civitan park work cougars begin likely to begin this no. 2

They’re on the road again.The Trussville Police De-

partment last Monday rolled out two motorcycles to en-force traffic laws, the 2008 Harley Davidson Road Kings driving up and down Truss-ville streets for the first time since March 2013. The mo-torcycles came off the road at that time due to promotions within the department. The Motor Unit was formed in 2008.

The motorcycles offer

greater maneuverability and are cheaper to operate than other patrol vehicles. The pri-mary duty of the Motor Unit is traffic enforcement, espe-cially in residential areas.

Officers Scotty Bates and Joseph Dunn operate the motorcycles. They qualified for the job after a two-week training in Hoover, in which they encountered every ter-rain and maneuver possible on a motorcycle. Trussville Police Department Lt. Jeff Bridges called it an “intense training.”

Bates, who’s been with the department for 12 years, rode

dirt bikes when he was a teen-ager. Bates said he applied for this job just to try something new.

“Everybody loves motor-cycles,” he said.

Dunn, who’s been with the department since 2008, said he bought a motorcycle when he was in his 20s. He devel-oped a passion for it.

“It’s a blast,” Dunn said. “That’s where my enthusiasm comes from wanting to do this professionally.”

Bridges said their primary function is to enforce traffic

The Clay City Council has its new-est member.

Bo Johnson was nominated to re-place the council seat vacated by for-mer Councilman Mark Halstead at last week’s meeting. Halstead left the city council due to a relocation.

Johnson was chosen out of seven candidates, and took over annexa-tions and new business.

His term began Aug. 5 and will last until Nov. 5, 2016.

“He’ll do an excellent job,” Mayor Charles Webster said.

Johnson, the son of Clay City Councilwoman Becky Johnson, is the senior pastor at Refuge Church, which meets at Regal Cinemas in Trussville. He and his wife, Khristie, founded Refuge, which was original-ly Living Word Church.

Johnson is a 1986 graduate of Hewitt-Trussville High School and has a degree in theology from Life Christian University in Tampa, Fla.

Gary Lloyd contributed to this story.

The Pinson City Council last week approved of entering into a contract for the construction of the new city park.

Clements Dean Construction will build the park for $1.57 million. J.A. Dawson will be

paid $277,850 for equipment. The total includes all alternates for the park project.

The contract process was the final step before work can begin on the project.

The park will be located near Center Point Parkway between Sweeny Hollow Road and Glen Brook Road. The city council hopes the park will be able to

be opened in conjunction with Pinson’s 200th anniversary as a community in 2015. The park still hasn’t been given a name. Suggestions have included Pin-son Park, Children’s Memorial Park, Settlers’ Park and Palmer Park.

In other news, the council has been continuing on with its pav-ing projects as well. The Sector

2 paving project in the Aspen Ridge neighborhood was com-pleted last week, and additional paving might be in the future depending on a neighborhood vote.

A probate judge has deter-mined that residents of Aspen Ridge will be able to vote on

The preliminary hear-ing for Earnest Shaquille Robinson’s first-degree robbery case was waived Tuesday morning.

Jefferson County Dis-trict Court Judge Shelly Watkins said the case

will now be heard by a grand jury. Robinson was present for Tuesday morning’s hearing.

Robinson, 19, a for-mer Pinson Valley High School football stand-

out who signed to play football at Auburn Uni-versity last year, got the charge after a May 27 incident in which Rob-inson and two others al-legedly set up a man and robbed him in the Crest-wood Boulevard area, according to Birming-ham Police Department Lt. Sean Edwards.

Robinson has appar-ently been out of jail on bond.

Robinson is a 2013 Pinson Valley High School graduate. A four-star wide receiver pros-pect in high school, Rob-inson committed to Au-burn in February 2012.

At his memorial service a year ago, Brock Bowman was remembered for his smile, for his cheerful heart.

Today, he’s remembered the exact same way.

