Randolph County is among 33 Alabama counties placed under a drought emergency (no burn) on Saturday after the Alabama Forestry Commission declared that emergency drought conditions exist in those counties. State Forester Linda Casey presented the declaration of emergency drought conditions to Gov. Bob Riley, who approved the action. The declaration will remain until lifted…
Four people were injured on Saturday in an accident at the intersection of U.S. 431 and Franklin Road. According to the report from Roanoke Police Department, Cameron Wayne Hulett, 15, of 1695 County Rd. 131, Roanoke, was traveling southbound on U.S. 431, in a 2004 Kia. Edward Matthew Driver, 76, of 533 Knight Ave., was…
Carol Knight has faced surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, yet she feels “in a way cancer has been a blessing.” Her mother, Helen Bugg, feels the same way. “It teaches you not to take so much for granted every day,” she said. Both said their breast cancer made them feel they need to live their lives…
What am I talking about? What else but the money from the federal grant for the Randolph County Animal Shelter. The first draw has passed all the hurdles of the SBA and has gone for disbursement. The only unknown right now is exactly when the first $50,000 will be received here in Wedowee. Surely it…
BIRMINGHAM – Jamie Langley made history on Saturday night when she became the first contestant from Randolph County ever to be crowned Miss Alabama. Langley, 23, is the daughter of Jeff and Mailey Langley of the Forester’s Chapel community outside of Wadley. She graduated from Wadley High School in 2001. The senior at Jacksonville State…
The Billy Donovan flip/flop on the NBA coming six months after the courtship and subsequent buying of Nick Saban has given the Southeastern Conference a whole new identity in the big-time world of college athletics. In the past, the SEC has been known as one of the top football powerhouse conferences in college football and…
BROUGHTON – In December, Jessica and Adam May moved to the former Calvin and Geraldine Shipp farm on Broughton Ridge. About a month later, so did 300 goats. Jessica hopes to be able to farm full time and one day be a stay-at-home mom. When considering what type of farm she would like to have,…
LAKE WEDOWEE – A small intense storm cell damaged several boat docks and blew down some trees on Lake Wedowee early Tuesday. According to Randolph County EMA director Donnie Knight, the damage was caused by straight-line winds and not a small tornado because all of the damage appears to be going in the same direction.…
Four Randolph County homes were lost to fires during the past week. On Wednesday of last week at approximately 2:54 p.m., a fire was reported that destroyed the residence of Russell and Nadine Herren at 338 County Rd. 233 in the Corinth North community of northwest Randolph County. According to Larry Simons, chief of Foster’s…
A water conservation meeting Friday produced a unanimous decision to implement voluntary water restrictions in Randolph County. But if citizens do not cut water usage by at least 10 percent then mandatory restrictions will quickly follow. A June 7 U.S. Drought Mitigation Center report that upgraded 20 counties from a D-3 to a D-4 level,…
For Newell resident Chris Hill, racing is addictive. Hill began racing in 1992 in the Open Wheel Modified class after years of watching his father and stepfather race in the Super Street and Legends classes. “It was just something I always wanted to do,” Hill said. He said he remembers that first experience racing like…
The Randolph County travel baseball team took home the state championship last weekend in Alabaster after coming back from an opening-round loss. The tournament, Randolph County’s last tune-up before the World Series in Lexington, S.C., featured several prominent travel teams from across the state. Randolph County lost the opening game to TPSA out of Huntsville…
An 8-year-old bicyclist was injured in a collision with a vehicle Monday afternoon on South LaFayette Street in Roanoke. Dinson Paige of LaGrange was driving a 1999 Ford Expedition west on South LaFayette Street at 4:22 p.m. when Jacoby Linson on the bicycle failed to stop at the stop sign as he was exiting Heflin…
I will try to keep this clean. Don’t want to offend the offendable. Not worried about the others. You know who you are. Well guess what? Not long ago an Associated Press-Ipsos survey revealed that nearly three-quarters of the people polled said that they encountered profanity in public from time to time. The poll didn’t…
The most recent revelation about Roy Johnson’s disregard for spending public funds wisely is mentioned in Bob Martin’s adjacent column. Poor management doesn’t come close to explaining this deal, though. Personal enrichment does. Whether Johnson and his cronies eventually serve time for their transgressions will be up to investigators and the attorney general. What everyone…
There have certainly been incidents in the past of near fistfights in the hallowed halls of the Alabama Legislature. There was also an incident back in the late 1960s or early 1970s when a fight between two senators was fictionalized by a few members of the capitol press corps. A certain reporter for one of…
WEDOWEE – Randolph County Commissioner Lathonia Wright said a new jail for Randolph County should be paid for by the state because “we’re here to take care of state business while they’re busy voting themselves raises and fighting.” According to Wright’s reasoning, Randolph County was created by the state to carry out state functions at…
Arrests Robert William Bailey, 27, of 3464 County Rd. 29, Heflin, was arrested on June 12 and charged with failure to appear in court. Michael Wilson, 48, of Centre was arrested on June 10 and charged with failure to appear in court. Tracey Baldwin of 176 Boykin Rd., Woodland, was arrested on May 23 and…
During the spring court term a number of cases were disposed of as defendants pleaded guilty to the charges they were facing. Fifth Judicial Circuit Judge Ray Martin accepted the guilty pleas often handing out probation as required by the sentencing guidelines implemented last fall in an effort to standardize sentences across the state. Among…
I’m not the kind of person who keeps up with all the latest celebrity gossip and news. In fact, I despise the mainstream media for spending countless hours on so-called news stories like the whole Anna Nicole Smith fiasco. But there is an issue out there right now that I just can’t resist talking about.…