discover st. clair june & july 2016

Light Flight • Skilled Training Returns • The CollectorPony Car Museum • Fall Frenzy • Conserve Alabama • D-Day Veteran

June & July 2016

Hazelwood’sGREENHOUSES

& NURSERYA quarter century of

growing nature’s beauty

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Join us as we partner with 8 local dealers for our 6th Annual Car Sale Event. We’ll have a team onsite to assist with questions and financing. The two day event is happening at Heritage South Credit Union’s Hwy 280 Main Branch in Sylacauga - don’t miss it.

April 8 - 9Friday & Saturday

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6th Annual Car Sale Event!Auto Loan with rates as low as .99% APR*

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April 8 - 9Friday & Saturday

Over 200+ Cars and 8+ Dealers to choose from.

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Come see where dreams come true.On a 400 acre, real working farm inRagland, Joe and Deloma Waltersraise purebred black angus cows, but they also welcome visitors from all over the country for weddings. The venue is a huge, old-styled, rustic barn with a view of the CoosaRiver. Down a gentle slope, closer to the river, are rustic benches and a very large, magnificent vine arbor for outdoor weddings. For more information please visit the websiteand FB page!

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Walters Farms Weddings & EventsOwners Joe & Deloma Walters

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Walters Farms Weddings & EventsWalters Farms Weddings & Events

Features and ArticlesDiscover The Essence of St. Clair

June & July 2016

Conserve AlAbAmAStudents get first-hand experience

Page 30D-DAy veterAn

Memories of the WarPage 34

mArGAret, Al.Boomtown again

2We’re No. 1

Page 53Notably Margaret

Page 54

teAGue merCAntile

Ashville tradition since 1918Page 60

business reviewTraining a new generation

Page 68PCHS grads on the job

Page 74Mustang Museum coming to Odenville

Page 42

www.discoverstclair.com

Daring menand theirflying machines

Page 16

Page 8

Inside acollector’scollection

Page 24

Welcometo the Fall FrenzyPage 56

Growing beautyin St. Clair


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Writers AND PhotographersCarol Pappas is editor and publisher of Dis-cover St. Clair Magazine. A retired newspaper executive, she served as editor and publisher of several newspapers and magazines during her career. She won dozens of writing awards in features, news and commentary and was named Distinguished Alabama Community Journalist at Auburn University. After retiring, she launched her own multimedia company, Partners by Design Inc. In addition to marketing, design and web services for companies and nonprof-its, Partners publishes Discover, various community magazines for chambers of commerce and Mosaic Magazine, a biannual publication of Alabama Humanities Foundation.

Carol Pappas

Jerry C. Smith’s interest in photography and writing go back to his teen years. He has produced numerous articles, stories and photographs for local websites and regional newspapers and magazines, including the St. Clair County News, Sand Mountain Living, and Old Tennessee Valley. His photos have appeared in books, on national public television, in local art displays and have captured prizes in various contests.

Jerry C. SmithMike Callahan is a freelance photographer who resides on Logan Martin Lake in Pell City. He specializes in commercial, nature and family photography. Mike’s work has been published in Outdoor Alabama Magazine, Alabama Trucking Association and Alabama Concrete Industries magazines. Publishing his work to the internet frequently, he has won many hon-ors for pictures of the day and week.

Mike Callahan

For almost 30 years, Leigh Pritchett has been involved in the publishing industry. She was employed for 11 years by The Gadsden Times, ultimately becoming Lifestyle editor. Since 1994, she has been a freelance writer. Her work has appeared in online and print venues. She holds the Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Montevallo.

Leigh Pritchett

Wally graduated from Auburn Universitywhere he graduated in 1976 with his BA inHistory and minors in German and Education. Wally’s skills in photography blossomedduring college.After a 30-year career, he de-cided to dust off his camera skills and pursue photography full time.

Wallace Bromberg Jr.

Elaine Hobson Miller is a freelance writer with a B.A. in Journalism from Samford University. She was the first female to cover Birmingham City Hall for the Birmingham Post-Herald, where she worked as reporter, food editor and features writer. A former editor of Birmingham Home & Garden magazine and staff writer for Birmingham magazine, she has written for a variety of local, regional and national publications.

Elaine Hobson Miller

Jim Smothers had his first work published in The Gadsden Times in the late 1960s when his father, sports editor Jimmy Smothers, had him take games called in from youth sports coaches and put a camera in his hands at Jacksonville State basketball games. For more than 40 years he has been a writer, photographer, graphic artist and editor at publications in central Alabama for which he has won dozens of Associated Press awards. He has degrees from Jacksonville State University and the University of Montevallo and also studied at the Winona School of Professional Photography.

Jim Smothers

Linda Long has worked in communications for more than 25 years in print, broadcast, nonprofit promotion and special event planning and imple-mentation. Her writing has appeared in Business Alabama Magazine, Technology Alabama, Mo-bile Bay Monthly, Birmingham News, Hunts-ville Times, Partners Magazine, Birmingham Magazine, Alabama Alive, Cahaba Talk, Hoover Outlook and Shelby Living. She served as news and special projects producer for NBC13 News, where her work won national, regional and state honors, including two Emmy Award nominations.

Linda Long

Susan Wall moved to Logan Martin Lake from Birmingham, where she worked as a critical care nurse. Alongside the nursing career, she owned Dreamscapes Photography, a portrait and wedding studio. Winner of the 2010 Au-gust Moore award at the Bluff Park Art Show, with numerous publications in magazines and the Kodak Instructional Magazine, her passion now is digital painting and portraits.

Susan WallPaul South, a native of Fairfield, Ala., is an Au-burn graduate with a degree in journalism and a double minor in history. He also has a Juris Doctorate degree from the Birmingham School of Law. Although sports writing was always his first love, South had a remarkably versa-tile career as a reporter, columnist and editor. Before transitioning to newspapers, South was the first full-time sports information director at Samford University in Birmingham

Paul South

7

Discover The Essence of St. ClairJune and July 2016 • Vol. 30 • www.discoverstclair.com

Carol Pappas • Editor and PublisherGraham Hadley • Managing Editor and Designer

Brandon Wynn • Director of Online ServicesMike Callahan • Photography

Wallace Bromberg Jr. • PhotographySusan Wall • PhotographyDale Halpin • Advertising

A product of Partners by Designwww.partnersmultimedia.com

6204 Skippers CovePell City, AL 35128

205-335-0281Printed at Russell Printing, Alexander City, AL

I have always been fascinated by history. It came as no surprise it was one of my minors in college. Years earlier, I even aspired to become a history teacher, but that was short lived when my mother spotted my ability to turn a phrase in just the right way in a book report I authored. “You ought to major in journalism,” she wisely told me.

I did, and I have been making a living at it in one form or another ever since.

So that’s the story behind my story. History. It not only tells us what happened in the past, it beckons us to see the present and the future through a different lens and how the past can shape it.

And it is the story behind Discover Magazine and how the anecdotal-filled histories of people, places and things shaped St. Clair County.

For the past five years, we have told dozens upon dozens of those stories behind the story, but we certainly could not have done it alone. We had plenty of help along the way from a woman who long ago turned a job into a mission that St. Clair County’s history would never be forgotten. And it hasn’t.

Her name, of course, is Charlene Simpson, the curator at St. Clair Archives and History, who retired in April. From a back office on the courthouse square in Ashville, she reigned over yellow-paged deed books, vintage photos, aged maps and artifacts as if they were treasure. To her – and to us – they are indeed like buried riches finally unearthed to tell a story. Many stories.

Their worth alone is rivaled by the knowledge she has gleaned from them and her predecessor, Mattie Lou Teague Crow, to help us tell those stories. It’s why we know how Ashville was founded in 1817 when a wagon train headed for Shelby County didn’t make it because of a tragic accident involving the death of John Ash’s 3-year-old daughter. The family simply couldn’t bear to leave her behind in a wilderness grave. They stayed. And a town was born.

It is how we know coal mines built communities like Margaret and Coal City. Or how Gen. Andrew Jackson staked his claim on Ft. Strother in Ragland. And a famous author of Western novels grew up in Odenville.

From the Editor

History and the story

The historic treasures of Simpson and company have led us to new heights of enlightenment about our past atop Chandler Mountain and inside Horse Pens 40, where centuries-old rock formations draw boulder climbers from around the world.

We see more clearly days gone by, where a spring once drew people from all around to appropriately named, Springville. Today, we see Moody bustling from its once ‘crossroads’ beginnings, and we muse over how Pell City was founded not once, but twice, eventually evolving into a thriving city.

Those are the gifts of generations past that Charlene Simpson has given us to place history firmly into context. And as she bids farewell to her job, we are confident her mission will never cease.

Thank you, Charlene. You have given us the gift of discovery. In the pages that follow, you, too, can discover it all with us.

Carol PappasEditor and Publisher

Charlene Simpson, heroic historian

8 DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2016

Light Flight

A stand-up comic once joked, “If God had meant for people to fly, He would have given them a lot more money.” He got pained laughs from several private pilots in his audience who knew what it costs to get a license, buy a plane, fly it, hangar it and keep it in safe condition.

Whether you’re rich or poor, the sky shamelessly seduces those who envy the freedom of birds. Prior to the late 1970s, aviation was well out of reach to most folks who did not fly for a living, but a few entrepreneurs found a way to bring powered flight to practically anyone with the courage to try it.

Imagine a huge kite made of ripstop Dacron sailcloth, a frame and pilot seat resembling an elaborate lawn chair, a couple of lawn-mower wheels and a tiny engine scrounged from a snowmobile. Lace it all together with a maze of steel cables and, voila, you have an ultralight airplane – a true bird of ‘pray.’

Ultralights quickly became a poor man’s magic flying carpet, a dream come true for those without the means or desire to own a “regular” airplane. If you could afford a decent fishing boat and were fairly adept with hand tools, you could build your own plane in a few dozen hours from a mail-order kit, then fly it from a nearby pasture.

Best of all, you didn’t need a license to fly one, and still don’t even to this day, as long as the plane meets certain federal

guidelines of construction and operation. Flight training, if any, was given in two-seater variants by licensed local dealers, but many were flown entirely on guts alone.

Since a true ultralight has only one seat, that first test flight was also the pilot’s first solo in that type of plane, which can intimidate even a trained private pilot.

Odenville resident Hoke Graham was one of the first to fly and sell such machines in the area. He tells of trying to foot-launch his Easy Riser, one of the first ultralights, which originally had no wheels. It was actually an Icarus biplane hang glider which had been fitted with a tiny, 10 horsepower, two-cycle motor made by Chrysler.

Hoke relates, “When we test-ran the engine in my motorcycle shop, the propeller blast blew papers all over the place and slung oil everywhere before we could get it shut off. We like to have never got it all cleaned up.”

Ultralights became so popular so fast that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) created a whole new category for them, outlined in Part 103 of Federal Aviation Regulations. In essence, ultralights were designed for a single pilot, flown locally for daytime recreational use only, and according to some stringent rules.

