they recognized my passion and told me I should start my own rescue operation.”

Two appreciative rescues greet Melissa Utech with a kiss.

www.alabamaliving.coop

Challenging mission

And, as they say, the rest is history.

Since 2006, when Utech started Safe Haven No Kill Animal Shelter, she’s found homes for thousands of pets, not only in North Alabama but also throughout the country and even in Canada. But the road certainly has had its ups and downs.

For starters, deciding exactly where she would run her operation was a challenge. Ultimately, however, Utech and her husband of eight years found the most suitable site for the shelter – for the time being, at least – to be at their Scottsboro home. It’s not the preferred scenario, but finding homes for unwanted pets has been her life’s mission from day one, even if that means sacrificing personal space.

“Safe Haven essentially is our home, literally 24/7,” Utech says. “A lot of it is in our garage. We’ve had it heated and cooled.

And there have been some crazy times when we’ve had crates in our kitchen, our living room and all over the inside of our house. Sometimes it would be slow, when we’d be down to maybe five dogs, and then all of a sudden the phone would ring off the hook and we’d have 40 or 50 or more.

You never know, but we just do whatever it takes.”

Originally, Utech would keep in close contact with animal shelters throughout North Alabama — the Scottsboro Jackson County Animal Shelter, the Humane Society locations in Jackson County and Marshall County, and many others throughout the area – and be ready to rescue animals that were scheduled for euthanasia.

Alabama Living

It was often a daunting task, to say the least, but a small network of local foster homes often helped ease the need to temporarily house all of those animals herself.

Supportive network

Today, amid a groundswell of new no-kill operations like hers that have stepped up within her network to share the responsibility of finding homes for unwanted animals — Sandy Paws in Oxford, Alabama, and Frosty Fosters in Wisconsin, among many others — Utech has been able to turn her focus more toward pets that need to be relocated from existing homes. And there are plenty of those to keep her busy.

Utech remains thankful to carry on her rescue operation backed by her most loyal supporters who have been with her from Safe Haven’s earliest days. The ownership at High Country Toyota continues to provide financial support. And a Hollywood television producer named Cheryl Bauman, who adopted a border collie-Great Pyrenees mix puppy from the shelter back in 2007, takes every opportunity to spread the word about Utech’s rescue efforts.

“She’s been one of my best friends as a result of this,” Utech says. “We talk just about every day, and we’ve done a lot through the years.”

One of Bauman’s efforts to publicize Safe Haven involved a proposed reality show in 2010 called “Rescue Chicks,” featuring Utech and herself traveling the country saving unwanted pets. Bauman was never able to find the funding or support to bring that proposal to reality.

Later, Utech wrote a children’s book called “California Girl” that features the puppy Bauman originally adopted and the unlikely “perfect life” the puppy was able to go on to experience thanks to the adoption.

“It’s a rags-to-riches story about a farm dog that becomes a Hollywood wildflower,” Utech says. “It was heavy on my heart at the time and was more something I envisioned we could get into the hands of children who live in foster homes to help them find the hope that there’s a better life out there for them.

“I haven’t been able to find anyone to publish the book, but that’s another thing that sort of speaks to who I am and what we’re trying to do for not only the animals we rescue, but for all people who are looking for forever homes,” she says. “That’s just my calling, whether it’s animals or people, no matter how you look at it.” n

APRIL 2020 7

HOW TO FIX

A BLOWN FUSE OR TRIPPED BREAKER

When the lights go out, most members’ first instinct is to call North Alabama Electric Cooperative so our linemen can fix the problem. But not all outages are caused by trouble on the cooperative’s system, which means you might be able to quickly restore power.

In most cases, you may just need to fix a blown fuse or a tripped breaker caused by too much electric current passing through your home’s wiring. If your house is the only one on the street without power, try taking these easy steps to find a quick and safe fix.

Put safety first — If you hear a “pop” noise from your circuit breaker or fuse box, there may be an electrical short or loose wire. These can be dangerous, so call an electrician to make repairs.

Find your fuse box — Fuse boxes or circuit breakers are usually located in a stairwell, closet, basement or garage. Look for a small, metal door with a series of fuses, which look like cylindrical light bulbs, or circuit breakers, which look like large light switches.

Read the circuit list — On the inside of the door, there should be a list telling you which outlets and lights are connected to each circuit. You can refer to this to find the overloaded circuit.

Fix the problem — For a fuse box, check the blown fuse to determine if it is a 15-, 20or 30-amp fuse. Replace the blown fuse with a new one of the same rating.

For a circuit breaker, look for a tripped breaker that has been forced out of position.

The direction of a tripped breaker will depend on how it was installed, but it should be out of line with the others. Set the tripped breaker back to the “on” position. n

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