INSIDE TODAY WHS football fundraising for new helmets
SPORTS, PAGE A7
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A look back and a wish for safe travels ahead
OPINION, PAGE A4
THE WETUMPKA HERALD Elmore County’s Oldest Newspaper - Established 1898
Wetumpka, AL 36092
50¢
WEDNESDAY • MARCH 15, 2017
THEWETUMPKAHERALD.COM
VOL. 119, NO. 11
Strong winds, rain damage downtown businesses Coaches Corner announced it would be closed for an unknown amount of time after the brief incident that occurred early Friday morning and wet conditions over the weekend. The winds were strong enough that roofing debris was apparently carried by the strong winds from
By COREY ARWOOD Staff Writer
Downtown Wetumpka and a number of local businesses were hit by winds strong enough to take roofs from buildings, leaving a well-known local restaurant shuttered for repairs.
the restaurant at the river’s edge across Company Street and onto Fish Street, where more damage could be found. The tin roofing of Elmore County Scrap Metal was peeled Corey Arwood / The Herald back and rolled over, with wood Coaches Corners was ultimately hit twice by unfavorable condibeams splintered and exposed tions after its roofing nearly stripped bare, and the repairs failed in See WEATHER • Page 2 weekend rains.
Sunday alcohol sales resolution backed by Commission
WHS senior Chauvin is National Merit Scholar By DAVID GRANGER Managing Editor
By COREY ARWOOD Staff Writer
Elmore County Commission approved resolutions in support of local legislation allowing Sunday sales of alcohol and the formation of an Elmore County Industrial Development Authority and approved four of the five board appointments. There seemed to be general consensus among the commission starting the process that alcoholic beverages being sold in restaurants and service stations alike on Sunday would be a prudent move for area businesses. Several of the commissioners voiced stipulations, saying their support of the resolution was strictly an economic move to keep Elmore County competitive with neighboring counties. Commissioner and Chair Troy Stubbs opened the discussion with background on the recent history of alcohol sales legislation approval See COMMISSION • Page 3
David Granger / The Herald
Elmore County High School Band Director Anthony Vittore addresses the school’s student body as members of the Mobile Mardi Gras association Mystics of Time and band members look on. The Mystics of Time visited Eclectic on Friday to present the band a trophy for its third-place performance in the MOT parade on Feb. 25.
AFTER-PARTY PARTY
Maroon Machine celebrates Mardi Gras honor By DAVID GRANGER Managing Editor
There was a party in the Elmore County High School gymnasium on Friday morning. It was a party honoring ECHS’s Maroon Machine marching band in front of the entire ECHS student body for its performance at one of the world’s biggest party’s – Mobile’s Mardi Gras, where the band marched in the Mystics of Time parade on Feb. 25 and was
judged the third best marching band in the procession. Representatives of the Mystics of Time brought the band’s third-place trophy to them as well as a check and a touch of Mardi Gras, roaming in front of the bleachers filled with students and tossing beads and other Mardi Gras trinkets to them. “The Mobile Mystics of Time are honored that we had the Maroon Machine in See MAROON MACHINE • Page 2
Wetumpka High School senior Marc Chauvin was carrying not one, but two book bags on a recent Friday afternoon. And one of them was huge. Chances are that much of the material in those bags had “I did read a lot as a to do with comkid. I remember my puters or art, both things that parents used to read Chauvin loves, stuff to me, then I both things with started reading stuff which he would someday like to too. I guess that’s make a living. part of it.” It’s a good —Marc Chauvin bet those desires National Merit Scholar will come to pass. You see, Chauvin’s no ordinary student. He is a National Merit Scholar. See MERIT • Page 3
Hansen ‘skittles’ to Rotary speech contest win By DAVID GRANGER Managing Editor
Likening her changed view of the electoral college to her changing methods of eating Skittles, Edgewood Academy senior Kevi Hansen topped judges scorecards Tuesday in the finals of the Wetumpka Rotary Club’s annual speech contest. Hansen, who spoke in favor of the
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electoral college, bested Wetumpka High School’s Madison Conley, who spoke passionately in favor of abolishing the 230-year-old way of electing the U.S. president. “This is a moderator’s dream,” said Bob Renau, who directs the contest for the Rotary Club and was in attendance at the finals despite being less than two weeks removed from triple-bypass surgery. “A controversial topic where the
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participants can take any side they want and they end up taking differing sides.” Hansen was presented by Rotary member Steve Sievers with a check for $1,000 and Conley got a $500 check. Renau added that he was a senior in high school 49 years ago when he did his senior thesis on the electoral college and it remains no less controversial than it did then.
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David Granger / The Herald
Wetumpka Rotary Club speech contest coordinator Bob Renau poses with Kevi Hansen, left, winner of the 2017 contest, and Madison Conley, runner-up.