The plane could weigh no more than 254 pounds empty, carry

D A R I N G M E N A N D T H E I R F LY I N G M A C H I N E S

Story and photos by Jerry C. Smith

Your writer in American

Aerolights Eagle in1983

Joe West with his Challenger


Light Flighta maximum of 5 gallons of fuel, and fly no faster than 55 knots at full power. It is illegal to fly an ultralight over an assemblage of people or settled area, after dark, or within controlled airspace where the big boys fly.

Because of weight and performance restrictions, ultralights have few if any spare parts. They’re shy on horsepower, creature comforts and redundant safety features found on more conventional aircraft.

It’s as minimalist as powered flight can possibly be, but for many, including your writer, they were the fulfillment of a boyhood dream. The Wright brothers would have loved them; indeed, their first Flyer would have qualified had it been made of lighter materials.

While there are still a few single-seaters around, sport aviation has shifted in more recent years to a two-seated variety, many of which look and handle almost identically to the standard version but aren’t true ultralights. You need a private pilot or light sport pilot license to fly one.

Besides all the various quasi-ultralight designs, the relatively-new light sport category includes home-builts, most experimentals and other small aircraft, such as Taylorcraft, Piper Cub and Breezy, which fall within a fully-loaded weight limit of 1,320 pounds.

Many two-seated derivatives use engines of as much as 100 hp, more than triple the power of older single-seaters, and can easily fly 90 mph. Because of a higher weight allowance, they can be outfitted with all kinds of instruments, safety equipment, redundant controls, etc that a Part 103 machine could never carry.

Pell City’s Joe West owns such a plane. It’s a larger version of a Challenger ultralight, made in Moline, Ill., by Quad City Aircraft Ultralight Aircraft Corp. It has a much more powerful engine, two seats, larger fuel tank and is about double the weight of its ultralight sisters.

Joe spent more than two years building it and holds one of the first light sport licenses issued in the area. His superbly crafted plane sports a dazzling green and white paint job and mounts a 52-hp engine designed especially for light aircraft by an Austrian firm, Rotax, which also builds snow machine engines for Bombardier of Canada. It allows him to cruise smoothly at 60 to 70 mph.

Joe is a real craftsman who is not averse to improvisation. In fact, the sheet metal for his instrument panel was salvaged from an old octagonal city stop sign. Everything on his plane is neat, precise and by-the-book, including an emergency parachute that can be instantly activated from both seats.

The plane’s nose art reads TINKER TOY, a moniker inspired by a fellow firefighter in Birmingham who liked to tease him about all the small airplane parts he fiddled with while not on duty, saying the intricate components looked like Tinker Toys.

He’s a frequent flyer around Pell City and has flown his Challenger for about 15 years. But Joe doesn’t limit his range of operations to local “patch-flying.” He and several other Challenger owners once flew from Pell City to a sponsored aviation meet in the Great Lakes region, near the Quad City factory.

Another local light-flyer, Cropwell contractor Tommy Thompson, is also a highly skilled artisan, both on the job and as an experimental aircraft hobbyist. He has built and flown four kit planes over the years, each a finely crafted work of flying art.

Joe West pre-flights cockpit and instruments

Joe West’s Challenger at Pell

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On final for landing in Challenger at Pell City Airport


His Loehle P5151 Mustang was a 3/4 scale replica of one of the world’s finest warplanes. Tommy painted it blue, white and orange; named it Miss War Eagle; and was granted a tail number ending in WE. It was always a hit at air shows and fly-in events held by the Experimental Aircraft Association, of which Tommy was president of local Chapter 1320 until its dissolution in recent years.

So what’s it like to fly an ultralight or experimental? Depends on the design. Back in the 1980’s, your writer owned an American Aerolights Eagle. It had a smaller wing, called a canard, mounted in front of the main airfoil. This made it nearly stall proof and very easy to fly, even for a novice pilot. The Eagle took off, flew, climbed, descended and landed at about the same speed, 25-30 mph. We joked that, like a Piper Cub, it flew just fast enough to kill you.

I flew mine while suspended in a child’s swing seat which hung by a slender strap from a main body tube. Below this seat was nothing but open sky, all the way to the ground. Needless to say, that strap was rigorously inspected before every flight, as were all other vital parts which, in reality, included EVERY part of the plane.

Other models look and handle more like conventional aircraft, with true three-axis controls and the familiar T-shaped fuselage. Most ultralight aircraft can virtually leap off a runway in 200 feet or less and land in almost any clearing. Indeed, on occasion, these pilots would take off across the old bomber runway at Talladega.

But there is a penalty for this feather-like agility. You should not fly unless the air is mostly calm. Flights are usually made in early morning or near sunset. Planes stayed in the hangar if treetops were spotted moving.

I’ve encountered sudden gusts in advance of unseen weather fronts that actually left me flying backwards, despite running full throttle. My only recourse was to drop behind a treeline at almost ground level and quickly land before the wind shifted.

An unwritten rule was observed by practically everyone: Never fly over anything you can’t land on. With no redundant parts and an engine that could fail at any time without notice, keeping a landing spot underneath was mandatory.

But all such hazards aside, the flight itself was exhilarating, possibly the most fun a dauntless bird-man could have in public. We usually flew lower than 500 feet, enjoying the sights, even the smells, as rural Alabama drifted leisurely beneath our dangling rumps.

Our flying grounds included the environs of Talladega Speedway in our earlier days and Washington Valley and Chandler Mountain after we moved to Cool Springs near Ashville. It’s one of the most scenic parts of St. Clair — even more so from the air.

The good people of Cool Springs and Caldwell gracefully tolerated our weekend noise, so we always invited them to our airfield cookouts and watermelon cuttings. Livestock in Washington Valley became so accustomed to our presence that they no longer stampeded or looked up in fear of a giant, raucous hawk passing overhead.

The group I flew with in the early 1980s was known as Four Seasons Aviation, a three-man corporation operated by Hoke Graham, Jack Porter and Mike Pair. They sold Eagle ultralights and provided flight training, first at Talladega Airport, later at the Cool Springs site.

Cool Springs Airdrome was laid out on an old horse farm on CR 31, between Ashville and Springville, near Canoe Creek at AL 23. A former stable was modified to serve as a hangar and business office. The airstrip was simply 1,500 feet of closely-mown pasture.

Because of the Eagle’s unique configuration, we were able to store all five resident planes in a hangar that would have barely contained one “regular” plane. We simply tilted them upright and stood them on their tail feathers.

Four Seasons was a beehive of activity on nice weekends, often hosting fly-in visitors and curious kibitzers. Because of the capricious nature of these aircraft, we had a map mounted on a steel panel, with little colored magnets for each pilot to indicate where he intended to fly. We often flew in pairs, for the same reason.

On one such junket, a friend and I were flying over Washington Valley when he spotted some lovely young women lounging beside their swimming pool. He landed in a nearby field, but I decided it was no place for a married man and flew back to the airport.

Apparently he had chosen wisely, as we didn’t see him again until a bit after sunset. In a scenario reminiscent of an old flying movie, we lit the runway with car

Light Flight


headlights to allow our resident Romeo to land safely.A couple of areas were off-limits. One of our flyers was a

deputy sheriff who warned us to avoid flying anywhere near the new St. Clair Correctional Facility as well as a certain area called Sodom and Gomorrah because of various activities that the law preferred to contain in that one place rather than having to pursue them all over the county.

Were there accidents among our ultralight community? Yes, even a few fatalities. But like real flyers everywhere, we studied and discussed each case, resolving to never become an object lesson ourselves.

For many, the incident rate became too high for comfort, so they moved on to earn a private pilot license and bought “real” airplanes. No doubt some wives added input to these decisions. However, many have since admitted that they became much better pilots as a result of things they’d learned from light flight.

Joe and I recently flew his Challenger on a photo shoot around the Pell City locality. We flitted along at a leisurely 65 mph, snapping photos of Logan Martin, downtown Pell City and certain areas north of town.

While a pure ultralight must not fly over settled areas, a rated experimental like Joe’s can be operated under more lenient standards. The visibility is spectacular to say the least, making them an ideal photo platform equaled only by glass-pod styled helicopters, and they’re exponentially cheaper to own and operate.

Another endearing quality is its real feel for flight, like you are actually involved in a natural process rather than riding an armchair in a giant flying bus. You sense every rising thermal, every wind shift and “air bump,” and enjoy a fast-acting, sensitive control response that makes you feel like part of the plane itself – a true mechanical bird-man connection. There’s

Light Flightno autopilot. You fly them every second from takeoff through landing.

Joe quipped that his plane is so well-balanced and control-sensitive that he can actually make it turn by sticking his hand out one side, like giving a turn signal. To a true light flight enthusiast, a 20-minute ride is often more satisfying, and physically tiring, than a couple of hours in a “real” airplane.

Born in Haleyville and a long-time resident of Birmingham, Joe once advised folks to never allow a hobby to dictate where you live, but reneged on his own tenet while flying and hangaring his craft at Pell City Airport.

“After hanging out around the airport, I found out what a nice place Pell City was, and decided to live here,” he said. Indeed, his home is within easy walking distance of the main entrance at KPLR.

At age 67, Joe has seen a lot of light aircraft makers come and go. Dozens of companies jumped into the market when the category was first created, but most are long since expired, usually with good reason.

Those early years were fraught with accidents, mostly due to design faults and pilot error. He advises those interested in light sport aviation to research FAA files and thoroughly check out the accident records of any aircraft they plan to purchase or build from a kit.

“Look for companies like Quad City that have been in business the longest, preferably under original ownership,” he says. He also advises to seek skilled, licensed training before attempting any solo flight in any aircraft, whether ultralight or otherwise. Even though they fly relatively slowly, irreversible things can happen very quickly.

He remarked that the handling characteristics of his Challenger makes him feel connected to early pioneers such as the Wright brothers. Having flown several such machines myself, I heartily agree. It’s the real thing – a natural high.

Though he’s a quiet, unassuming man to casual acquaintances, Joe’s sincere enthusiasm for this genre of aviation becomes obvious once you get to know him, fly with him, and check out the workmanship and safety record of his plane. Retired from the Birmingham Fire Department, he now works part-time at a local hardware big-box to, in his words, “make some flying and eating-out money.”

Joe says, “Sport aviation is sort of winding down as a hobby because the ones who started it are getting old, and nobody is replacing them. We need for more kids to get involved with groups like Civil Air Patrol and the EAA.”

He adds a sentimental note: “If someone ever gets a chance to go flying, especially someone who has never gone up, I strongly urge them to go up and see the sights that are restricted to a fortunate few people and to be mesmerized by the wonders that they have missed all their life.”

The late Glenn Messer, world’s oldest living pilot, who passed away just days short of his 100th birthday in 1995, expressed to me that one of his biggest regrets was that he never flew an ultralight. He had been blinded by a failed eye surgery a few years before these aircraft became popular.

Mr. Messer used to sit in the lobby at Birmingham’s Southern Museum of Flight and chat with visitors about his long, colorful flying career, which included giving Charles Lindberg a check ride in his new Curtiss Jenny back in the 1920s.

He should know of what he spoke. The pilot license he proudly showed to visitors was signed by Orville Wright. l

Hoke Graham with Easy Riser in 1979

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& NURSERYStory by Carol PappasPhotos by Susan Wall

John Hazelwood squinted as a streak of sunlight parted cloudy skies above, accentuating the creases in his face – the unmistakable signature of a man whose earned them in a lifetime spent outdoors.

