The Haleyville City Council met Monday, August 5 with Drew Thrasher absent. After approving the minutes of the last meeting on July 15, the Council approved Tim Roberton assisting/Megan Lovett nuisance abatements. Three resolutions were approved, two for matching funds for a grant for wildlife fencing at the Haleyville airport and one for striping of newly resurfaced city streets.

The next meeting of the Haleyville City Council will be on Monday, August 19 at the Haleyville City Hall.

Two vehicles collided at the intersection of Highway 13 North and Marion County Highway 85 at approximately 4:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. Both vehicles sustained serious damage, but no one was seriously injured. Haleyville Police investigated the crash.

Donnie Statton, Nick Tucker, Grady Neely, Mayor Ken Sunseri, Vic Haggy, and Brandon Curry

The first official customer for the new Freedom Fiber internet system in Haleyville is the Haleyville City Hall which was installed Friday morning, July 26 by a crew from Freedom Fiber and FiberRise, a contracting company assisting in the installation. Freedom Fiber is unique in that it is running fiber for serious high-speed connections to homes and businesses in Haleyville. If you have signed up with Freedom Fiber, you should see technicians at your home or business soon to make the final connection. Service starting with 100mbs is available for $49/mo. Up to 1 gigabit is also available.

Ernie Stephens, Senior Officer for the Alabama Wildlife & Freshwater Fisheries Division Enforcement Section – District 1, spoke to the Haleyville Rotary Club Thursday, July 25 and explained the new laws recently passed by the State Legislature. The biggest change, it is now legal to hunt white-tailed deer and feral swine over bait. The law was changed from hunting with bait from a distance. The new law makes it legal to hunt in close proximity to the animals. A $15 additional license is required with no exceptions, even if you have a “free” license. More information can be found on this website: www.outdooralabama.com.

A Southbound pickup driven by a 16-year-old male from Bear Creek collided head-on with a Northbound concrete truck from Haleyville Thursday morning at 5:30 a.m. on Alabama Highway 13 North near County Highway 85 in front of the H&H RV sales lot.  The driver of the pickup was pronounced dead at the scene by the Marion County Coroner. The driver of the concrete truck was slightly injured. The front wheels and drive axle was knocked out from under the concrete truck which landed on its side in a ditch on the north side of the highway. The concrete was flushed from the truck in order to right it and remove it. The crash occurred in Marion County and is being investigated by the Haleyville Police Department. This story will be updated later as more information is released.

The Haleyville City Schools Board of Education met Tuesday night with all members present. The Board approved the expenditures for June in the amount of $1,401,786.36. The vote to extend the contract for Superintendent Dr. Holly Sutherland, effective 2019 through June 30, 2023, was was a close 3-2 vote, but did pass to extend.

Other items approved included amendments to the school policies and procedures for youth suicide awareness and prevention, Instructional policy, athletics supplement list, National Security Insurance company to provide accident insurance, a coaches hand student/parent handbook, the Middle School Volleyball Schedule, a contract for purchasing paper, the A la Carte prices for the CNP program and a new Special Needs schools bus in the amount of $97,458.

The Board approved one request for use of facilities, one field trip one fundraiser and substitute teacher and substitute lunchroom worker lists.

Under personnel, the Board approved two resignations, one retirement, one catastrophic leave, and one voluntary transfer. Two new hires and several coaching assignments were also approved.

The Winston County Sports Hall of Fame 22nd Annual Induction Dinner was held Saturday night, July 20 at the HES cafetorium. Pictured above are Tony Giles, MC and guest speaker Tyler Watts. Board members from each of the five schools in Winston County presented plaques and T-shirts to the athletes chosen from their respective schools. The first presentation was made to two students from Addison High School who received the Academic/Athlete Award for 2019, Gage Gilland and Destiny Walker with Board member Aubry Haynes. Continue reading

The search on Smith Lake has been suspended indefinitely.  There are some search operations planned for the future, but we will no longer have personnel searching every day.  ALEA Marine Patrol troopers will search the area regularly while on boat patrol.  ALEA Aviation will still conduct aerial searches periodically.  Winston County EMA has specialty sonars out of Dothan and Florida scheduled for next week as well.

Thanks to all of you for your patience with us as we attempted to bring closure to the Starling family.  Obviously, this did not have the outcome that we had hoped for.  Many organizations and agencies have worked hard over the last 15 days.  Our thoughts and prayers are with the Starling family.

Sgt. Chad Pate, ALEA-Marine Patrol Division, Northern District Assistant Commander

The search for the missing boater on Smith Late has been postponed today because of weather.

Sgt. Chad Pate, ALEA-Marine Patrol Division, Northern District Assistant Commander