A New Look to ODN

If you’re one that has visited the Opelika Daily News site the past few days, you may be dizzy from all the changes or different looks.  Well, it should be settled down a bit, with a rotating header (Go ahead, refresh the screen and you’ll see a different picture every minute or so) an added column for Twitter Feeds, that get a regular update and more content.  I’ve even made the font a little bigger to Redman can read it without the readers! You can email your comments to jerry@opelikadailynews.com if you’d like!

Opelika City Wide Cleanup – March 3rd

On Saturday, March 3rd volunteers of Keep Opelika Beautiful will be participating in the Citywide Cleanup. This local effort, an extension of the national program, Great American Cleanup, is an opportunity for citizens to join together in the fight against litter. Dr. Bob Patton has again agreed to chair the local event. Over 300 volunteers joined Keep Opelika Beautiful in 2011 to participate in the event.

Established by Keep America Beautiful, Inc., the nation’s premier litter prevention and education organization, in partnership with state and local affiliates such as ours, the Great American Cleanup is our country’s largest annual cleanup, beautification and community improvement program. Each year, millions of volunteers in over 15,000 communities across the country take part in this program.

As in years past, GLAD is a nation sponsor for the event and donates trash bags to assist the volunteers. Also helping with supplies is East Alabama Medical Center. The Opelika Exchange Club feeds all volunteers after the morning of picking up litter. Participants of the event include all Adopt-A-Mile sponsors, Afni, Auburn Opelika Elks Club, Opelika Exchange Club, Opelika Fire Department, Opelika High School FFA, Opelika Kiwanis Club, Opelika Lions Club, Opelika Rotary Club and Wal-Mart Distribution Center. Other civic organization including Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Jeter community, Boys & Girls Club and various organizations at Opelika High School volunteer for the Cleanup. The Opelika Solid Waste Department, Opelika Mainstreet and Opelika Police Department also assist in the efforts.

Businesses and citizens are encouraged to join Keep Opelika Beautiful in the fight against litter. For more information call Keep Opelika Beautiful at (334) 749-4970.

Alabama Gives Big!

According to the Alabama Association of Nonprofits, here is the breakdown of the $971,297.50 raised for Alabama Gives Day! $742,835 donated online on Feb 2nd, $43,784 donated prior to Feb 2 for Alabama Gives Day, $33,290 donated by text messaging and $151,388.50 reported nonprofits as donatby check or cash Feb 2nd. Alabama Gives Day was fashioned after several other Days of Giving and spearheaded by the Alabama Association of Broadcasters.

On The Tracks Return in April for 13th Time!

Get Ready for downtown Opelika’s great food, live music, and fun at the 13th biannual “On the Tracks” Food and Wine Event. The outdoor event will take place Friday, April 20, on 8th and Railroad Streets.The goal of the event is to raise funds for Opelika Mainstreet as well as promote local businesses in the Auburn/Opelika area.

On the Tracks will begin at 6 p.m. and end at 11pm. Food vendors from local restaurants will be serving food, live music will entertain, beverages will be served, and a food tasting trail will take place.  Beverages and food will be priced accordingly. Tables for groups or businesses with up to ten people can be purchased.  More Information at www.onthetracks.org or www.opelikamainstreet.org.

Opelika’s Main Street program began in 1987 with the goal of revitalizing Opelika’s downtown area. Opelika Main Street provides many services including business recruitment, free design assistance, financial incentive programs and a coordinated promotion program.

Tale of Two Bars

South 9th Street was home, years ago, to a little bar called “A Touch of Class”.  It’s right next to the upholstery shop in what was the Casey Furniture building when I came to town.  Several months ago, the termites won the battle and the roof came crashing down, kinda like the Opera House a few years ago.  Now, they are cleaning the building out and plan to fix and open something in there again.  I grabbed the picture a few days ago, while out on the two mile walk I do on a regular basis.

The other bar, is one that opens later in March.  Jefferson Restaurant, a great place for Burgers, Wings and Oysters is in the old shoe shop building, which later became Catawampus Art Gallery.  With an expansion to the building (doubling the size) and a new paint job, it’s going to look pretty nice.  The removal of paint today has got the outside looking as rough as it has in years, but new paint should be going on before the weekend and all will be good in the world.  I’ll grab a picture of the new bar, which should be in this week and the final paint job in a few days and re-post.  It’s going to be a great addition to downtown.    I’ve made that work in progress picture the header for a few days her on the site!