It is outside at Hazelwood’s Greenhouses and Nursery where he feels comfortable, fulfilled, surrounded by the flowers, plants, shrubs and trees he has grown. And all the while, he has nurtured a business others can enjoy, too.

For more than a quarter of a century, Hazelwood has been doing what came natural to him – digging in the dirt, planting a seed and watching his creations grow. He grew up on a nearby farm of his family’s, and his chores including gardening. Was he always interested in growing? Not necessarily. “My daddy took an interest in me growing things,” Hazelwood mused. “I had seven brothers and two sisters. He made sure we had plenty of work to do.”

The farm where he once labored as a boy has now become growing fields for the business he built a greenhouse at a time.

Atop a hillside in Pell City, almost hidden from view of passersby, is Hazelwood’s, the business that has become a tradition around these parts. His colorful handiwork at Mt. Zion Church is a hint you’re getting close. With a chuckle, he calls it his billboard, but it really is a ministry of his.

A quarter centuryof growing nature’s beauty in St. Clair


John Hazelwood

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After high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, intending to be an X-ray technician. But after four years, he figured he could pursue his future education on the GI Bill rather than re-enlist for another four years. “I figured out what I liked and what I didn’t like,” and as life has its usual twists and turns, he wound up at Auburn University, majoring in Agribusiness Education instead.

He taught in Lee County and in Odenville and eventually made his way to what is now John Pope Eden Career Technical School. He was principal his last 13 years before retiring in 2001.

Throughout his education career, he dabbled in growing. “I thought I would do a little on the side and raise some ferns,” he recalls. He bought an 80 x 25-foot, used tomato greenhouse and grew 400 ferns that year – 1985.

The manager at TG & Y, an old department store in Pell City, told him he would take them all at wholesale, but the deal fell through. He managed to sell them all, though, and people started asking if he could grow other plants. “It started snowballing,” he said.

In a couple of years, he bought another used tomato greenhouse, then another, and the business just kept coming…and growing.

In the early 1990s, he hired Harold Fairchilds, who was in the high school cooperative program. That was 25 years ago. He has been with Hazelwood ever since. So has Harold’s sister, Becky. Gayla, another sister, started a couple of years after that.

The Fairchilds siblings make up most of Hazelwood’s greenhouses and nursery ‘family,’ and he credits them significantly with the business’ success. “I can’t replace those three,” said Hazelwood. “I’d have to close up. I don’t know how I’d do it.”

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farming background, according to Becky. “At the time, it was a job. I didn’t know I would fall in love with it.”

The same holds true for Harold. “I guess I’m just comfortable here. I like being outside doing something I enjoy daily.”

And Gayla’s assessment isn’t far from her brother’s and sister’s. “Obviously, I love it, or I wouldn’t keep doing it,” she said. “I like the outdoors. I love flowers, and I love color.” It was a perfect match for her family and for Hazelwood’s. “It was the closest we could get to farming,” she said.

Harold clarified: “It’s farming in pots.”

Changing with timesOver the years, as the Hazelwood hillside landscape

changed – more greenhouses and cold frame houses and rows and rows of plants, flowers and trees – the business has changed as well. Choices grew quickly. “There are so many new plants,” Hazelwood said. “There are hundreds of new varieties every year. There are new colors, new everything. There are a couple of thousand petunias.”

Where people used to prune hedges, they now want landscape that is low or no maintenance. They pick dwarf plants. “They just don’t have time like they used to.”

But fortunately, he added, “people still like to plant trees, shrubs and flowers.” And their one constant is Hazelwood’s.

As for competition from big box stores, “we just decided to do a better job, have more quality plants at

Hazelwood’s

Hazelwood’s HintsWhen Hazelwood talks about gardening,

taking heed can guarantee the listener a much better chance at enjoying the fruits of their garden labor.

Here are his top picks for sage advice:• The main thing is water. Too much or too

little is the dilemma. Most do too little. Too much water can look like too little and can cause wilting.

• Fertilizer. Start with a good soil mix. Don’t use garden soil in pots. Read the directions!

• Watch for pests, weeds, insects and disease.

• Find something you really like. Do as much as you like, but don’t overdo it. If you do too much, you’ll end up forgetting about it.

• Start slow and work your way up over a period of time.

The Hazelwood crew, from left:

Doug Hoeppner, Gayla Fairchilds,

Brian Caldwell, Becky Fairchilds,

Chris Staples, Harold Fairchilds

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Hazelwood’sa good price and try to keep customers happy and satisfied.”

You’ll get no argument there from John and Helen Golden. They’ve been shopping at Hazelwood’s from nearly the beginning. “We’ve been buying plants here for our garden for years and years,” Golden recalls. Their favorite? “Roses,” they say, almost in unison, much like the way they talk about their shared experience at Hazelwood’s.

It’s like family serving family. It’s a trust factor, an ever ready smile and a helping hand, and one would be hard-pressed to replicate the chemistry they have with each other and with their customers. “They have good plants, and they are good people,” Golden said. “Becky is really good.”

Becky is easy to spot. She is always moving, whether it’s on foot or in a golf cart. You’ll see her toting a bag of potting soil, a plant or a cartful of essentials for the garden, all the while greeting customers with a deep South charm that belies her Missouri roots. Her attentiveness to customer service is unmistakable.

Gayla is much the same way, chattering away to customers as she creates beautiful container gardens. “I’m happiest when I’m creating,” she says. Even a work in progress seems to be good enough to buy. Her work table sign warns customers: “Please do not take plants off the table.” They seem to snatch them up as if they were a finished product, and the perfectionist in Gayla isn’t about to let them go too early.

Down in the lower part of the property, you’ll find Harold watering and watching over plants, trees and shrubs as if they were his children. “We just had a handful of shrubs when I started,” he says. Now they stretch as far as the eye can see on the property. “If you don’t like the heat, this is not the job for you. If you don’t like to get dirty, this isn’t the job for you,” he says. As for him, it’s definitely the job he loves. “I guess I’m just comfortable.”

In addition to Hazelwood’s extended family, his daughters, Shelly Martin and Kelly Staples, grew up working at the nursery. Shelly even pursued a career in landscape design after graduation from Auburn and does design work in Birmingham communities like Liberty Park as well as Pell City and surrounding areas.

Hazelwood does some landscape design work himself and is quick to offer advice to customers when needed. “Fall is the time to do landscaping,” he says. Like the Goldens, he has his favorites, too: Podacarpus for shrub; any variety of begonias for bloom; and “the old Magnolia” for a tree.

As Hazelwood looks around at the bustle of activity on this spring afternoon, recounting the journey that led him to a thriving business, he notes, “It’s something that just kind of happened. I didn’t intend to do it at all. It just grew out of starting something. I’ve been blessed. The Lord had something to do with it.” l

Don’t take Gayla’s container gardens until she says they’re ready.

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Frank Phillips holds a Bill Gordy pottery

piece.


Story by Leigh PritchettPhotos by Michael Callahan and Wallace Bromberg Jr.

It has long been said that a man’s home is his castle.

While that surely is true for Frank Phillips of Pell City, his dwelling is also a cache of artistic, literary and photographic treasures.

Surrounding him everyday are hundreds of volumes and artwork in various media, as well as photographs of historical figures and moments in life.

“I don’t just collect this stuff,” Phillips said. “I live with it. ... I look at it everyday. You might see something new in it.”

Much of the artwork is considered “outsider art,” having been produced by individuals with no formal training. Mose Tolliver, known as Mose T, was one of those.

In fact, Phillips’ collection started in 1986 with a Mose T watermelon painting he purchased directly from the artist.

“I gave him every dime I had in my pocket that day,” Phillips said.

Phillips’ art collection now boasts about 20 names. Among them are Dr. Art Bacon, Charles Lucas, Lonnie B. Holley, Fred Nall Hollis, David Driskell, Bernice Sims and Jimmy Lee Sudduth.

A few acquisitions in the Phillips coffer were rare, thrift-store finds. A sculpture by Frank Fleming was one of those, as was a pottery piece by Bill Gordy.

Phillips added to his pottery collection numerous “jug faces” by Burlon B. Craig and items from the Meaders family of artisans. One of Phillips’ favorite pieces is a 1938 Gordy bowl adorned with the state flower.

The expansive inventory of books Phillips has amassed includes many first editions signed by such noted authors as Truman Capote, James Dickey and Harper Lee.

Phillips’ assemblage also features a handmade quilt from Gee’s Bend and memorabilia marking historical and special events. One piece of memorabilia is a paper fan autographed by Phillip Alford and Mary Badham, the child actors who played “Jem” and “Scout” in the 1962 movie, To Kill a Mockingbird.

Phillips said several pieces in his trove are rather valuable.

Yet, that is not why he acquired them.

House of TreasuresInside a collector’s collection

Frank Phillips collects pottery pieces and sculptures.


“I’d like it even if it didn’t have value,” he said. “... You don’t have to have a reason to collect.”

Selected pieces from his collection have been on display in the past at Gadsden Museum of Art, Heritage Hall Museum in Talladega and, most recently, Pell City Library.

The exhibit at the library generated much interest and conversation among visitors, said Susan Mann, assistant library director.

“Frank’s collection was very well received at the library,” Mrs. Mann said. “... It was a great opportunity for people to see Southern folk art at its best. Frank graciously shared a pleasing mix of paintings, pottery, photographs and a primitive, handcrafted stringed instrument from his extensive and diverse collection. Most patrons were fascinated by the exhibit and were drawn to it, opting for an ‘up close’ view.”

Early influencesPhillips grew up in St. Clair County in a family of

nine children. When he earned his English degree from Jacksonville State University, he became the first in his family to graduate from college.

He is drawn to magnolia paintings and Southern cuisine and says that putting sugar in cornbread “is a sin.” He prefers to read the works of authors Rick Bragg, Eudora Welty and Robert Penn Warren, who all have Southern roots.

He listens to the blues, likes to travel, and serves on

House of Treasures

Frank Phillips holds a book autographed by artist Mose Tolliver (Mose T).

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House of Treasures

the executive committee of St. Clair Democratic Party.

Nonetheless, he feels an attraction to New York, Chicago, London and Paris.

“I rode a Greyhound to New York just to see a (Picasso) painting,” Phillips said.

As a young man, he went to Paris to view the gravesite of poet Gertrude Stein. “I was 20 years old in Paris by myself,” Phillips said.

Once, he saw artist Andy Warhol in Manhattan at the Museum of Modern Art. Warhol asked to autograph Phillips’ shirt, and Phillips said, “Sure!”

Even so, Phillips does not own a piece of Warhol’s art. “Who could afford that?” questions Phillips.

His recounting of that meeting with Warhol is one representation of the final piece in Phillips’ treasury. That piece is not tangible, however. It consists of details and memories about places, events and encounters with noted figures.

His conversation flows easily from one recollection to another and is peppered with observations about talents and personality traits.