Friday marked a year since Bow-man, then a junior at Hewitt-Trussville High School, drowned in the Cahaba River while inner tubing with friends. Bowman would have been a senior this year, and the Class of 2015 last week honored his memory.

Classmates and teammates on Fri-day wore shirts to school to remember Bowman, to honor his memory. White T-shirts read “In Memory of Brock” across the front, with his last name and football jersey No. 70 on the back. Red T-shirts show “#70” in white over the heart, and the back has his last name across the top, the date “8-8-13” below that. Under that, Matthew 5:4 is printed in white: “Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted.”

Friends last Thursday night remem-bered Bowman.

“This is his senior year, too,” said senior football player Hunter Songer. “Although he’s in heaven, a lot of us feel like he’s still with us. It would be wrong for us to not do something like this.”

Songer said the football team will honor Bowman in some way this fall. Bowman played right tackle, and was improving leading up to his junior year last season.

Jacob Baggett said the question will always be “Why?” He said the answer to that question may never be discov-ered.

“It’s just been a tough year without the life of the party being around all the time,” he said.

August 13 - 19, 2014 50¢

www.trussvilletribune.com

The Trussville TribuneThe Trussville TribuneYour news source for Trussville, Clay and Pinson

Pinson OKs city park contract

see ROBINSON page 2

see POLICE page 4

see BROCK page 4

see PINSON page 3

photo courtesy of the city of Clay

Bo Johnson, left, with Clay Mayor Charles Webster

photo courtesy of Principle Portrait Group

Brock Bowman

by Gary Lloyd

Editor

by Gary Lloyd

Editor

by Lee Weyhrich

Staff Writer

by Lee Weyhrich

Staff Writer

by Gary Lloyd

Editor

photo by Gary Lloyd

Trussville police officers Joseph Dunn, left, and Scotty Bates, right, prepare to ride out for a shift last week.

Cougars begin No. 2 in Class 6A,

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Civitan Park work likely to begin this

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Inside The Tribune:News – pages 2 - 5Lifestyle – pages 6 - 10Calendar – page 11Opinion – page 12 Sports – pages 13 - 14

One year later, classmates, teammates honor Brock Bowman

Clay names new city councilman

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Just before 11 p.m.,

deputies responded to a traffic accident in the 9700 block of Highway 79. The accident involved a head-on collision between a 1996 Dodge pickup truck and a 2006 Dodge pickup truck.

The 2006 Dodge that

was driven by a 23-year-old Blount County man was traveling northbound on Highway 79 and appeared to have crossed the center line and collided with the other truck driven by a 17-year-old male from Center Point traveling

south on Highway 79. The Jefferson County

Coroner’s Office identified the driver of the 2006 Dodge pickup truck as Stephen Randall Fendley, 23, of Remlap. The driver of the 1996 Dodge pickup truck was identified as Redin Fernando Castellonos, 17, of Center Point. Officials

said Castellonos wasn’t wearing his seat belt and Fendley was.

Both drivers were dead on the scene, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. A passenger in the southbound truck told deputies that he and Castellonos had been traveling south and the

other truck hit them head on.

He was transported to the hospital with injuries that weren’t considered life threatening.

Contact Gary Lloyd at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @GaryALloyd.

by Gary Lloyd

Editor

2 die in crash north of Pinson

Pinson Valley High School was recently up-graded to Class 6A status, and Councilman Joe Co-chran wants the new visi-tors that status will bring to be impressed.

Cochran has been vying for a new artificial turf to be installed at Willie Ad-ams Stadium for the last few months.

“I would like us to en-tertain the concept, early now, about getting the turf put in next year,” Cochran said.

In January, the Pinson City Council was pre-sented with a $600,000 figure to replace the field

with a new artificial turf. In April, the council briefly discussed patching the field. The council had been in discussions with former Jefferson County Schools Superintendent Stephen Nowlin regarding the unsafe state of the field for several months.

