Winston County Sheriff Tommy Moore presented a letter of resignation at a meeting of the Winston County Republican Party Monday night. Reportedly his resignation will become effective November 30. Sheriff Moore stated the resignation was for health issues.

Governor Robert Bentley appointed Moore as the Sheriff of Winston County assuming his duties on March 14, 2016, following the resignation of Sheriff Hobby Walker. Moore had been working as the investigator for the District Attorney for 18 years and had 27 years in law enforcement at that time. He was chosen over five other candidates whose names were submitted to the governor. Moore was elected Winston County Sheriff in the mid-term elections held in November 2018.

Two Haleyville men are reportedly under consideration for an appointment from Governor Kay Ivey to fill out the rest of Moore’s term. David Cummings, presently serving as a Winston County Commissioner and Horace Moore, publisher of the Northwest Alabamian newspaper.

The Haleyville First United Methodist Church hosted a veterans celebration on Tuesday evening, November 12. The FUMC Fellowship Hall was filled with local veterans, their friends and family, and the Haleyville High School Band. In addition to the HHS band, The Haleyville Community Choir performed a choral tribute with “God Bless America.” The audience heard the VFW Voice of Democracy speech winner, John M. Mayhall. Guest speaker Larry Hunter told the attendees about his book about his experiences in Vietnam including exposure to “Agent Orange” and cancer it caused he is presently fighting today. Chaplain (Lieutenant Colonel)Mitch Nethery, (FUMC Minister) introduced the Keynote Brigadier General roger A. Presley, Jr.  General Presley spoke about the organizational structure of the Alabama National Guard.

The Haleyville American Legion Post #33 Veterans Day activities were held Saturday, November 9.  The wreath-laying ceremony at the War Memorial was done by Tina Bush, the Senior Vice Commander of the Alabama American Legion.  The Veterans Day parade followed the ceremony. Veterans and their families enjoyed a delicious luncheon at the Legion Hall following the parade.

Out of 120 men deployed in 1951-52 from the 107th Trucking Company of Haleyville National Guard, only 15 remain, and two of those are M.L. Weaver and Neal Masters who road together in the parade. There were no WWII participants this year.

The Haleyville City Council met Monday with Blue Russell absent. The Council approved the minutes of the last two council meetings and approved applying for a Rebuild Alabama Grant to resurface several of the streets in Haleyville. The Rebuild Alabama Act Grant was derived from the recently imposed gas tax. This grant, if approved, would be for $350,000 for street resurfacing, drainage issues and engineering and does not require matching funds.

Blue Russell was appointed to a one year term on the Haleyville Water Board.

The next scheduled meeting of the Haleyville City Council will be on Monday, November 18, 5:30 p.m., Haleyville City Hall.

The high anticipation for those who of us who are waiting on freedom Fiber to be installed in our homes or business seems endless. My business now has 200/Mb service and I love it. Still waiting at home.  Meanwhile, the small, thin tube of glass has to be spliced at various places, including every single line from a “trunk” line carrying many strands of fiber, to the one which actually goes into the home or office.

A company from Brilliant, Frazier Splicing, has a contract for much of the splicing work for freedom Fiber. Two techs were recently working at the corner of 30th Street and Littleville Road and took the time to demonstrate how it is done.First, the fiber strands have to be trimmed to present a very straight edge. Then the two pieces are placed in a small apparatus that holds the two pieces together while heating up the tips of both with a laser beam which causes them to fuse together. The “magic” $10,000 box also checks to see how much signal, in this case, light, is lost passing through the new connection.If you have not signed up for Freedom Fiber, it is not too late. You may sign up now, regardless of your location, and show your interest and help connect the way to a better future. www.freedomfiber.com

After a recent software update to this website, I began to notice as well as hundreds of others, the site never seemed to change, even though something was being posted almost every day. Some inquired as to my health. One could manually “refresh” my site, but that was not normal and you had to know to do that. It took some time, but the glitch was found and with the edition of one line of code, hbtv.us seems to be operating as it should. I think you will see a much more updated version from now on with you not having to refresh. Thanks for your understanding and patience.

Don Dimond, standing, with Joseph Martin, recently marked the transfer of ownership of  Dimond & Sons, Inc., who have operated Nichols Funeral Homes for almost twenty years, to  Mr. Martin, a Haleyville native.  Joseph, a 2008 graduate of Haleyville High School, attended and graduated from Jefferson State Community College’s Mortuary Science program in 2013, and obtained all of the licenses necessary to practice as a Funeral Director and Embalmer in Alabama.

The sale included The Tombstone Company and Hillcrest Crematory which is the only crematory actually located in and serving the families of Winston County. Although Joseph started his career with Nichols he has had the opportunity to work for and learn from several well-known funeral homes over the last ten years.  Dimond spoke of this as a continuation of the history of local ownership of Nichols going back to 1938 and said, “Winston County is fortunate to have a local person trained and ready to take over to continue this family business when many funeral homes end up-sold to large uncaring corporations.  Joseph brings youth, vitality and a commitment to deliver exactly what individual families want.  At Nichols, the difference IS the service.”Joseph is married to the former Jordan Smith of Hackleburg. They have a daughter Elizabeth, known as “Ellie” and reside in Haleyville.

 Don and the rest of the longtime staff, including Gary Wakefield, will be staying on to assist in the operation. Nichols’s posting of death notices from all three funeral homes can be found here on hbtv.us. Just click on Funerals. From there, you can visit the Nichols web site which has complete obits and information. 

Winston County Commission Chairman Roger Hayes, Alabama Representative, Tracy Estes, Paul Housel, representing Congressman Robert Aderholt, Steve Foshee, CEO, Tombigbee Electric, Haleyville Mayor Ken Sunseri, Commissioner David Cummings, met Friday, October 25 to discuss a new Federal grant for Freedom Fiber and what it means to this area.

Tombigbee Electric the mother company of Freedom Fiber, has been approved for another grant  in the amount of $775,000 from the Appalachian Regional Commission to help fund the rural broadband initiative.  According to Steve Foshee, this money will be used to. buy more equipment enabling a longer reach for the installation of fiber in Marion, Winston Fayette and Lamar Counties.

Mr. Foshee stated the ultimate plan for Freedom Fiber was to reach to Smith Lake, thus making fiber available to almost everyone throughout Winston County,  This could happen in early 2020. Installations are progressing rapidly, however, with 1,000 square miles to cover, filling all the requests is not an overnight project. Several technical delays have held up the installations, but all applicants should hear from Freedom Fiber sometime soon.

To sign up for Freedom Fiber, find them on Facebook or go to freedinfiber.com. You will need to put you name and address on the application. There is no obligation to actually subscribe to their service. You will be contacted when your address is ready for an installation.

The Haleyville City Council held a special called meeting Wednesday afternoon. The purpose was to consider a tax abatement for Bassett Furniture. A resolution was unanimously passed. (see resolution below) Bassett recently purchased the assets of Crimson Casual a locally owned company which manufactures out-door furniture, See the previous story on the purchase of Crimson Casual on hbtv.us. More on this story will be coming soon, including future plans by Bassett Furniture.  Continue reading

Today, October 22, a dedication was made at the HMS flag pole in memory of Mark Forester. The HCS added a memorial to ensure that students, faculty/staff and the Haleyville community can read about our hometown hero for years to come.