Op Ed: Legislators and Entrepreneurs Must Work Together to Improve Economic Development

From the Lt Governors Office:  As your lieutenant governor, I am happy to report the State of Alabama is leading the nation in reducing unemployment. More than 41,000 jobs have been created since January 2011, and your lawmakers are working full time to ensure that Alabama’s economic development is a top priority.

EAMC Foundation Events This Weekend!

Celebrate Life, a weekend-long fundraising event held by the East Alabama Medical Center Foundation, begins Friday, offering residents donation opportunities and free health check-ups.

“We want people to understand who it is we’re helping with the gifts we receive, and then the second thing is to raise money to support those programs and projects,” said Julia Pipes, EAMC Foundation director.

The EAMC Foundation collects charitable donations to be used by departments at the hospital to buy needed medical equipment and offer health care to the uninsured. Here’s a link to a complete information about this weeks events.

One event that impacts Opelika is a 5K run/walk in downtown Opelika that will start Saturday at 8 a.m. Route 66 will provide entertainment after the race at Courthouse Square. There is a fee to enter, but prizes will also be offered for different awards. Those interested can sign up online or the day of the event.  The final event planned for the weekend is the celebration and car giveaway from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday night at the Event Center Downtown in Opelika. Tickets for the event are $100 and include food, a drink and one raffle ticket to win a Chevy Cruze and one year of free oil changes for the car.

(Source: OA News & East Alabama Medical Center Foundation)

Streamside Repair Workshop in Auburn

SWaMP is partnering with the Parkerson Mill Creek Watershed Management Plan and the Alabama Cooperative Extension System to offer a backyard streamside repair workshop.  It will be held in north Auburn at the home of Dr.Stephen Enloe on Saturday, February 25 from 1 – 3 pm.  Learn about using live stakes and eradication of invasive exotics to restore degraded and eroded streambanks. Dr. Enloe is an expert on invasive plant management and will be sharing his expertise with us at the workshop. Dr. Eve Brantley, ACES State Water Quality Specialist, will provide instruction on the use of live stakes to stabilize eroding streambanks. We will be installing live stakes (silky dogwood) and potted native plants to stabilize eroding stream banks just north of North Cedarbrook Drive. Go to www.swamp.auburn.edu and click SWaMP partners on Streamside Repair Workshop  under SWaMP Highlights for more information.

 

Opelika Celebrates Arbor Day

While across many of our United States Arbor Day is celebrated during the last week of April, in Alabama (and other southern states) the last full week of February is set aside for Arbor Day activities.

Arbor Day festivities will be held on Saturday, February 25, 2012, at the Opelika Sportsplex and Aquatic Center. The activities will begin at 9 a.m. and will last until 11:00 a.m. There will be activities for kids, a tree planting demonstration, as well as recognition of those students who participated and won the Arbor Day poster contests for 2012. And, as in years past, the Opelika Tree Commission will be giving away FREE dogwood seedlings at the end of the festivities, for folks to plant in their own yards! The only thing we ask for those picking up the seedlings: plant the trees and care for them!

What is Arbor Day? Arbor Day is a nationally-celebrated observance that encourages tree planting and care, which was founded by J. Sterling Morton in 1872, who, having moved “west” and settled in Nebraska (at the time he arrived there Nebraska was still a “territory”) noted that the area was without trees – a necessary commodity for windbreaks to keep soil in place, for fuel and building materials, and for shade from the hot sun. With his enthusiasm for trees – and his position as an editor of a popular paper at the time, he encouraged his readers to “plant trees”. When Nebraska held the first ever Arbor Day Celebration on April 10, 1874, it is estimated that more than 1 million trees were planted in Nebraska on that day.

Pictured (L-R): Billy T. Edwards, Helen A. Levette, Mayor Gary Fuller (signing the official proclamation for Arbor Day in Opelika), Leh Bass and Opelika City Horticulturist, Tommy Beasley.