In May, the council was presented with an alter-nate plan to help fund a new turf field. The plan, as proposed by Cochran, would cover roughly half the cost of the turf installa-tion. The city would make a smaller, more affordable monetary contribution, as well as a land trade to the Jefferson County Board of Education that would make up the difference. The plan sounded feasible,

but Nowlin was released from his contract not long after being presented with the plan.

The Jefferson County Board of Education in

June took steps toward re-pairing the football field at Willie Adams Stadium, awarding a contract to civ-il engineering firm LBYD to assess the situation with

the current field and plan for a practice field.

Later in June, the board approved Clements Dean of providing “remediation services” to repair the field for $34,800. The work ap-proved was not total cor-rection, just to get through this season.

The consensus seems to be that these repairs did little to really address the major problems.

“We had an Execu-tive Board and a Football Board meeting (two weeks ago), and I understand that the superintendent (is) not pleased with the field,” Pinson City Councilwom-an Dawn Tanner said. “It has not turned out the way he envisioned and when he first walked in we knew

we had a problem.”The Pinson Valley var-

sity football team has been practicing at the field be-hind the Old Rock School this summer. Pinson Val-ley’s first home football game is Friday, Aug. 29 against Oneonta.

The Pinson City Coun-cil did recently approve of new trash cans with dome lids for the upcom-ing football season. The council voted to purchase 10 Brute 44-gallon trash cans, which Cochran be-lieves will look better than the white cans with “PV” spray-painted on them used in the past.

Gary Lloyd contributed to this story.

Pinson councilman wants turf for football field next seasonby Lee Weyhrich

Staff Writer

file photo by Gary Lloyd

The field at Willie Adams Stadium earlier this summer

As a senior, he caught 51 passes for 900 yards and 12 touchdowns and was a member of the Under Ar-mour All-American team. He was an Alabama Sports Writers Association All-State player his junior and senior seasons. In his ca-reer, he totaled 106 recep-tions for 1,976 yards and

33 touchdowns. He then signed with Auburn in Feb-ruary 2013.

In July 2013, it was de-termined that Robinson didn’t academically qualify at Auburn, and he enrolled at East Mississippi Com-munity College in Scooba, Miss. Robinson played in 10 games at EMCC as a

freshman, catching seven passes for 75 yards. EMCC last season won the Na-tional Junior College Ath-letic Association national championship.


ROBINSON continued from page 1


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whether more than 100 acres of land in their area will become part of the city of Pinson. More than 60 percent of that neigh-borhood has already been annexed into the city, but many of the remain-ing lots are vacant houses or empty lots. A probate judge determined that the neighborhood met every requirement for annexa-

tion by election. The vote will only be open to Aspen Ridge residents, and will take place Sept. 9.

Kermit Johnson El-ementary School asked the council to help with the cost of hiring a school nurse. School nurses are granted on a yearly basis to schools that meet certain requirements for health is-sues by population. The

school requested that the city help pay for a full-time nurse. The council voted to pay $3,500 to help finance a nurse for the school, roughly half the cost of a part-time nurse. The hope is that the PTA will also be able to help with funding in some way, Mayor Hoyt Sanders said.

PINSON continued from page 1

First-year Hewitt-Truss-ville head football coach Josh Floyd will be the fea-tured speaker at the Thurs-day, Aug. 21 Trussville Area Chamber of Com-merce luncheon.

The luncheon begins at 11:30 a.m. at the Trussville Civic Center.

The luncheon is $17 and reservations are required by noon Tuesday, Aug. 19. Registration is available at www.trussvillechamber.com.

Floyd has 10 years’ experience as the head football coach at Shiloh Christian High School in Arkansas. His teams had a record of 99-29-1. Shiloh played in five consecutive state championship games, winning state in 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010 and fin-ishing as state runner-up in 2007. Floyd was the start-ing quarterback at Shiloh

Christian from 1996-1998 under head coach Gus Malzhan, the current head coach for Auburn Univer-sity.

