Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022
Vol. 15, No. 12
Dec. 29, 2022
Opelika, Alabama
FRED ERi CK-DEAN Covering Lee County, Alabama
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Straight From the Headlines
PHOTO BY ROBERT NOLES / THE OBSERVER
PHOTO BY KENDYL HOLLINGSWORTH / THE OBSERVER
Niffer’s Owner Receives Lamplighter Award
Community members gathered at Opelika's Courthouse Square in September in response to recent shootings and other issues. BY MICHELLE KEY MICHELLE@ OPELIKAOBSERVER.COM
LEE COUNTY — It is time to say goodbye to 2022. It has become a tradition for The Observer to share with our readers a recap of the past 12 months. JANUARY
January 2022 started off with sadness as the city of Opelika mourned the loss of former council member Dr. Robert Lofton, who passed away on New Year’s Day. Lofton had been diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) prior to his passing. Lofton
served as the Opelika Ward 3 council member before stepping down due to his illness. Also notable in January, Lee County welcomed Holly Leverette as the incoming county administrator. Point Broadband LLC donated $100,000 to the city of
Opelika as a sponsor of the new pickleball facility and Auburn saw new roundabouts at Cox and Wire roads. Tim Aja was seated as the Opelika Ward 3 Council Member and former Opelika Council Member Patsy Jones created a legacy
Niffers owner Keely Beasecker embraces Auburn Mayor Ron Anders after being presented with one of the city's annual Lamplighter awards. BY HANNAH LESTER HLESTER@OPELIKAOBSERVER.COM
See 2022, page A5
Opelika Preparing For MultiMillion-Dollar Industry Expansions PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED TO THE OBSERVER
Photos of the Car Tech and HL Mando manufacturing companies in Opelika which are expanding in 2023. CONTRIBUTED BY THE CITY OF OPELIKA
OPELIKA — Opelika Mayor Gary Fuller recently announced that two existing Opelika manufacturing companies will be expanding and creating more jobs. CAR TECH
Car Tech will be investing more capital to build and expand its current facility. Car Tech is a Tier 1 supplier for BMW Group and is located in Opelika’s Fox Run Business Park along the I-85 corridor. Currently, its facility has over 388,000 square feet
for stamping and assembly operations. It plans to invest $18.3 million for an additional 85,800 square feet of warehouse and production space and additional manufacturing equipment. “Our continued growth has come from both new customers and existing
customers,” said Car Tech Plant Manager Shea Phillips. “Currently Car Tech employs 115 employees, and this expansion will create 15 new team member positions which will fill warehousing, production and technical positions within the See OPELIKA, page A2
AUBURN — Odds are, if you live in Auburn, you’ve eaten at Niffer’s Place. Keely Beasecker, owner of Niffer’s, has lived in Auburn since the '70s, when she came to Auburn University as part of the swim team. “Got here, fell in love with it,” she said. Now, Beasecker’s plan was originally to go back to California and work in law enforcement. But, Auburn had its way once again and she’s been living here for years. “The restaurant business fell in my lap,” she said. “I started with Quincey’s Steakhouse here, back in the '80s, so in ’81, and was with them for eight years, and fell in love with the business. [I] thought, ‘This is what I’m going to do.’” Now, Beasecker said she thought that if she was going to stay in the restaurant business, she’d do better to own her own place. “We opened Niffer’s up in ’91 and that’s kind of how it’s taken off,” she said. The irony is that Beasecker wasn’t much of a chef at the time. “It’s funny because my mom would always die that I was in the restaurant business, because I couldn’t even boil water,” she said. Of course, Beasecker said she can now boil water. She cooks quite a bit at work, given it is a restaurant, after all. But it’s not just a restaurant, she said, but a “people business.” “People come here to have experiences and celebrations, and sometimes they come because [they had] a bad day or whatever, and I fell in love with it, and I thought, ‘This is like a party every day,’” Beasecker said. Niffer’s grew from one restaurant in Auburn to include one in Opelika and one at Lake Martin. See BEASECKER, page A4
Christmas in Camelot Runs Through Dec. 31
CONTENTS
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OPINION ................. A4 ENTERTAINMENT ...... A7 RELIGION .............. A12 OBITUARIES ........... A13 COMICS .................. A16
SPORTS ................... B1 POLITICS ................. B9 PUBLIC NOTICES ..... B12 CLASSIFIEDS .......... B13 PUZZLES ................ B15