Opelika Historic Preservation Society News

People tend to get this group and the Opelika Historic Commission confused.  This is the private community group that is involved in Historic Preservation.  A couple of things on their calendar.  This Thursday (Feb 23rd) will be an Open Meeting at the Brownfield House on North 8th.  The 7PM Meeting will feature Orrin “Boody” Brown speaking on his experiences in World War Two.  Also coming Friday April 13th, It’s the Ten Grand Slam, their annual money raising party, with 300 tickets sold at $100 each and a chance to win all or part of $10,000.  With this years winner, a total of $200,000 will have been given away in the 20 years of the event.  I guess this means that Dena will be calling me soon to sell my allotment for this years fun.

Finally – NASCAR Returns

Well, racing fans got lots of action in the Bud Shootout on Saturday in Daytona.  Some changes in the spoiler on the cars and tactics of the drivers brought more than a few cars to the garage early.  The official start of the races that track points is next weekend with the Daytona 500.  Several items in the news about that upcoming race.  From NASCAR.com news that Danica Patrick will be in the Big Race.  While I’m giving you some links here are some of the schedules for 2012: The Sprint Races, The Nationwide Series, and the Camping World Truck Series. From my personal perspective, my likes in drivers and teams has expanded this year.  Mark Martin, who I’ve liked since becoming a fan a few years ago, leaves the Hendrick Camp to drive for Michael Waltrip Racing in the #55 Aarons Car. I’ve always like Michael Waltrip, who was out of the Shootout early getting collected in the first big wreck of the night. Of course, Danica should bring a lot to the track driving both the Sprint and Nationwide Series and I’ll continue to pull for Hendrick Motorsports, who in this picture (Picture: Speed TV) found each other in the final big wreck of the night! Jeff Gordon had one heck of a ride, flipping end over end until he stopped on his roof!   But wait, there’s Dayton Qualifying to watch today!

On the agenda for Track side watching this year, The Brickyard 400 at Indy, the Atlanta Labor Day Race, some Kansas Speedway fun in October and Michigan if possible.  Of Course, other racing on the agenda, with the Indy Race at Barber at the end of March.  The folks at APR will be there too with 7 cars in the Continental Tire and Grand-Am Series.

Auburn Area Community Theater – Once on This Island Jr

AACT Children’s Theatre Presents: Once On This Island, Jr. Feb. 29 through March 6. This is a A Caribbean version of the original “The Little Mermaid” by Hans Christian Anderson, this sweeping musical is a heart-wrenching tale about the gift of love and family told through song and dance. This production is directed by Kim Hirt with musical direction by Elizabeth Childs. There are some characters that may be too intense for children under 7.

Performances are at the Jan Dempsey Arts Center in Auburn, 222 East Drake Avenue, Auburn. Tickets will be available at the door 30 min. prior to curtain time, but reservations are recommended. Call 334 329-8512. Tickets are $7 for children, students and seniors and $9 for adults. Monday, March 5, is Family Night; all tickets will be $7. Checks should be made payable to AACT.

Once On This Island, Jr.Performance Times: Feb. 29—March 6, 6:30 p.m.with Matinee—March 3, 2 p.m., Family Night—March 5, 6:30 p.m. (All tickets are $7) & Encore Performance—March 6, 6:30 p.m. Want more info? Contact: Kim Hirt • 801-851-0258 • kimhirt@gmail.com

Header Pics – 2/18/12

I mentioned that I’d be doing some new pictures for the header of the site every few days.  I’ll feature the original picture in a post when I do the change.  Several weeks ago, sitting on the patio in front of Ma Fia’s while waiting on friends from Savannah to arrived, I grabbed this picture of a passing train.  Okay, so that’s not hard to do with 25 or so of them going through town each day, and who doesn’t like train pictures anyway, right?  Here’s the original, that the snip-it was cropped from.

Efforts Continue to Make Home Brewing Okay in Alabama (HB354)

This in the mail this morning from the group supporting home brewing of beer. “We are excited to report that House bill HB354 was filed today to legalize Homebrewing in Alabama.  With your help, it will pass into law, and cause Alabama to finally join the 48 other states that have already legalized homebrewing.  The bill has taken its first step by being assigned to the Economic Development and Tourism Committee, where it now waits for its turn.”   Be sure to keep an eye on http://www.alahomebrewing.org for news and updates.

Opelika Students Get Long Weekend

Opelika Schools are off both Monday and Tuesday for the students. Teachers have a Professional Day on Tuesday! OHS holds their Academic Banquet on Thursday at 6PM.  ”Anything Goes” presented by the Opelika High Theatre Society opens on March 8th and runs the following weekend as well.