During Floyd’s career in high school, he broke state and national pass-ing records while leading his team to the school’s first state championship in 1998. Floyd played in col-lege for Ouachita Baptist University until an injury ended his playing career. He graduated in 2003 with

a bachelor’s degree in health and physical educa-tion.

Floyd is just the third Hewitt-Trussville head football coach since 1983. Jack Wood coached from 1983 through 2001, and Hal Riddle from 2002 through 2013.


New Hewitt football coach to speak at luncheonby Gary Lloyd

Editor

photo by Ron Burkett

First-year Hewitt-Trussville head football coach Josh Floyd speaks to players at practice last month.

The Trussville Civic Center will close at 3 p.m. on Fridays of home football games this season after the new Hewitt-Trussville Stadium opens, according to Trussville Mayor Gene Melton.

The new stadium, located behind the civic center, is projected to open Friday, Oct. 3, when Hewitt-Trussville hosts Oak Mountain for

homecoming. The Huskies round out the home schedule against Hoover on Oct. 24 and Clay-Chalkville on Oct. 31.

If the stadium opens on time, the Trussville Civic Center will close at 3 p.m. on those dates so the parking lot can be used for game parking, Melton said. Should Hewitt-Trussville reach the Class 7A playoffs and host a game, the scenario will likely be the same, he said.

Melton said this plan is just for this season.

Between the end of this season and the beginning of next season, city and Trussville City Schools officials will determine how to handle game parking in the future.

The Trussville City Board of Education last July approved Blalock Building Company to build Hewitt-Trussville Stadium for $14,626,550. Ground was broken at the site, signaling the beginning of the project, on Sept. 25, 2013.

“A Night With The Collingsworth Family” is scheduled for Friday, Aug. 15 at First Baptist Church Trussville.

Doors open at 6 p.m., and the worship and praise event begins at 7 p.m.

Tickets are $20 in advance and $22 at the door. Children 10 and under get in free. The local ticket outlet is the Lifeway Christian Bookstore in Trussville.

For more information, visit www.perfectharmonypromotions.com.

by Gary Lloyd

Editor

by Gary Lloyd

Editor

Civic center will close at 3 p.m. on Fridays after stadium opens

‘A Night With The Collingsworth Family’ at FBC Trussville Friday


The Trussville Civic Center

submitted photo

The Collingsworth Family


Those who were with Bowman on the Cahaba River a year ago went to that site Friday. They placed a cross on the banks.

“Everybody loved him,” said junior quarterback Zac Thomas. “Wasn’t a day that went by that he didn’t make someone laugh or smile. He was al-ways there when you needed him and was just the best friend anyone could ask for. He is so greatly missed by ev-eryone. He would make you laugh and smile constantly. He was just filled with happiness.”

Senior baseball shortstop Carter Pha-ris said Bowman was one of his closest friends. He said he’ll always remem-ber Bowman’s “big smile that would just turn a terrible day to a great one.” He said Bowman was the definition of love.

Pharis said he thinks about Bowman every day, about how he was a light and a joy to so many people.

“He was the example of how to love people,” Pharis said. “Every day he showed love just like God calls us to do.”

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Avery Vise, the Demo-cratic candidate for the Alabama 6th Congressio-nal District, has chosen to withdraw from the race.

Vise submitted a letter detailing his withdrawal to Alabama Democratic Party Chairwoman Nancy Worley last Thursday.

Vise’s withdrawal means Republican Gary Palmer currently has no opposition in the Alabama 6th Congressional District race to be decided Nov. 4. The seat is open as Repub-lican Rep. Spencer Bachus

is retiring.“When I decided to run

for the 6th Congressional seat of Alabama, I felt the need for someone to repre-sent the common everyday person, along with small business owners and their employees against the

tidal wave of new regu-lations and taxes that are coming from non-elected bureaucrats in Washing-ton, D.C.,” Palmer said in a statement. “This is the message we will continue to share with residents of the 6th District from now till Nov. 4.”

The Alabama Democrat-ic Party has about a week to name a new candidate.

Palmer beat Republican Paul DeMarco in a runoff in July to win the Republi-can nomination.


