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.