April 2024 | Volume 12 | Issue 6
Sun HOOVER’S COMMUNITY NEWS SOURCE HOOVERSUN.COM | STARNESMEDIA.COM
All-South Metro
Several local players were named as part of this year’s All-South Metro Basketball Team.
See page 20
Home & Garden
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RETURN OF THE ‘SILVER FOX’ American Idol winner, Broadway actor, TV show host Taylor Hicks prepares to release first album in 15 years By JON ANDERSON
E Find tips and tricks from area businesses to jump-start any project in our Spring Home & Garden Guide.
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INSIDE Sponsors.............. 4 City........................ 6 Business..............10 Schoolhouse....... 12 Events.................. 14
Sports.................. 16 Real Estate........ 22 Home & Garden Guide.............. 24
ven when Taylor Hicks was a teenager in Hoover in the 1990s, music was a big part of his life. Former classmates from Hoover High remember him as an outgoing guy who was always singing in the basketball locker room or playing his harmonica. People who worked in the guidance counselor’s office recall him saying that his main goal was to be in a band one day. Curt Posey, who now serves on the Hoover City Council, was in the same graduating class as Hicks — the class of 1995 and the first to graduate from Hoover High — and remembers Hicks being voted the most talented of the 432 seniors. “He was very talented and played the harmonica and sang,” Posey said. “I never really saw him perform like he did [later] on ‘American Idol.’ … When you’re in high school, you don’t really get to see that side of a person at school.”
See TAYLOR HICKS | page 30 Taylor Hicks. Photo courtesy of David McClister Photography.
Season of change Hoover gains 3 new faces in key leadership roles
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By JON ANDERSON
Hoover City Schools Superintendent Kevin Maddox, Hoover Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Cornett and Hoover City Administrator Ken Grimes stand at the “Welcome to Hoover” gateway sign on U.S. 31 North. Photo by Erin Nelson Sweeney.
Over the past seven months, three new people have taken key positions of leadership in the city of Hoover. Kevin Maddox was hired by the Hoover school board to take over as superintendent of the school system on Sept. 11, replacing Dee Fowler,
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who retired for a second time. Then on Oct. 30, Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato brought Ken Grimes on board as the new city administrator to replace Allan Rice, who retired Aug. 1 after being placed on administrative leave.
See CITY LEADERS | page 28