Selected Saturday night Leo’s Loveliest of the Senior Division was Gracie Rains. 4th Alternate, Hope Coleman, 3rd Alternate, Anna Lane Godsey, 2nd Alternate, Megan Smith and 1st Alternate, Heidi Henderson.

The 40th Annual Haleyville High School Leo’s Loveliest Pageant was this past weekend.  Selected as Junior Division Queen Friday night was Anna Belcher. 4th Alternate, Maci Palmer, 3rd alternate, Hailie Moody, 2nd Alternate, Emma Grace Elkins, 1st Alternate, Carlie Lewis.

Rescheduled from Monday, the Haleyville City Council met Thursday night with Blue Russell absent. The Council approved the general operation bills for January in the amount of 451,927.95. A grant was approved for improvements to the Haleyville Sports Complex for playground equipment and safety netting, a hiking trail, parking improvements, and equipment building.  a The Council accepted a Land and Water Conservation Fund  (LWCF) grant for a maximum of $150,000 toward the proposed development cost of $494,126.25. The City will commit and hold in reserve $344,126.25 or 69.9% of the total project cost for the purpose of matching the Land and Water Conservation Fund grant. The Cassady Company, Inc. was approved by resolution to provide consulting engineering services for the facilities development at the Sports Complex in the amount of $42,967.50. The services will include grant administration, engineering design, and engineering inspection services.

Mayor Sunseri discussed the recent meetings of residents living in a 54 square mile area in Marion County which has been served by the Haleyville Fire Department.That service will end on December 31 of this year. The meetings at the Craft Community Center resulted in the organization of a new volunteer fire department/station to be built next to the Craft Community Center on Thorn Hill Road. Haleyville will assist in the training of firemen for that station and continue to provide backup firefighting services on a need basis under the mutual-aid agreement.

The next scheduled Haleyville City Council meeting will be Monday, March 6, 5:30 p.m. at City Hall.

The Severe-Weather preparedness sales tax holiday begins as 12:01 AM on Friday, February 24, 2017, and ends at midnight on Sunday, February 26, 2017.   More information may be obtained by clicking the following link:

 https://www.revenue.alabama.gov/salestax/WPSalesTaxHol.cfm

John Pilati, former District Attorney for Franklin County is back in the news. In 2008 Pilati was convicted of civil rights violations for sexually fondling male defendants (ages 17-20) and sentenced to 42 months in prison. He was released in 2011. He was disbarred in 2013. His pardons in 2012 and 2015 were reversed by the Alabama Pardons and Paroles board on Tuesday, February 21. That decision puts Pilati back on the sex offender registry.

Today the U.S. Supreme Court denied the appeal of Tommy Arthur and once again a date can be set for his execution. This will be the 8th time he as been set for execution following seven times set then later stayed. Three different trials found him guilty of a 1982 murder-for-hire of Troy Wicker in the Shoals. At the time Arthur was on work release while serving a sentence for having killed his sister-in-law at a business in Bear Creek.

In a second meeting at the Craft Community Center on Thorn Hill Road Monday night February 20, local residents again gathered for the purpose of forming a fire department to serve the eastern part of Marion County. The area includes Thorn Hill Road, Highway 129 and Marion County Highway 48 and rural areas off those roads. Historically most of this area has been served by Haleyville with a fee charged to all residents and businesses outside the Haleyville City limits. In November, a 3% tax was approved for Marion County with the money designated specifically for fire departments in Marion County. To pay the tax and the fee would have been the same as paying twice for the same thing. The decision was made by the residents and Marion County to build a new volunteer fire station and provide fire protection and use Haleyville and surrounding fire departments as a back-up under the mutual-aid agreement.

At the meeting Monday night, the first board was elected. The board held a short meeting after the general meeting and elected a board chairman. The board will meet again and adopt by-laws, select a fire chief and assistant fire chief and begin the process of acquiring a building, fire trucks and equipment and seek volunteers. Training of new firemen will be done by the Haleyville Fire Department.

Plans for the new proposed station will be next to the Craft Community Center on Thorn Hill Road and will be called the Craft Volunteer Fire Department.

Board members pictured below include Chairman David Crane, Karen Hulsey, Jonathan Chambers, Scott Ward and David Fowler.

A 250-pound man in his 50’s from Jackson, MS, who injured his leg while hiking in the Bankhead Forest Sunday was successfully brought out by rescue crews about 10 a.m. Monday morning. According to Lawrence County EMA director Johnny Cantrell, the man was six or more miles back in the woods when the accident occurred. He was hiking with others at the time and was unable to make it out on his own. Several rescuers from Moulton, Pebble, and Haleyville staging from the Thompson Creek Trail Head used a Stokes basket to bring the man out.

The Haleyville Lady Lions basketball team made it to Hanceville Saturday for the state sub-regional playoffs but lost 78-42. That ends the season for the HHS girls who had a great run this year.

The Phillips High Girls basketball team defeated Holy Spirit Catholic 63-43 and will continue in the state semi-finals game against R.A. Hubbard on Monday, February 27. Good luck to the Phillips High Girls Basketball team in their quest for the state championship.

A two-vehicle crash at 4:10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 18, has claimed two lives.  Jeffrey Morris Brasher, 50, of Bankston was killed when the 2006 Ford pickup he was driving collided with a 2004 Chevrolet pickup driven by Austin Blaine Brasher, 22, also of Bankston. Jeffrey Brasher, who was not using a seatbelt, was pronounced dead at the scene. Austin Brasher, who was also not using a seat belt, was transported to UAB Hospital in Birmingham where he died at 9:18 a.m.  The drivers were father and son. According to family members, Mr. Brasher was leaving for work where he delivered bread and the son was coming home from a ball tournament and reportedly had been drinking. The crash occurred on Fayette County 49, one mile west of Winfield.  A preliminary investigation has indicated that alcohol was a factor in the crash.  Nothing further is available as Alabama State Troopers continue to investigate.

Senior Trooper Johnathan Appling.  ALEA & HBTV.us