Democratic candidate drops from 6th Congressional District raceby Gary Lloyd

Editor

photo courtesy of the Gary Palmer Facebook page

Gary Palmer

A new program to enhance school culture by noting and rewarding positive behavior of students is being initiated by the Alabama State Department.

The new program, using the Learning Earnings tool, aims to improve behavior school-wide through the combination of new administrative tools, professional development

and ongoing analysis and monitoring of student performance.

The Learning Earnings platform for managing classroom behavior and incentive programs will provide the tools necessary to manage the ALSDE behavior improvement initiative. Tightly integrated with the statewide student information system, InformationNOW, the program will benefit from the communication of the platforms, which

will yield measurable and actionable data and serve as a tool for teachers and administrators to support positive behavior. The program will show the link between research-validated practices and the environments in which teaching and learning occurs.

“Technology paired with caring and consideration from educators in our schools will help to further reach out to students, increasing attendance, positive behaviors and

achievement,” said State Superintendent of Education Tommy Bice. “We are proud to offer the Learning Earnings program, that helps encourage students to be their best.”

The Learning Earnings program will be managed by local schools and teachers. Goals will be established for students at the classroom, school and system levels. As students aim for positive behavioral targets, they may earn credits when

they reach their goals. The main indicators of student success being reviewed are attendance, behavior and coursework. Students can use the credits to “purchase” items at the school or receive special privileges, through the online Learning Earnings store, such as a lunch with the principal or “VIP” parking at high schools.

Confirmed schools for the voluntary program include Alabaster City, Alexander City, Anniston City, Marion County,

Morgan County, Pell City, Tarrant City and Wilcox County. Additional systems are potential signees as well. ALSDE hosted a kickoff meeting for those confirmed systems July 8.

Trussville City Schools Superintendent Pattie Neill said the school system is “looking at it for next year.”


by Gary Lloyd

Editor

Trussville ‘looking at’ participating in program to enhance school culture

submitted photo

Bowman’s friends placed a cross near the Cahaba River last week.

BROCK continued from page 1

laws. The response time is quicker for a motorcycle than a typical patrol vehi-cle. This allows patrol ve-hicles to respond to other calls in the city. Plus, the motorcycles can be uti-lized in homecoming pa-rades and other events.

The motorcycles were on display at Trussville’s National Night Out event last week. Dunn said they demonstrated how to ride the motorcycles and let kids see the “cool gadgets” that are attached to them. Dunn said the event al-lowed the officers to show

the community what it of-fers them.

The job is the same, but riding on a motorcycle is different than being inside a patrol vehicle. Dunn said a patrol vehicle can be like a “barrier” between him-self and Trussville citizens. He said it’s easy to speak with people -- especially curious kids -- from the motorcycle. It varies based on calls, but the motorcy-cles tally up about 90 miles per day.

When Bates and Dunn hit the streets last week, they did so during what

may have been the hottest week of the year. In the first two days, Dunn lost eight pounds of what he figures to be water weight. Bates said he drinks at least two gallons of water per day. They stop for lunch, to cool off inside gas sta-tions and to complete pa-perwork.

“It’s been fun,” Dunn said.


POLICE continued from page 1

The Jefferson County Board of Education last week approved former Hewitt-Trussville Middle School teacher Kim Posey Hutchens as the instructional assistant principal at Clay-Chalkville High School.

Hutchens has a bachelor’s degree in language arts, master’s in gifted education and instructional leadership, and an educational specialist degree in teacher leadership from Samford University.

At Hewitt-Trussville Middle School, Hutchens sponsored the Drama Club, Junior Thespian Society

and Debate Team.The board also approved

Chalkville Elementary School Assistant Principal Susan Remick as the new principal at Adamsville Elementary School.


by Gary Lloyd

Editor

Former HTMS teacher named instructional assistant principal at CCHS


It will likely take 60 work days to complete the first phase of the Civitan Park greenway project in Trussville, according to officials.