With the certainty that comes from first-hand knowledge, Phillips speaks of Capote’s flamboyance and gives an account of Watergate figure G. Gordon Liddy. Phillips tells of attending JSU at the same time as Jim Folsom, Jr., who would later become Alabama’s governor; seeing Gov. Lurleen Wallace in Ragland, where she was accompanied by Hank Williams Jr. before he was a famous singer; meeting President Jimmy Carter; attending the funerals of author Kathryn Tucker Windham and civil rights leader Fred Shuttlesworth, and getting an autograph from actress Butterfly McQueen.

“I’m writing my memoirs now,” Phillips said.If the opportunity arises, Phillips wants to add

to his collection of memories – seeing the Hope Diamond and the painting, Whistler’s Mother, and attending a snake-handling service at a church. “Not to handle (a snake),” he said with a chuckle. “Just to observe. My faith is not that strong.” l

Frank Phillips has an expansive

collection of books, some of which are

autographed first editions.

Andy Warhol and Frank Phillips

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Conserve Alabama

Students getting practical experience

County officials, supervisors gather at Ag in Action trailer, a valuable teaching resource.


Story by Linda LongSubmitted photos

Jaden gets it. So does Lane T. and Jeremiah. Jada, James and Gracie say, count them in. These fourth grade students in Mrs. Abernathy’s class at Ashville Elementary School are learning how to promote healthy soil, clean water, sustainable forests and the importance of agriculture.

They’re already on board with a new imitative called Conserve Alabama. Launched by the Alabama Soil and Water Conservation Committee (SWCC), the new campaign aims to continue its mission of conserving Alabama’s natural resources.

According to Charity Mitcham, district administrative coordinator, St. Clair Conservation District, the Conserve Alabama campaign plans to increase awareness and create more interest in conserving at all levels – soil, water, forestry and agriculture. “We want future generations to be able to enjoy the beautiful Alabama we love.”

Nowhere is that future generation more engaged in their environment than in Mrs.. Abernathy’s classroom. On this day, healthy soil is the topic. Mitcham is the teacher, and the kids are the craftsmen. Their mission? To create homemade Chia Pets, which they call “Soil Babies.”

Mitcham, who laughingly admits to having been nicknamed the “Soil Baby” lady says the funny looking gizmos are good teaching tools. “I ask each kid to take their baby home and name it. Then, when the hair starts to grow, I ask them to upload a picture to us. My goal is to get those kids thinking outside the box about why it’s important to take care of our natural resources. “I want to educate them now, because if you don’t start them young, as they get older, they’re not going to put two and two together.

“The sad thing is, “ she continued, “a lot of kids think their food comes from the grocery store. I mean, yes, it does, but first it has to come from a farmer. A lot of kids don’t know that. You ask, hey, where did your food come from today, and they’ll say

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Soil Tunnel gives students firsthand look at what they’re learning about


McDonald’s or Walmart. “I ask, what about the farmers? If we don’t

have farmers where does our food come from? And you can see the little wheels turning. They get it. ‘Nowhere?’ Exactly.”

SWCC Executive Director Dr. William Puckett welcomes classes like this one. “We’re fortunate in recent years to see a reignited interest in knowing where your food comes from and how it was grown. Through Conserve Alabama, we want to tap into that interest and help people become more aware of how conservation impacts us all,” said Puckett. Without healthy soil, we couldn’t grow food and fiber. Alabama’s agriculture industry would not be the $70 billion economic driver it is, and we would not be able to sustain a population. Conservation is truly at the foundation of it all.”

As important as it is for school kids to “get it,” conservation officials hope the Conserve Alabama message will resonate throughout the state. “Whether you live in rural or urban Alabama, you rely on natural resources, and you play an important role in their future,” said Frank Nalty, SWCC Chairman. As a timberland owner, I’ve always been conscious about how what I do on my land impacts all Alabamians, but we’re facing a new and pressing challenge. As farm land shrinks, urbanization spreads, and our population grows, we have to be even better stewards of our resources. It’s going to take all of us supporting conservation efforts so we can provide for future generations.”

The St. Clair Conservation District is doing its part to help local communities use resources wisely. Whether it’s teaching land owners how to make rain barrels to conserve water, creating a forest in the classroom or warning about the dangers of disposing of motor oil down storm drains.

This past year, through outreach and education, Mitcham and her staff reached more than 3600 children and adults.

“When we’re doing education programs,” said Mitcham, “I love it when the teachers are involved and the parents are involved because you end up teaching them about clean water or agriculture or healthy soil right along with the students — like the soil babies. They go home and the moms and dads help take care of them.

“I always encourage the students to go home and share what they’ve learned with their parents. The one thing I want people to take away is how important it is to be individually responsible for protecting and preserving our forests, streams and soil.” l

Conserve Alabama

The St. Clair County Conservation District Board holds a public meeting on the third Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. The District’s responsibility is to assist landowners and land users in protecting and conserving the natural resources in St. Clair County. Though it an entity of the state government, the supervisors receive no pay or grants for their work time. The St Clair County Conservation District formally is made up of five supervisors. The District only has four supervisors on the board at the moment. They are:

Perry Poe, Chairman, started with the District in 1989, became chairman in 1996.

Donald Ray Walker, vice chairman, started with the District in 1995.

Garry Staples, secretary-treasurer, since 2001.Terry Templin, supervisor since 2002.

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Dulaney’s company practices building bridges across the Yazoo River in

Mississippi in preparation for supporting infantry and tank divisions in Europe.


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D-Day VeteranMemories of the War

Story and photos by Jim SmothersSubmitted Photos

For a half century, Howell Dulaney would not talk about World War II. He tried to shut it out. He didn’t want to think about the horrors he experienced in the war, and he wanted the nightmares to stop.

“It just gets so real. It leaves you with an uncomfortable feeling,” he said.

“It was 50 years after the war before I thought about talking about it,” he said.

That happened after he joined the George S. Patton, Jr., Chapter of the Battle of the Bulge in Birmingham, an exclusive group of veterans of that battle.

Besides their monthly meetings, there was an annual Christmas party. At one of those events, the chapter president went to each veteran and asked him to tell an experience he had during the war.

“When he got around to me, I was about the last one, and I didn’t know what I was going to say. But when it was my turn, I asked, ‘Do you know about Bear Bryant, that they claim he could walk on water?’ He said, ‘Yeah, I’ve heard that.’ I said,

Howell Dulaney


D-Day Veteran‘Well, I walked on water.’ ”

Then he told how he almost drowned, but was saved by a German soldier.

Part of his engineering group was assigned to ferry infantry soldiers across the Moselle River to prepare for an assault on a German division. The other engineers were to replace a span in the bridge for the rest of the army to cross, but that couldn’t be accomplished if the Germans were there to stop them. So, an attack was planned.

His battalion was split into three parts, two to get the infantry across the river to attack, and one to fix the bridge. Two engineers would be in each boat to ferry six infantry soldiers at a time across the river on a dark, moonless night. The soldiers were instructed to paddle without raising the paddles from the water to maintain silence during the crossing.

“We gave them wooden pegs and told them to use those to plug holes in the boats in case we were fired upon,” he said. “That really got their attention.”

On one of the crossings, they found the infantry had taken some German POWs, and the engineers were tasked with taking them back to the other side.

“On that crossing, our boat capsized. We learned later that we had tipped over on an old ferry cable,” he said. “I had all my uniform on, my helmet and my rifle, and I was not a good swimmer.”

He dog paddled, trying to stay afloat, growing more desperate by the second until, just at the point of giving up, a hand reached down and lifted him up.

“When that happened, my feet hit bottom, and I realized I was only in about four feet of water. We were almost at the bank, but it was so dark I didn’t know that. I looked up and it was one of the POWs we had just brought across. He was taken away with the others, and I never even found out his name.”

Dulaney hasn’t liked the water ever since.But after telling his story to his fellow veterans, he decided

it was OK to talk about the war. He developed an outline for sharing his memories, and gave speeches to a number of schools and church youth groups.

He shared many of his memories with them, but tended to leave out some details—like the bloody water at Utah Beach. He didn’t tell them about young soldiers, his age, who were injured and crying for their mothers, or the horrible injuries some of them suffered.

But he did begin sharing his story with other people.Dulaney grew up in Eastaboga as one of 15 children in the

family. He never finished grammar school because farm life was so demanding. They raised cotton and row crops on an 80-acre farm, as well as animals for slaughter. His mother made dresses for the girls from flour sacks, and shirts for the boys from fertilizer bags. Shoes were a luxury and mostly worn about six months out of the year.

“It was hard work, but it was a good life,” he said.He joined the Army at 17 and trained at Fort McCain in

Mississippi, where he and his fellow engineers practiced bridge-making methods on the Yazoo River. He made bus trips home to see his family, and on one fateful trip he sat next to telephone company operator Robbie Reynolds from Columbus, Mississippi. They wrote to each other during the

Dulaney earned his Purple Heart

during the Battle of the Bulge

Dulaney, right, poses with Army buddies Eugene

Cerrato of New York City, left, and Kenneth Chase

from Massachusetts. The photo was taken during their

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D-Day Veteranrest of his training and throughout the war.

After completing training in Mississippi, his group went by train to Boston where they boarded a ship for Great Britain. They sailed around Ireland, up the River Clyde into Glasgow, Scotland, and then traveled by train to Dorchester near the English Channel. About a week later, they loaded their supplies and themselves into a Higgins Boat (made in Mobile, Ala.) and spent the night crossing the Channel for the invasion.

“In Dorchester, we received our combat equipment and began to attend classes, learning what to do if wounded or captured and what information to give the enemy if captured,” he said.

“Once aboard the landing craft, we were told we would be crossing the English Channel into enemy territory within hours, and our destination would be Utah Beach…we knew this was D-Day. Some thought it might be their last day. As the boat was moving out everybody was real nervous. Some of us were trigger happy and ready to fight. Some were praying. And some were crying.”

They landed less than half an hour after the infantry and Marines first landed.

“As we approached the beach, as soon as our craft landed we began to leave any way we could, out the front or over the sides. It was really frightening with all the noise from big guns, rifle fire and mortars exploding all around. The water was waist deep, and it was bloody. There were dead bodies floating everywhere and wounded soldiers crying for help. The only thing we could do was help them out of the water and help them get to a medic.”

Shortly after Dulaney’s battalion arrived in Europe, Eisenhower brought in Patton to be the “fighting general” the Third Army needed, and Dulaney’s battalion was part of that army.

“Patton was an amazing general. He was a great leader, always in the battlefield with his men. He had proved he was a leader on the battlefield in World War I,” he said. “Patton’s theory was once you the get enemy running, don’t give them time to stop and fire back, and it worked.”

Patton moved so quickly Eisenhower told Patton’s commander, General Bradley, to slow him down before he got so deep into enemy territory he would be surrounded and cut off from the other armies. Bradley started rationing Patton’s gasoline to limit how far he could go.

Patton responded by taking his supply trucks to find a gasoline storage depot. “Now, when a four star general pulls up in his Jeep with his supply trucks and says ‘fill ‘em up boys,’ do you think he’s getting his gasoline?”

Patton’s speed helped rescue the 101st Airborne Division when they were surrounded early in the Battle of the Bulge. Eisenhower called Patton to see how long it would take him to get his army to Bastogne, Belgium, to help, and Patton told him 24 hours. He then moved his army without a break, except for refueling, pushing through Germany and Luxembourg to get there.

