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IN THIS ISSUE BUSINESS NEWS A2 | POLITICS A8 | PUBLIC NOTICES A9 | OBITUARIES A14 SPORTS B1 | EDUCATION B7 | FOOD & ENTERTAINMENT B11
Lee County Young Leaders — page A3
2022, 2023 — APA DIVISION D GENERAL EXCELLENCE DESIGNATION — 2024 COVERING LEE COUNTY, ALABAMA
Vol. 16, No. 50 Opelika, Alabama Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024
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Command Sgt. Maj. Bennie G. Adkins Veterans Home now open PHOTO BY ROBERT NOLES | THE OBSERVER
The Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs dedicated the Command Sgt. Maj. Bennie G. Adkins Veterans Home during a ceremony on Sept. 13. The 182,000-sq. ft. facility in Enterprise, home to 174 veterans, is named in honor of Adkins, Medal of Honor recipient from Opelika. His daughter Mary Ann Adkins Blake cut the ribbon during the ceremony.
What’s next for the residents of Springwood Hotel? OPELIKA — Ten days after nearly 120 long-term residents of the Springwood Hotel were evacuated at the request of the office of the Alabama State Fire Marshal, there is still no plan in place for repairing and reopening the property. According to Dru Shah, manager of the Springwood on Columbus Parkway, the hotel is officially closed. Shah confirmed that the hotel owner, Pravinbhai Patel, received the official copy of the Alabama State Fire Marshal’s report late last week.
“We received paperwork from (the) state — the property is officially closed down by the state,” Shah said. “The state completed their inspection.” Shah did not share specifics about the findings on the inspection report. The hotel is now closed, and while some of the residents displaced have moved out of town, many are still in limbo due to a shortage of available rental units in Opelika and the surrounding area. Last week the Opelika Police Department used its resources and provided hotel vouchers for several
See SPRINGWOOD, page A7
OPELIKA — Circles of Opelika, a local nonprofit, is working to changes lives in the local community. Led by the PRF Teaching Ministry and its founder, Dr. Nate Dunlap Jr., Circles and PRF hope to lead hundreds of people out of poverty and into financial stewardship. Circles website states that it is uniquely designed to reduce poverty by helping low-income individuals expand their social capital while bringing the community together in solidarity to reduce
the barriers to keeping people in poverty. It accomplishes this by aligning its participants — called Circle Leaders — with allies that provide both friendship and support throughout the program. Circles hosted an informational meeting Monday, Sept. 16. Kevin Lunsford from Circles Opelika, stated that Opelika has a 17.4% poverty rate. The state average is 15%. “We are very fortunate that Circles is in our community because it is an organization that directly helps people in poverty,” Lunsford See CIRCLES, page A2
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Loachapoka’s Thelma Jones celebrates 105th birthday, offers words of wisdom
PHOT0 CONTRIBUTED TO THE OBSERVER
Circles of Opelika strives to reduce poverty BY MICHELLE KEY EDITOR@OPELIKAOBSERVER.COM
PHOTO BY ROBERT NOLES | THE OBSERVER
CONTRIBUTED BY OBSERVER STAFF
Thelma Jones, pictured at right, was born in Loachapoka on Sept. 19, 1919, and has been a lifelong resident. She is the mother of two children and has more than 50 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Her words of advice are, “Be thankful for all the storms in your life that have blown out, blown over, or passed you by and never touched you. Tomorrow will not fail you unless you choose to throw it away.” She also stated, “Make your suffering a passage, not a dead end — find a need to fill, find a hurt and heal it, find a problem and solve it.”
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