A pre-construction meeting was held last Wednesday at Trussville City Hall, in which Alabama Department of Transportation officials and KBR -- the group supervising the project -- met with officials from Walker Patton Contracting, the company that will perform the work.

The project includes finishing the parking lot and landscaping around the Veterans Memorial Monument on the Civitan Park side of the Cahaba River. This work was let for bid May 30, and Walker Patton Contracting was the apparent low bidder, coming in with a bid of $388,248.22.

Officials from Walker

Patton Contracting indicated they could begin work later this month, and would “do our best” to complete the first phase by Veteran’s Day. One official from KBR said the goal of the first phase is to get the monument side of the park open because Trussville residents have been “upset” at how long it’s remained closed.

Trussville Mayor Gene Melton stressed to the contracting company that starting sooner is better, that an area left unfinished is susceptible to flooding. It will need to be “quickly stabilized” before a lot of rain falls, Melton said.

The Civitan Park greenway project was divided into two jobs in November 2013. The second aspect involves the rest of the site, including linking the greenway from Civitan Park to the Trussville Sports Complex along the Cahaba River. The second phase is expected to be let for bid in December.

The $1.7 million greenway project began in April 2012 and was supposed to have been completed in the fall of

2012. The project has been in the works since 1998. The project is funded with a federal grant and administered by ALDOT.

The city of Trussville has no supervisory authority over the contractor.

In the meantime, Melton said, an enhancement of the Cahaba River will also be taking place from the Civitan Bridge to the Cherokee Bridge. The city of Trussville in June hired North Carolina-based North State Environmental to enhance a stretch of the Cahaba River from Cherokee Drive to the Civitan Bridge. North State Environmental was awarded the project with a bid of $828,299.46. Melton said enhancements will include flood mitigation, steps to improve the river and river banks, and planting native species that will aid in controlling flooding. Melton has said he expects the enhancements to be complete by the end of December.

Melton spent much of last year’s Memorial Day weekend at Civitan Park as crews from ALDOT worked to

address the problems the Alabama Department of Environmental Management listed in a project status report. Trussville could have faced a $50,000 fine had the problems not been corrected, which they were. The Trussville City Council in May 2013 approved of paying Cahaba Disaster Recovery up to $25,000 for work it did to clear debris from the Cahaba River on Memorial Day weekend. Melton said at the time that about 768 bales of hay were purchased and spread around the river at Civitan Park. Prior to that, several Trussville residents at a May 2013 Trussville City Council meeting asked about the project’s status. One called the area surrounding the memorial a “disgrace.”


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The Veterans Memorial Monument on Parkway Drive in Trussville is likely to be completed this fall.

by Gary Lloyd

Editor

60 work days likely to complete first Civitan Park phase

New Jefferson County Schools Superintendent Craig Pouncey said that the first day of school last week was an “outstanding day.”

“We had a great start,” Pouncey said at last week’s Jefferson County Board of Education meeting.

Pouncey thanked all fac-ulty and staff for a job well done in getting the school year started.

Jefferson County Board of Education Vice Presi-dent Jacqueline Smith lauded Pouncey, saying that he had visited 42 of the school system’s 56 schools in about a week’s time. Board President Jennifer Parsons said school prin-cipals were appreciative

of Pouncey visiting their schools.

The Jefferson County Board of Education next meets Tuesday, Aug. 19 at 9 a.m., when it could hire a new deputy superintendent for the system.


First school day as new JefCoEd superintendent ‘outstanding’by Gary Lloyd

Editor

photo by Gary Lloyd

Jefferson County Schools Superintendent Craig Pouncey, right, with Jefferson County Board of Education members


A Trussville resident said Tuesday that people are “puz-zled” over the project ongoing on Highland Avenue.

Gerald Glenn said Highland Avenue is currently “not a safe place to be.”

The project entails relocating a drainage ditch, extending a drainage culvert under the road

near the Linden Street end of the street, and widening and resur-facing the roadway.