Dulaney earned his Purple Heart during the Battle of the Bulge when he was hit by a piece of shrapnel from a “Screaming Mimi” artillery round. It was a minor wound, treated by a medic on site, and he returned to duty without

Howard Dulaney is shown with his brother S.E. “Doc” Dulaney during a brief

visit in Regensburg, Germany, shortly after Germany’s surrender.

Dulaney added a photo of penpal Robbie Reynolds to a snapshot of himelf in Luxembourg during the war. He met Robbie on a bus ride home from Fort McCain, Mississippi. They corresponded throughout the war and married within weeks of his return home.

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D-Day Veteranbeing sent away for additional treatment.

His battalion’s last action under fire came at Regensburg, Germany, where a bridge was needed across the Danube. It was built under fire, but not without the loss of four men killed and seven wounded.

After that, Patton moved toward Prague, but was called back to Regensburg when the war ended. Their new orders were to build barracks for a prison camp.

While in Regensburg, Dulaney’s older brother “Doc” from the 7th Army, stationed in Munich, paid him a surprise visit on a three-day pass.

“What a happy three days that was,” he said. “We received a big write-up in the Stars and Stripes magazine. After World War II, my younger brother was in the Korean War. Thank God we all came home safe and whole.”

He said the Germans had superior equipment, but the Americans were better fighters

“I’m proud I was a soldier in Patton’s army, and I thank God every day for sparing my life. I think Gen. Patton was the greatest general ever. He also had the ‘Greatest Generation’ fighting with him and for him…his 3rd Army fought across France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria and into Czechoslovakia. His army crossed 24 major rivers, liberated more than 82,000 square miles of territory, more than 1,800 cities and villages and captured 956,000 enemy soldiers. His army destroyed 3,000 tanks, 500 artillery pieces, 15,000 miscellaneous vehicles and 2,000 German aircraft.

“I’m not proud of the things I had to do in the war, but war is war. It’s kill or be killed, and we must win all our wars, at all costs, in order to continue to keep and enjoy our freedoms.”

He is a contributor to the National WWII museum in New Orleans, and he encourages everyone to go see it to gain a better appreciation of what it was about.

“I want people to understand what war really means,” he said. “I just want the young people to know what our freedoms mean to us, and we are slowly losing our freedoms.”

Upon his return home from the war, his first destination was to see his family in Eastaboga. But Robbie was on his mind, too, and it wasn’t long before he traveled to Columbus, Mississippi, to see her.

They married within weeks and built a life together. After a 40-year career with Alabama Power, he retired as a district superintendent. They built their “dream home” at Rock Mountain Lake below Bessemer and lived there for 10 years before moving to Memphis to be near their daughter, Eugenia Bostic and her husband, Gary. They were in real estate, and after the real estate crash, they relocated to Florida, and the Dulaneys moved to Pell City, splitting the distance between family in the Eastaboga area and friends in the Bessemer area.

Robbie passed away six years later. Then Eugenia developed inoperable cancer and moved in with her dad to live out the rest of her life. Dulaney was 90 when she died, and decided to sell his home and move to the Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home in Pell City, where he lives today. l

Young men in Dulaney’s company joke around while

stationed in Mississippi for Combat Engineering

training.

Dulaney, right, and Army buddy Kenneth

Chase pause for a photo during their WWII deployment to Europe.

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Blossoming boomtown of Margaret won’t be ‘Alabama’s best-kept secret’ for longStory by Paul SouthPhotos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.

When Pastor Chris Crain was searching for a place to start a church in St. Clair County, a Trussville friend had a simple suggestion:

“You need to go to Margaret.”Crain’s response: “Who’s she?”You’ve never heard of Margaret, Ala.?” his

friend asked.“I drove out here, and I was shocked at the

number of homes and people,” Crain said. “I think if there is a problem, it’s that people don’t know about Margaret.”

That was a decade ago. Today, Crain, 41, who began North Valley Church in Margaret with 16 people, now draws 400 worshippers on Sunday mornings.

The church is a microcosm of the boomtown that Margaret has become in recent years.

“One in every 10 people in Margaret is in our church on Sundays,” Crain says.

The church is just one slice of the Margaret story. If economists, developers, community Rooftops paint

picture of growth


planners and visionaries could concoct a recipe for a boom, Margaret would be their masterpiece. New, affordable subdivisions, a state-of-the-art elementary school, virtually nonexistent crime and location, location, location have Margaret poised as one of the Birmingham metro area’s fastest growing municipalities in the first decade of this century, a perfect landing spot for young families and entrepreneurs.

The community grew by a whopping 278 percent from 2000-2010, from nearly 1,200 to more than 4,400. The city grew by nearly 8 percent between 2010 and 2015. Six percent growth is projected between now and 2020. More than 20,000 live within a five-mile radius of the city’s center. Margaret incorporated in 1960 and became a city in 2011.

Tucked between Interstates 20 and 59, Margaret is an easy hop for commuters who are moving to Margaret and St. Clair County. In the post-war period and into the 1980s, the Birmingham metro area grew southward over Red Mountain and into Shelby County. But in recent decades, all eyes seem to have turned eastward, putting Margaret in a prime spot to be a bedroom community for The Magic City.

Seventy-four-year-old real estate executive and developer Lyman Lovejoy, who’s sold and developed property in Margaret and throughout St. Clair County for more than four decades, is perhaps Margaret’s biggest cheerleader.

“Probably one of the best-kept secrets of what’s going on, even for the people who live here (in St. Clair County) is Margaret,” Lovejoy said. “You get off on the roads, and there’s 300 houses in one subdivision, 200 in

Margaret

A common sight: A home under construction

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“Come to Margaret and check us out. You will like us.”

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The Lovejoy Team can help you find YOUR PLACE in MARGARET!

Pastor Chris Crain: ““Our church has grown from sixteen people to hundreds on Sundays and 200 students in our weekday children's learning center.”


another, 150 in another. Unless you get off the main road, you don’t know.”

At first blush, it would seem Margaret bucked historic trends. Charles DeBardeleben built the town around a coal mine at the turn of the 20th century. The Alabama Fuel and Iron mine – in the 1930s one of the most productive mines in Alabama – long ago played out. But unlike other towns built on coal, iron and steel that went as their industry did, Margaret not only survived, but now thrives. Location may have been Margaret’s saving grace when mining passed away.

“I think Margaret’s location as a coal mining community in a suburban growth region is the reason (growth) has taken place,” said Don Smith, executive director of the St. Clair County Economic Development Council. “Right now, as that growth around Birmingham’s urban core continues to intensify, it’s put Margaret right in that sweet spot. It has more to do with its location at this point in time than its history as a coal mining community.”

Visionaries apparently saw the sweet spot. Owners of huge tracts of land eventually sold acreage to ambitious developers. New subdivisions are being briskly built, bringing real estate bargains, and a desire for services and retail presence – a grocery store, restaurants, a doctor’s office, to name a few.

MargaretMargaret

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Telling the Margaret story to retailers and retail developers is an aim for the council, Smith said.

“One of the focuses that we have is to make sure that retail developers and retailers out there understand that Margaret is an underserved area as far as retail goes,” Smith said.

While many prime locations are now home to residential subdivisions, Smith believes there are other great locations available for commercial expansion.

Pharmacist Mark Ross and his wife Tracy took a leap of faith earlier this year to open Margaret Pharmacy. Lovejoy approached the couple last year about opening a drug store.

“I came out here, looked around, talked to people and just fell in love with the place,” Mark Ross said. “I fell in love with Margaret and the people here. My wife and I talked about it and prayed about it. It was just a matter of timing and Lyman Lovejoy’s foresight, I guess, that Margaret needed a pharmacy.”

Ross called his first four months in business, “phenomenal.”

“The people of Margaret have embraced us wholeheartedly. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been told, ‘A pharmacy was just what Margaret needed.’ ”

Ross has also heard something else in the voices of the townspeople that may say something about the future. Talk to people here long enough, and the vision for the city includes more eateries, a grocer, sports complexes and middle and high schools as Margaret’s kids grow up.

Margaret

Retail on upswing

New businesses on the rise

Tracy and Mark Ross at Margaret Pharmacy

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“They say, ‘Ahh, this is fantastic. This is the beginning of something great for Margaret.”

Margaret Mayor Isaac Howard III believes more great things are ahead for St. Clair’s boomtown. And the real ingredient that drives the little city’s success – its people.

“It’s really like a family network, the people who have lived here for years, and even the people who have moved in recently, they’ve formed a family network.”

People are really at the heart of Margaret’s success, a story that began more than a century ago. The Golden Rule that DeBardeleben based his business upon still thrives today in old-timers and newcomers alike.

“For a lot of people out there, they’re looking for a safe, affordable place with good schools to raise their family. Margaret is that exact place they’re looking for, they just haven’t heard of it,” Lovejoy said. “I don’t know what else you’d ask for in a community.”

Gene Barker, building inspector for the City of Margaret for eight years, doesn’t either. He has seen the housing boom up close. In mid-May, there were 22 permitted new homes in various stages of construction.

Barker inspects the homes from foundation to roof and everything in between. He’s done as many as nine inspections on nine different homes in one day. Each house also involves multiple inspections. “That’s pretty much all I can handle,” he said.

Margaret

From Mining Town to Boom Town

Our People Make the Difference.

Laid back, hometown feelingH

Safest City in AlabamaH

Third largest City in St. Clair CountyH

Growing population, business communityH

Mayor Howard and the City Council welcomes all newcomers

H

Conveniently located to I-59 & I-20H

Homes and neighborhoods to fit any budgetH

Business friendly atmosphere with Margaret H

Pharmacy and Dollar General calling Margaret home

H

State-of-the-art Margaret Elementary School for our children

H

Looking to the future

City of MargaretPost Office Box 309

Margaret, Alabama 35112 (205) 629-5742 Office

(205) 629-5501 Fax

Mayor and City Council Isaac Howard III – Mayor Charles Hicks – Mayor Pro-Tem

Council Members:James ChapmanDaryl McIntyre Stephen PerryBonnie Voss


A variety of factors have fueled the housing boom Barker sees on a daily basis. Low interest rates, more house for the money and geography – all play a role, Barker said. Margaret is eight miles off Interstate 59, and is also convenient to Interstate 20. Thirteen new houses have been permitted so far in 2016, according to city records. That’s a good year, Barker said.

“People are getting out of Birmingham,” he said. “They’ve got access to the interstates. The houses are reasonable. A lot of our buyers are young people.”

It is an easy, convenient commute. “It’s close to 59, but if you come over here in the mornings or afternoons, you see them coming from 59 and 20,” Barker said. “We try to cut the rights of way after 9 (a.m.), and we have to be done by 2 (p.m.), or you’ll get run over. It’s like a funeral procession.”

In 2005-2007, before the economic downturn, 26 different builders were working in Margaret. After the crash, the number plummeted to from three to seven per year. “It started to come back last year. So far, this is a good year,” Barker said.

With all the new that’s coming – and will come to Margaret – there’s still an homage to the town that the Welsh coal baron founded and named for his beloved wife, Margaret. The bell from the company-built community building now hangs at North Valley Church and still beckons stranger and friend to Margaret.

