Wildcats hold the fort in season opener. Sports, Page 8 Wetumpka, AL 36092
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SATURDAY-SUNDAY • NOVEMBER 19-20, 2016
THEWETUMPKAHERALD.COM
VOL. 11, NO. 43
Council passes $11 million budget Gill questions cuts to Boys & Girls Club, city schools
By DAVID GRANGER Staff Writer
The Wetumpka City Council on Monday night approved an $11 million budget for fiscal year 2017 over objections from one council member concerning cuts to appropriations for school and afterschool programs.
Kent
The council approved the budget with a single amendment made by Rebecca Wingett Thornton, council member for District 3. Thornton’s amendment allowed for the addition of a $7,500 appropriation by the city to the Elmore County Economic Development Authority (ECEDA) and a commitment
to consider an additional appropriation in the spring. The vote on the budget was 3-1 with Percy Gill of District 2 voting against and Steve Gantt, council member for District 4, absent. Gill’s objections centered on the budget’s cutting out an appropriation to
the Boys & Girls Club and slashing appropriations to the city schools. Last year, the council appropriated $40,000 to the Boys & Girls Club and a total of $89,000 – $55,000 through an educational technical pledge, $14,000 to Wetumpka High School and $10,000 See COUNCIL • Page 3
Sheriff office warns of phone scam
Noland
By DAVID GRANGER Staff Writer
Totty
Warren
Five captured in Haynes Road robbery
Special / The Herald
Above, a second grade class Coosada Elementary were the winners of the contest for who could collect the most items in the canned food drive.
Feeding the hungry
By DAVID GRANGER Staff Writer
Coosada Elementary collects items for troops
Elmore County Sheriff’s deputies have arrested four Elmore County men and a Tallassee woman who allegedly lured a man to a Haynes Road location where he was robbed and eventually shot. Arrested Thursday and charged with first-degree robbery, second-degree assault and shooting into an occupied vehicle were Kendall Stone Kent, 16, of Tallassee, Linsey Totty, 25, of Tallassee (the female) and Charles Warren, 20, of Wetumpka. Christopher See ARREST • Page 2
By WILLIAM CARROLL Managing Editor
Coosada Elementary’s Parent Teacher Organization has spent the last ten days on a collection effort for our troops overseas, the collection effort has been so successful that the containers brought to hold the items collected are not sufficient to contain all of the items. PTO President Aidin Tackett said the idea for the drive came about as a way not only to honor the troops, but to do something different. “We have a lot of military families who have kids that go to our school,” Tackett
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New county commission holds first meeting
Today’s
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said. “A lot of our PTO board is made up of military spouses. So we got together and talked about a bunch of different things we could do. We decided we wanted to support an Alabama unit currently stationed overseas.” Tackett said that the group found a unit out of Birmingham that is deployed to an overseas location. “They are a surgical unit, when we called their guard commander we asked what they needed,” she said. “We were told that they miss snacks from home that they cannot get there.”
Elmore County Sheriff Bill Franklin warned Friday morning of a scam where individuals identifying themselves as representatives of the sheriff’s department – sometimes claiming to be Franklin himself – are falsely soliciting donations by phone. “We are seeking help from other law enforcement entities to help us identify these people,” Franklin said. The sheriff said the callers are claiming to be soliciting funds for the sheriff’s department to buy new equipment. “We want everyone in Elmore County to know that we do not solicit funds in that manner,” Franklin said. “We get our funds from the general fund of Elmore County. We are not soliciting funds by phone, we have never solicited funds by phone and we will not ever solicit funds by phone.” Franklin said some of the callers are even impersonating him. “One of them called someone that I know and he told them, ‘I know Sheriff Franklin and you don’t sound like Sheriff Franklin,’ and (the caller) hung up. “We just want people to be aware that this is going on, not to fall for it and that we’re working to find out who is responsible.”
By WILLIAM CARROLL Managing Editor
Four new county commissioners were sworn in Wednesday morning at the Elmore County Courthouse in downtown Wetumpka while well over 100 family, friends and area residents looked on. Prior to the official start of the new commission’s term, four new members were sworn into their positions while the fifth spot remains unfilled thanks to the recent resignation of District 4 Commissioner Joe Faulk. The newly elected members include: Kenny Holt (District 1), Cecil “Mack” Daugherty (District 2), Troy Stubbs (District 3) and Earl Reeves (District 5). After the swearing in ceremony, the members selected Stubbs as commission chairman. Stubbs then selected Daugherty as his vice-chair. Elmore County Sheriff Bill Franklin then spoke with the new commission about a matter that has See COMMISSION • Page 3
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William Carroll / The Herald
Four new Elmore County Commissioners were sworn in Wednesday morning during a special ceremony prior to the commission’s first meeting of the new term. They are (from left to right) District 5 Commissioner Earl Reeves, District 3 Commissioner Troy Stubbs, District 2 Commissioner Cecil “Mack” Daugherty and District 1 Commissioner Kenny Holt.
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