Glenn said the project appears to be dead. Mayor Gene Melton said the project isn’t dead, that Trussville city workers are per-forming the work on the project to save money. He said he ex-pects the project to be complete in the next 30 to 45 days, subject to weather.

The original plan was to have the project complete by the time

school started. Melton estimated that the project, depending on a possible pipe installation, will to-tal $30,000 at most.

Glenn said the project started in late April or early May and that “people don’t understand” why it’s taking so long. Melton said reasons are that city work-ers are doing the work, as well as all the other projects going on in the city.

“It does take time,” Melton said.

Highland Avenue closed for one day in June so that work could be done on the road.

In April, the city hired Preci-sion Tree Service for $10,000 to remove the trees along Highland Avenue for the rebuilding of the drainage ditch and road.


From staff reports

Eight restaurants from across Alabama have moved into the next round of the Alabama’s Best Steak competition, and one is from Clay.

Papa Sal’s Italian Res-taurant on Old Springville Road is one of two finalists from the Central region.

The contest is being hosted by the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association, and it began July 1. The final elimination round is

this month. Voting will bring the competition to a “Fiery Four” and earn a visit from a team of judges, who will try their ribeye steaks. Judges will score each restaurant and their results will ultimately de-termine the winner.

Keith Cifuentes began working for his father’s restaurant 29 years ago at the age of 17. The eatery began in Roebuck before moving to Springville and back to Roebuck before settling in Clay three years

ago on Old Springville Road.

“We were one of 8,000 entries,” Cifuentes said. “We received a letter say-ing we had been nominated and our customers started voting for us.”

The winning restaurant will be announced at a me-dia event to kick off the 50th anniversary of Oc-tober Beef Month in Ala-bama.

For more information, visit www.alabamasbest-steak.com.

From staff reports

In the event a citizen experiences an unusual situation with a taxi cab company or driver that could be considered a com-plaint, the Birmingham

Police Department Busi-ness Compliance Unit has drafted information to help citizens.

A few examples of possi-ble allegations are the driv-er failing to accept a fare or refusing a trip, offering a

flat rate for the fare, failing to turn on the meter, charg-ing an unreasonably high rate, refusing to accept a credit/debit card payment, refusing to identify them-selves or not displaying the driver’s permit/license.

If any of these allega-tions occur or some similar event, the citizen should contact the police’s non-emergency number, 205-328-9311, with the cab company name, cab num-ber, driver name, location

of occurrence and what happened. The citizen should ask that an incident/offense report be complet-ed and make sure BPD has contact information. Citi-zens should also ask for a case number.

The Birmingham Police Department reports that the Business Compliance Unit will follow up and investi-gate the complaint and will cite the taxi company and/or driver for any sustained complaints.

Residents ‘puzzled’ over Highland Avenue project

Clay restaurant in top 8 for best steak in state

Birmingham PD offers info for taxi complaints

by Gary Lloyd

Editor

LifestyLe

file photo by Ron Burkett

A Trussville historical marker

photo by Scott Buttram

The ribeye steak from Papa Sal’s Italian Restaurant in Clay has made the Enticing Eight in Alabama’s Best Steak competition sponsored by the Alabama Cattlemen’s Associa-tion.

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From staff reports Samuel D. Pierce, who is in

private practice as an optometrist at Trussville Vision Care, has been re-elected to serve on the American Optometric Association’s Board of Trustees.

The AOA represents approximately 36,000 doctors of optometry and other eye care professionals. Pierce

was sworn into office in June in Philadelphia, Pa., during the association’s annual Optometry’s Meeting.

Pierce was first elected to the AOA’s Board of Trustees in June 2009. As a member of board, Pierce serves as member of the AOA Finance and Investment Committees, and is board liaison to the AOA Advocacy Group, the AOA Council on Research

and the Third Party Center. His board liaison assignments also include affiliate associations in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, as well as Nova Southeastern University, College of Optometry and Southern College of Optometry.