Said Pastor Chris Crain, “We still ring the bell.”

Margaret

Old church bell finds new home

at North Valley

A gazebo in the town park,

built on an old concrete

platform

Margaret Church of Christ, the former

company-built Methodist church


Margaret officials have reason to be proud these days. Not only is their town becoming a booming city again, it has just been named to the number one spot of the 30 Safest Cities in Alabama by safewise.com.

To find the 30 safest cities in the state, safewise used a multi-step process. It included only cities with populations more than 2,500 and used the most recent FBI Crime Report numbers. It examined the number of violent crimes and property crimes reported and set the chance of occurrence per 1,000 people.

In Margaret, violent crimes per 1,000 was only .22. Property crimes per 1,000 came in at 6.68.

Rounding out the top 10 in order were: Helena, Southside, Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills, Hokes Bluff, Brent, Pleasant Grove, Moody and Fayette.

Number 1 is a great place to be among that company, its city fathers and developers say. Add to that, its location in St. Clair, which is in the top 5 counties in Alabama for Economic Vitality, and the variables are right for continued lofty rankings.

According to Auburn University’s Economic and Community Development Institute, St. Clair is ranked fifth as compared to other counties across the state. The ranking reflects its value in population growth, workforce readiness, personal income and employment.

St. Clair came in third in the percent job change category with an increase of 28.4 percent in jobs between 2003 and 2012. How does that compare? Over the same period, the United States job change was only 7.4 percent, and Alabama’s was only 6.5 percent.

The county saw a whopping 33.3 percent population increase between 2000 and 2013 while the population of the state as a whole jumped only 8.7 percent.

St. Clair earned an impressive number one ranking in growing income for its citizens. The U.S. Census Bureau announced earlier this year that the county leads the state with an increase of 15.4 percent in median household income since 2009.

At the time, St. Clair Commission Chairman Paul Manning said, “This study is proof of many successful years of policy to support wealth creation and economic development. We have been fortunate to have a prime location with two interstates to utilize for commerce, but the people and businesses are locating in St. Clair County because of the opportunities for success that are offered here.”

With a 278 percent increase in population, housing continuing a sizable upward trend and businesses coming in, Margaret seems to be sitting in just the right spot.

We’re number 1!


MargaretNOTABLY

Founded in 1908 by mining mogul Charles DeBardeleben, Margaret quickly became a boom town because of its rich coal seam that ran right through it.

As was the practice back then, the company, Alabama Fuel & Iron, provided everything – housing, churches, parks, company stores, a movie theater, schools, medical facilities and recreational opportunities.

In the 1930s, it was the largest coal producing area in Alabama and even generated its own electric power.

When the coal went away in the 1950s, the town seemed to languish for decades. That is, until it found another rich seam – rooftops. The real estate market is booming in Margaret and with it, businesses are popping up, a Lions Club formed, a state-of-the-art school has been built, a pharmacy has opened, a dental practice is thriving and brighter days are expected ahead for the resurgence of a 21st century boom town.

By the numbers, Margaret’s population has tripled since the 2010 census. More than 20,000 people live within five miles of its center with 80,000 in a 10-mile radius.

That has developers, builders, prospective businesses and residents looking Margaret’s way. “It’s phenomenal,” said Realtor Lyman Lovejoy. “The views, the housing opportunities for young people and those who want to get out of the city but have the convenience of interstate travel nearby are unrivaled. It has been one of the best kept secrets around.”

If you’ve visited Margaret lately, you know the secret’s out. l

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Fall FrenzyCOMMUNITY EVENT CONTINUES TO GROW


Story by Carol PappasPhotos by Jerry C. Smith

When food vendor Hwy 55 Burgers and Fries runs out and has to send back for more burgers not once, but twice, and Golden Rule BBQ has to call in for extra food and extra workers, it’s not just an event, it’s a frenzy. Only in its second year, Fall Frenzy, hosted by the Pruitt & Richardson Charitable Foundation, is surprising more than just its food vendors.

This annual benefit for the classrooms and student organizations of the Pell City School System is the brainchild of local attorneys Bill Pruitt and Randall Richardson. “It’s a way to give back to the community – my adopted home,” said Richardson, noting that he opened his practice in Pell City nine years ago. “It’s my way to put back into it.”

“Pruitt & Richardson, P.C., has supported different school programs and events over the years,” Pruitt said, but seeing a greater need, they decided that wasn’t enough. “My mother was an educator and, like most teachers, she often took money out of her pocket to pay for things in her classroom. Whether it is for necessities or just a little something extra, it comes from a desire to do the best that they can for their students. I felt we could do more to help.” It was about that time that the pair attended the Spring Fling fundraiser hosted by Walter M. Kennedy Elementary. Pruitt’s wife, Stephanie, was PTO president at the time and gave them a behind the scenes look at the ins, the outs, and the headaches of planning such an event.

The following year, in May of 2014, the pair established the non-profit Pruitt & Richardson Charitable Foundation for the sole purpose of giving back to the Pell City community, with its primary focus being the schools. Less than six months later, and with the help of some great volunteers, the inaugural Fall Frenzy was in the books.

Despite the 30 degree temperatures and 20 mile per hour winds on November 1, Fall Frenzy 2014 entertained just shy of 4,300 people at Lakeside Park with activities ranging from a 5k/fun run, car show, live music, craft/food vendors, carnival rides, a petting zoo, and an array of free kids activities. Most importantly, 100% of the proceeds, totaling $25,029.53, were distributed among 33 classrooms and student organizations from all eight schools within the Pell City system. All classrooms and organizations within the system are eligible to receive funds from the event as long as they host a booth providing a free kids activity. “This event provides a fundraising opportunity to many organizations that don’t fall within your typical fundraising profile, such as the debate team or the archery


club,” explains Pruitt. “Plus, the free activities ensure that there is fun for everyone.” Pruitt is quick to point out, however, that none of this would have been possible without great volunteers and the 51 sponsors who took a leap of faith on an unknown event with a worthy cause.

As pleased as everyone was with the success of the first Fall Frenzy, no one was prepared for 2015. Moving things up to October 10, in hopes of more temperate weather, Frenzy ’15 packed Lakeside Park with more vendors, more activities, and more than 10,000 attendees. “It took on a life of its own,” said Richardson. By now, word had spread about Fall Frenzy. One of the vendors, “The Wood Women,” is a woodcrafting business owned by two teachers from Tuscaloosa. They came because they wanted to know what there is about Pell City that causes this kind of stir over supporting its schools. They were not disappointed. They were also pleased to learn that they helped raise more than $35,000 for the classrooms and student organizations of Pell City schools.

Returning to Lakeside Park on October 8, Fall Frenzy 2016 promises to be bigger and better than ever and, as always, 100 percent of the proceeds goes directly to the classrooms and student organizations of the Pell City School System. Pruitt sums up the spirit of Fall Frenzy when he observed, “the coolest thing about Fall Frenzy is just to see the overwhelming participation from the community to celebrate the great work of our school system. While $60,000 in two years isn’t a bad start, we can’t wait to see where it goes from here.”

For general information regarding Fall Frenzy 2016, visit them on the web at www.pcfallfrenzy.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pcfallfrenzy . If you are interested in becoming a Fall Frenzy sponsor or vendor, contact Bill Pruitt at 338-6400 or via email at [email protected]. l

Fall Frenzy

ELECTION AUGUST 23• Pell City resident since 1992• Married to Stephanie Pruitt for seventeen years• Sons, Will and Max, are 10th and 8th grade students in the Pell City School System• Active Member at Cropwell Baptist Church• Partner at Pell City law firm, Pruitt & Richardson, P.C.• Board of Directors: Pruitt & Richardson Charitable Foundation •Host of the Fall Frenzy benefit for the Pell City School System •Home of the Lt. Richard Woods Memorial Scholarship• Board of Directors: Pell City Chamber of Commerce• Pro Bono counsel for local non-profit ministry, Majestic Outdoors• Member of Pell City Rotary Club• Past Member Pell City Civitans Club

As a resident, a business owner, a husband and a father, I know the issues that are important to you because they are important to me.

As your mayor, I will work closely with the City Manager and the City Council to change the face of Pell City. The new face of Pell City will be one of competence, common sense,and cooperation. The new face of Pell City will be one that unites with a common vision of progress. With your support, we will change not only the face of Pell City, but its future as well.

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Walking through the doors of Teague Mercantile with a lopper in her hand, the woman has a puzzled look on her face. The blades won’t come together, she says, and she can’t figure out why. “You’re missing a spacer,” says owner Terry Minton, when he looks at the tool. He starts pulling out boxes from his two-sided, 12-foot bank of nuts, screws and bolts. He can’t find exactly what the woman needs in metal, but comes close in plastic. Then he reaches behind his counter for an electric drill, bores out the opening to the piece, and puts it into place.

“That should do you for a while,” he tells the customer. The cost of that spacer and the 15 minutes Minton spent searching, drilling and replacing? A mere 25 cents.

Scenarios such as this are not uncommon at Teague’s. That’s probably why the front door chimes don’t get much rest between customers. Even without a sign on the building, just about everyone in Ashville can tell you where it’s located because he has been there at one time or another.

“It’s on my to-do list to get our sign back up,” says Jenny

Minton, Terry’s wife, who helps out on Saturdays. “For years, a plastic sign with the name of our former supplier hung outside, but it blew down during the storms of April 2011.Terry wants to put the original metal sign back.”

Teague Mercantile has been a fixture on the Ashville courthouse square since 1918, when brothers DeWitt and A.G. Teague opened for business across the street from their uncles’ store, Teague Brothers. A.G. and DeWitt ran the mercantile together until A.G. died in 1936. DeWitt continued, with the help of his wife, Gladys. When her husband died in 1954, Gladys ran the store until the late 1950s, when she sold it to Perkins McClendon. In 1963, he sold to Freda and Horace Galbreath, Terry Minton’s aunt and uncle. In 1987, Terry became a partner with the Galbreaths, and a few years later, he bought them out.

“Horace had worked for DeWitt,” says Freda Galbreath, who still keeps the store’s financial records in order. “Terry and his brother, Derand, worked for us afternoons and summers when

Teague MercantileAn Ashville tradition since 1918

Story by Elaine Hobson MillerPhotos by Michael Callahan

Submitted photos

Joshua Thomas (left) is a third-generation customer of Terry’s.

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Teague Mercantile

they were boys. They couldn’t wait until after school to come in here.”

Teague Mercantile was one of the first places in Ashville to own a television, according to DeWitt’s daughter, Nancy Teague Willisson. Her father often left the store open late, or came back after supper to re-open, so folks could watch a boxing match or baseball game. In those days, the mercantile sold essential farm and household items such as seeds, tools, hardware, cleaning and building supplies.

“It was really a general merchandise store when I was a little girl, and it kind of evolved into a hardware store before my daddy died,” says Willisson, a Huntsville resident whose ownership of the building is her “last tie” to her hometown of Ashville. “He didn’t sell groceries or soft goods, except for men’s hats, overalls and maybe some shoes.”