Prior to his election to the board, Pierce served the AOA by volunteering his time to

the Communications Advisory Group, Professional Relations Committee, Nominating Committee and the Student and New Graduate Committee. He’s also past president of the Alabama Optometric Association and served as a member of the SECO Board of Trustees.

Pierce is a graduate of the University of Alabama

at Birmingham School of Optometry and a past president of the UABSO Alumni Association. In 2010, Pierce received the UABSO 2010 Alumnus of the Year award and in 2012 he received the Alabama Optometric Association’s Optometrist of the Year award.

Pierce and his wife, Kim, have two daughters, Julianna and Emily.

Trussville optometrist re-elected to AOA board

A few days before classes began at Hewitt-Trussville High School in the fall of 1987, Student Council member Ginger Prewitt (now Wallace), attended an orientation session for incoming exchange students. There she met a Danish girl named Mette Hald (now Hoffmann), and the two became fast friends.

As Ginger learned more about her new friend, she became concerned that Mette might not be in the optimal situation to experience a typical American girl’s school year.

“Her host family had two boys – one off at college and one in junior high – so I thought that was an odd spot for her to land,” Wallace said. “I didn’t think it was going to be a very fun year for her, and she was going to have

to ride the bus to school with all the younger kids.”

So taking matters into her own hands, Ginger approached her mother, Linda Prewitt, about asking Mette to come live with them.

“Mette was already experiencing some anxiety about the home she was in,” said Prewitt. “But I told Ginger we didn’t apply for an exchange student and that we

couldn’t take somebody else’s. But what it boiled down to later was, Mette wasn’t happy in that situation, and if we didn’t take her, she was going home.”

Thanks to Ginger’s connection with the exchange student representative, the Prewitts were able to cut through the red tape and become Mette’s new host family in record time.

“That way, she was able to experience high school in Alabama with a girl her age,” Wallace said.

So for the 1987-1988 school year, Ginger had a Danish “sister,” and the girls were inseparable. And even though host homes were required to provide separate bedrooms for exchange students, the two huddled together in Ginger’s room night after night, talking about all the things teenage girls have talked about since time began, until they fell asleep.

And all the while, Mette felt as if she were living in a fantasy world.

“I remember getting off the plane and thinking it felt like I was in an American movie,” Hoffmann said during a recent visit to her long-ago host family’s home in Argo. “Denmark is a very small country, and everything is close together.

“Starting at the high school was like a movie,

too, with the lockers down the hallways and walking from class to class. At home, we stayed in one room all day with the same people. You didn’t change classes like you do here. It really felt like a movie.”

With Ginger as her guide, Mette was able to enjoy the full Hewitt-Trussville student experience, including social and sporting events, as well as other extracurricular activities. She competed in the Miss Hewitt Pageant, placing in the Top 10, and she starred as a gum ball machine in a Christmas program. And oh, yeah, she managed to work in a little study time, too.

“They let me be a part of the graduation, but I don’t think I really had all the classes that would have been required to graduate in America,” she said.

Now a nurse, Hoffmann lives in Arhus, Denmark, and is married to Henrik, owner of a landscape and

gardening company. The couple has three children: Anna, Anton and Asger.

What Hoffmann remembers the most about her HTHS experience is the friends she made, and she now enjoys Facebook friendships with some of them. But she maintains a close connection with the Prewitts. She has returned for visits three times over the years, most recently visiting earlier this summer, and the Prewitts have visited Hoffmann and her family in Denmark, too.

And even though a lot of time has gone by and their lives have changed in many ways, she and the Prewitts still look fondly back on the school year during which their family-like ties were formed.

“It was a wonderful experience for our family, and I think it was for Mette, too,” said Prewitt. “We adopted her, no holds barred, and I think she did us, too.”

by June Mathews

For The Tribune

Nearly 3 decades later, former HTHS exchange student maintains close ties with host family

submitted photo

Mette Hoffmann, left, and Ginger Wallace

civitan park work cougars begin likely to begin this no. 2

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