Today, the store sells hand tools, nuts, bolts and screws individually or by the pound, plumbing and electrical supplies, chains and electrical wire by the inch or foot. Two of the store’s original glass-front display cases house hand mixers, coffee carafe replacements and Pyrex percolator pumps in dusty boxes. “We don’t sell much of those, because we can’t compete with Wal-Mart, Fred’s and Dollar General,” says Jenny, who is organist at

Gibson Holladay examines a wheelbarrow for sale at Teague’s.

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Ashville’s First Baptist Church.The original shelves on the wall behind

the display cases have been replaced with peg boards that hold kitchen thermometers, pressure cooker parts, dog collars, work gloves, electric drills and knife blades. Along the aisles, you can find yard and garden tools such as loppers and pruners, rakes, shovels, picks and swing blades, hoses, axes and spades, sprayers, bag seeders, along with small electric heaters and brass pipe fittings. Perusing other shelves, you can find power saws and hacksaws along with replacement blades and sanding attachments. Plumbing supplies are in a side room.

The Teague grounds include a concrete block building out back where Minton keeps ladders, PVC pipes and spools of chains that he cuts to a customer’s desired length. He rents a building next door, where he builds and repairs screens for doors and windows, and stores larger items such as wheelbarrows and extra cans of paint. He cuts glass there, too, often replacing window panes for customers.

While the merchandise mix has changed over the years to keep up with customers’ needs, many of the original store fixtures remain. Galbreath pays bills at the same roll-top desk that DeWitt and Gladys Teague used. The store’s original safe is right behind her. Minton still has the antique penny scale that once stood outside the store and provided people with their weight and their fortune. The original cash register and scale for seed measuring are still there, although not in use any more. Minton does use the antique ceiling fan, along with those two glass display cases at the front.

Customer Gregg Quigley grew up in a small town, where hardware stores were about the only places you had to shop. “If I got a problem or part I’m not sure of, Terry and I put our heads together,” Quigley says.

Gibson Holladay, a lawyer from the courthouse in Ashville, came by on his lunch hour one day to examine the three wheelbarrows lined up on the sidewalk in front of the store. “There aren’t many hardware stores left anymore, so I come by here a lot,” says Holladay. “I came in the other day looking for a heavy swing blade. I had looked everywhere, and the ones I found were too flimsy. Terry had what I wanted.”

Minton knows most of the people who trade with him, having grown up with many of them. He also remembers their purchases, reminding one woman who came in for a wire cutter recently that he had sold her one just a few months before.“We have lots of new customers now, though,” he says. “As people move into Ashville, they’re slowly finding us.”

Link Satterfield went to school with Terry. “He has been my friend since I was 10 years

Teague Mercantile

Freda Galbreath

writes checks at

an antique desk that belonged

to the original

store owners.

Teague Brothers Store in 1900

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old,” Satterfield says. “When I come in here I can find what I want, and I like doing business with the little guy rather than the big chains.”

It’s a common theme among Teague Mercantile’s fan base. Joshua Thomas is a third-generation customer whose grandfather and father traded at Teague’s before him. “He pretty much has everything, and can put his hands on it,” Thomas says of Terry Minton. As if to illustrate Thomas’ point, another customer tells Minton he needs a half-inch faucet for a washing machine, and Terry tells him which shelf it’s on in the plumbing section. Then he points another customer toward the metal plate he’s seeking for an electric junction box.

“It was almost a game for years, because I’d come in and say, ‘Do you have this or that,’ and he’d say, ‘Yeah,’” says Brent Kuykendall, who is restoring an old house in Ashville. “I once considered making up a part just to see if he had it.”

Jenny Minton says one of the strangest items someone has asked for was a bell to hang around a goat’s neck. “We had one, although it probably was meant for hunting dogs,” she says. “We don’t carry those anymore,” Terry adds. He doesn’t carry lumber, either, although when he did, his prices were often lower than at the big-box retailers. “A clerk at one of those stores in Pell City called one day for a price check on a 2x4,” Terry explains. “They will match a price if it’s lower than theirs, and mine was.” He never knew who the customer was or why he didn’t come to Teague’s in the first place.

Tommy Coker has been shopping at Teague’s since he was shorter than the top of the cash register counter. “I’ve been living in Ashville 60 years,” says Coker, who came in one Saturday with his wife, Pam. “If I can’t find something anywhere else, I can find it here. We’re remodeling our bathroom, and last week I bought all of his mirror hangers.”

Unlike the chain stores, Teague’s still has personal charge accounts, and sometimes holds a ticket for a regular customer who left his wallet at home. His services occasionally extend beyond the store’s walls, too. “Once an elderly customer got locked out of her house up the street and called Terry in desperation,” Jenny says. Terry went to her house, where he discovered she was simply discombobulated and couldn’t figure out which of her keys fit the lock. “He’s also been known to deliver something to an elderly person who doesn’t drive,” Jenny says.

Terry’s phone rings a lot with questions about whether he carries this or that object, what type of stain or paint to use in a particular situation, or how to re-string a weed trimmer. “I’ve seen him do that for people, even when they didn’t buy the trimmer from him,” says Jenny.

Customer Jesse Warth stood in front of the cash-register one day, holding two cans of spray paint. On the counter in front of him were numerous “grab and go” items, such as small flashlights, plastic gloves, key tags, utility knives, mini-screwdriver sets, magnifying glasses and drill bits. It’s also the counter where Terry keeps blank keys and the machine that cuts them. “I just love coming here to see Terry and his wife,” Warth says. “He knows what I need, especially on the plumbing.”

Terry is 62 years old, and doesn’t plan on working until he drops dead behind the cash register. But he doesn’t know what will happen to the store when he retires.

“None of my children and grandchildren are interested in this place,” he says. l

Teague Mercantile

Nails are kept in the round bins and weighed on the scale hanging to their left.

Corrugated field lines

are stacked outside the

storage building behind

Teague’s.

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Louis

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St. Clair Alabama

Business Review

Matt McCrory learning welding from Carson

Riggins at Garrison Steel .

69 DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2016 69 DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • April & May 2016 69 DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • February & March 2016 69 DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • June & July 2015 69 DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • August & September 2013 Business Review • DISCOVER The Essence of St. Clair • 69

A new generationIn this technological and professional age, it is easy for

students — and parents and teachers — to focus heavily on high-profile skills involving computers, programming, electronics and web design or to place students on narrow education tracks with the ultimate goal of receiving at least a four-year college degree.

But as the baby-boomer generation retires, so will a large portion of the industrial- and construction-skilled workforce.

And that poses a huge problem, not just for Alabama, but for the rest of the United States as well.

It’s a problem business owners, working in conjunction with educators in Alabama at the high school and post-secondary levels, are hoping to reverse — and to do so in such a way that helps retain students in school and make sure they have a solid foundation to succeed after graduation.

CHANGING WORKFORCE NEEDSPell City’s Garrison Steel owner John Garrison speculates

his is the last generation of workers trained by previous masters in such essential skills as welding, fitting, plumbing, electrical work and similar fields.

A combination of factors has steered the country away from the kind of apprentice-style training that Garrison and other construction and industrial leaders say is so essential to key economic sectors of the workforce.

When he was first starting out in the business, training in industrial construction, unions were strong and Americans tended to buy American.

“By and large, the unions to a large degree as far as construction, trained the generation I represent,” Garrison said. That was in the late 1960s.

But soon the unions started to lose traction to non-union businesses.

Today, he estimates the unions — and their highly skilled multi-generational employees — only represent 10, maybe 11 percent of the industrial workforce in the United States.

And then there was the image of working in construction or factories. Before the government, through organizations like OSHA, started putting a premium on safe working conditions, construction and manufacturing jobs were dangerous. Those workers wanted something better and safer for their children and often pushed them to pursue a college education.

Garrison said that attitude, combined with a similar government view with initiatives like No Child Left Behind, have gutted the skilled labor force.

“We are going to run out of skilled workers — they predicted that in the 1990s,” Garrison said. “And we are seeing that now.”

The shortage actually caught something of a break during the recent spate of recessions because the demand for those

Story by Graham HadleyPhotos by Michael Callahan and Graham Hadley

Cooperative effort key to training skilled labor force

employees was low. But as the economy continues to turn the corner, the demand

for welders, electricians, plumbers and their skilled coworkers is on the rise.

And companies are finding it increasingly difficult to fill those positions, Garrison said.

MULTIFACETED PROBLEM;MULTIFACETED SOLUTION

At the same time the skilled labor gap was growing, so were dropout rates in public schools. The new one-size-fits-all approach to education was not working for many students — teens who were capable of succeeding but who had no interest in pursuing a four-year degree right out of high school.

The solution to both problems lies in working together, agreed Garrison and Pell City Schools Superintendent Dr. Michael Barber.

“We are working to redefine what a successful student is,” Barber said. “What we have to be is very careful to look at all careers, all professions.

“College is important, but there are students who don’t want

John Garrison and teacher Brittany Beasley at a welding station at Pell City High School


Business Review New Generation

to go to a four-year college. That’s not where their talent and skills are and not where they want to go. But they can still go out into the workforce and make a great living.

“We want to bring comprehensiveness to their educational experiences. Pull back the curtain and let them see what is out there,” he said.

To do that, the high school, businesses like Garrison Steel and Goodgame Company, and community colleges like Jefferson State are working hand-in-hand to give exactly those students the job experience, the training and exposure to the real-world work environment to put them on the path to success.

What started with industry-backed programs, like the construction-focused Go Build Alabama, has expanded exponentially to include a wide variety of needed skill sets. Students can start earning certification and training toward jobs in everything from medicine — certified nursing assistants and pharmacy assistants — to police and firefighters through the Bridge School and other programs while still in high school.

Students on the construction side of things are able to dual enroll at Jefferson State and other colleges and work on-the-job at companies like Garrison Steel and Goodgame Company. They can begin receiving accreditation with the National Center for Construction Education and Research — the industry performance standard for workers in building-related fields.

“NCCER was developed in the mid 1990s for construction only. … Over 79 trades are covered — things like welding, crane operation, plumbing,” Garrison said. Students who graduate high school with some of that certification in place, proving they have taken the core curriculum needed for that skill, are much more likely to land a well-paying job right out of school.

“If I see a student has some NCCER and says they have been through the core curriculum, now we have the door cracked open. We have a student who knows about our industry. That gives them a big leg up,” he said.

That training certification is nationally, and in some cases internationally, recognized.

“They might work in Alabama, West Texas, Oklahoma — anywhere in the U.S. — or some place like Dubai,” Garrison said.

A TWO-WAY STREETStudents who take part in the training, who go to the job sites,

are not only gaining invaluable training and experience for themselves — the idea is contagious as they share what they have seen with other students, said PCHS Principal Dr. Tony Dowdy.

“I have seen our students go out to these work places and bring that work mentality back to their high school. Before this, we had students who might not have been able to finish with a diploma. Seeing the workplace requirements, they want that diploma so they can go back and get hired at those places they visited or trained at.

“I have heard conversations between students, students telling other students that poor performance won’t cut it at places like Goodgame and Garrison or the Fire Department,” he said.

Pell City High School has gradually been phasing in this new approach to education over the past few years, said Dr. Kim Williams, system curriculum coordinator.

“We wanted to have a consistency in message. We took

Students learning manufacturing techniques at Pell City High School



students to the steam plant in Wilsonville two or three years ago. That was our first big move in workforce development. We make sure we have something every quarter for the students that won’t let go of that. We are staying with this message,” she said.

Reinforcing that, Williams has been appointed to the Pell City Industrial Development Board.

“Three years ago, the school system joined the EDC (St. Clair Economic Development Council). We needed to be sitting at that table. That has allowed us to be part of what is going on and to look at trends in hiring needs,” Barber said.

Everyone came back from that first trip excited, and the ball has never stopped rolling since.

“We have done an exceptional job of identifying students who want to be in construction or welding. Getting them together in a classroom and seeing them feed off each other’s enthusiasm in a positive way, that, as their teacher, has been very cool,” said Brittany Beasley, an agriscience teacher at PCHS.

As students gain valuable work experience and skills, so do their mentors. They can actually earn teaching certificates by training students in their respective specialties.

“Through the Alabama Department of Education, there is a mentoring program where the professionals can earn certification as teachers. … They have to complete a year-long program, then they can earn their certification,” Williams said.

Already, Pell City Fire Chief Mike Burdett and firefighter Jeff Parrish have completed their certifications. “And we have two more on track to earn theirs,” she said.

Two police officers have received training on their certification, something that Principal Dowdy pointed out is available to any skilled field, “electrician, HVAC, etc. It’s another way to get skilled trainers into the classroom.”

“The advantage is, they bring real-life experience to the table. They don’t have to come in and sell themselves. They capture the attention of the students,” Williams added.

For the employers, it means ready-made workers already familiar with their jobs and with the work ethic that is expected of them. Garrison pointed out he has two students, Matthew Gunter McCrory and Karl David Graves, who graduated in 2015, working for his company. And they are following in the footsteps of other PCHS grads at Garrison Steel.

“These young guys can turn out to be very desirable employees because of the work ethic they learned,” he said.

WIN-WIN SITUATION IS JUST THE BEGINNING

The program is too new for there to be hard numbers, but Williams says the school system has definitely started to see positive results, from more students entering the workplace to a decrease in dropouts.

“There is a large number of students who are positively placed, employed in an industry or in construction in fields like welding. Because of what I teach, I tend to stay in touch with my old students — it is easier to do in these types of classes. We have a vested interest in our students after graduation,” Beasley said, adding that it helps them keep track of workforce demands and which businesses are needing specific skills filled.

Though she is an agriscience teacher, she saw these programs

as a way for “us to stay relevant. I now teach welding, intro to metal fabrication, intro to MIG welding, inert gas and flux cored arc welding” in addition to more traditional agricultural classes. That means her students can not only work as farmers, they can also find jobs repairing farm and other heavy equipment.

And while many students are taking advantage of the new opportunities afforded them, just as many students are still on track for four-year degrees.

“We still have the same number of students receiving scholarships, the same number of students going on to four-year degrees, but we have a lot of students going into the workforce, too,” Barber said.

The school system has hired a workforce coordinator, Danielle Pope, whose job it is to communicate with local businesses and industries about their needs.

“Then, during the students’ senior year, she matches students with employers,” Williams said.

“It’s about making the school system relevant to the community beyond education. We are asking what are the needs of the community and how can we tailor our program to meet those needs,” Barber said.

Learning to weld at Pell City High School



Story and photos by Graham Hadley

For two recent Pell City High School graduates, a collaborative effort between their school system and local employers is giving them a leg up on many of their classmates and setting them well on the road to financial and professional success.

Matthew McCrory and David Graves are building a much-needed skill set in manufacturing and construction at Garrison Steel while earning real living wages.

Both are PCHS Class of 2015, and their training comes in part from their participation in the Bridge School during high school, their on-the-job training at Garrison and classes in welding they are enrolled in at Jefferson State Community College in Pell City.

Matt and David, who have known each other since they were 8, had originally been on track to be firefighters, training at the Pell City Fire Department and the Fire College their senior year.

“I was in the firefighter training with Bridge, but after I graduated, it was not for me. Dad told me about the job at Garrison. They hired me three days after I applied,” Matt said.

“I love my job. There are plenty of opportunities to learn, plenty of people here to help you out. Ask anyone how to do something, and they will show you.”

Right now, Matt is working in parts, but Garrison is sending both to school at Jefferson State for welding — a skill that is in particularly high demand right now. He is also training in other fields, everything from machine work to driving forklifts.

For Matt, working and earning money while gaining an education in a high-demand field has been an invaluable combination.

“While working here I have earned enough money to move out of my grandparents’ house and have purchased my own car. It has been a great advantage, getting a head start on my life,” he said.

David, whose full name is Karl David Graves, was also in the firefighter program with Matt. He also quickly learned that was not the route he wanted to go.

He left the job after one week and started at NAPA Auto Parts. He speaks highly of his employer there — like Garrison, they offered him training in fields they needed filled. But after six months, when Matt told him about the work at Garrison Steel, he jumped at the chance and has never regretted it since.

In fact, he likes the work so much and is so impressed with his employers and co-workers, he plans to make his entire career at Garrison.

Which was actually something of a surprise.“I took a couple of classes for welding in high school, but

never saw myself here. Then Matt got me hired,” he said. “It kicked right off here — I really like it.

“I would like to stay here. It’s local, and I like everyone. I am

Ahead of the gamePCHS grads earning their keep at Garrison

getting training and have a job.”Though both young men feel they have found their career

tracks, it involves a lot of work and dedication on their part to make it successful, calling it a “high-demand, high-reward” situation.

David’s advice for anyone looking to follow their footsteps? Take it seriously.

“Get into it while you can, but don’t play around. They have high expectations. If work starts at 6 a.m., 6:01 won’t do. And if you start a project, finish it out before you go home,” he said.

“Even if this does not become your career, it will give you a trade to fall back on. If you train in things like welding, you will always be able to find work.” l

David Graves

Matthew McCrory

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Remembrance Walk at 6 p.m. on campus.

ALZHearts

Remember

After a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, Glen Campbell made his plight public and set off on “The Goodbye Tour.”“The film documents this amazing journey as he and his family attempt to navigate the wildly unpredictable nature of Glen’s progressing disease using love, laughter and music as their medicine of choice.”

–From the filmmakers of I’ll Be Me

Special Movie Showing, CEPA theater, at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.Glen Campbell’s I’ll Be Me.

This information fair will provide resource materials and assistance for families dealing with Alzheimer’s and Dementia throughout the event.

~ Hosted by Lakeside Hospice ~Concessions and T-shirts available for purchase!

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Special speaker is Dr. Daniel C. Potts, neurologist and co-author of A Pocket Guide for the Alzheimer’s Caregiver and The Broken Jar. He is one of Maria Shriver’s Architects of Change and champions life-affirming care for those with Alzheimer’s disease/Dementia and their caregivers. The Broken Jar is his father’s art and Potts’ poetry. Lester Potts became a watercolor artist after his diagnosis with Alzheimer’s disease, and his art has been exhibited internationally. Hear and see his journey.


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Business ReviewA Place for the Pony Car

Mustang Museum planned for Odenville

Story by Graham HadleyContributed Photos from Bob Powell

For years, Corvette owners have had a destination spot in the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky.

Now, if one Odenville businessman and his family have their way, Mustang enthusiasts will have a similar destination in St. Clair County in the not-so-very-distant future.

With the help of Realtor Lyman Lovejoy, Bob Powell has already secured property behind Freds in Odenville and is in the process of creating the Mustang Museum of America with the idea of building a facility honoring one of the world’s most iconic cars.

Bob, along with sons Gary and Jonathan and wife, Carolyn, have been putting the project together for years and recently unveiled the details during a meeting at City Hall in Odenville.

There was an effort to build a Mustang museum in the late 90s but the project did not materialize for various reasons. A lot of Mustang club members, including Bob and his sons, were enthusiastic about having a museum and were disappointed it

1964-1/2 Mustang Coupe, Pace Car Replica

1979 Mustang Indianapolis Pace Car Replica


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Business Review Mustang Museum

didn’t happen. Bob lived in Tampa at the time and, talking with some

Mustang owners who wanted to preserve their Mustangs long after they were gone, kept thinking it would be great to have a local museum — a place to display his own cars and also for other Mustang owners to display or donate their prized vehicles to.

So Bob resurrected the idea when he returned to Alabama.The project is a non-profit operation, currently run entirely

by Bob and his family, though he has plans for there to be membership levels and eventually a board of directors, with his family maintaining control of the business.

“We are a non-profit organization committed to the preservation and the enjoyment of the Ford Mustang,” Bob said during his presentation.

His sons estimate that, between all of them, they own somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 Mustangs, including a first-year 1964 1/2 pace car replica, some in various states of restoration, housed in different locations. Their collection ranges from one-of-a-kind police models to lovingly restored vintage cars.

That impressive collection puts them well on their way to the goal of having one of every model year for the museum, plus some specialty cars that are unique or were built in limited runs. They also plan for other Mustang owners to be able to display their vehicles there, too. He hopes people will leave their beloved Pony Cars to the museum as part of their estates.

The Mustang Museum of America will be housed in a 32,000- to 34,000-square-foot building with room to display more than 100 vehicles. Plans call for a gift shop and large parking lot with 60 spaces. An adjoining field is also part of the property and can be utilized for overflow parking or for car shows

All of which means more business for Odenville and surrounding St. Clair County.

That the massive museum is not directly next to an interstate is not a hindrance. In fact, word has already started circulating through online Mustang communities, and the rural setting, in the heart of St. Clair County, is actually a boon.

St. Clair is widely known for its scenic highways and roads that twist through the Appalachian foothills — roads that already attract drivers from all over.

Internet discussion forum posts talking about the museum see its location as an excuse for owners to choose the roads less taken and road trip through some of those scenic drives St. Clair County is so famous for.

While making an exact attendance projection is not possible, Bob hopes the museum will draw 1,000 visitors a month. That number could be higher when there are races at the Talladega Superspeedway and Barber Motorsports. Those destinations, and others, like the Talladega Short Track, International Motorsports Hall of Fame and regional off-road courses, make Odenville an ideal location for another car-enthusiast attraction.

With the addition of the Mustang Museum of America and the planned expansion at Barber, St. Clair County and surrounding areas are rapidly becoming something of a mortorsports Mecca, a destination point for car lovers from all over the country and beyond.

Bob said that and a number of other factors made the choice to locate in Odenville easy. He has always had a love of the area, but more importantly, he found the business climate in St.

Clair to be extremely favorable, particularly when it came to working with local government officials and other businesses.

“We consider Odenville home. This just seemed like the thing to do,” he said.

They expect to break ground on the museum later this year and open next year.

This will be the second Mustang-oriented business in Odenville. SVP Unlimited specializes in Mustang restoration and custom builds, along with working on other specialty vehicles. (See that story in the October & November 2012 edition of Discover The Essence of St. Clair Magazine, with a full photo gallery in the online edition). l

For more on the Mustang Museum of America, check out their websitemustangmuseumofamerica.com

or follow them on Facebook.

1968 Mustang California Special Edition

1991 SSP Mustang

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