Friday, December 18, 2009 – Thursday, January 7, 2010

Greetings from the Mayor’s office. I hope all of you are staying warm during the invasion of cold, arctic air from the North. I know you are preparing to watch the big game tonight, so let’s hope that things go well for the Crimson Tide in Pasadena tonight.

Friday night, Dec. 18, Kay and I went to the home of Sharon and Tom Seay for a Christmas gathering. Sharon and Tom always have a great party with several guests, and great food to enjoy. I enjoyed visiting with several folks, and was surprised to learn that Sharon’s nephew, Sean Moultrie is married to Carrie, daughter of Don Swanner who was a friend of mine during my days in the National Guard. Sean and Carrie is a very nice young couple.

Saturday morning we had our breakfast at home. I had several errands to run today, and I also tried to practice more of my music for the Athens Christmas Program, that we have tonight at Church.

Saturday night I sang with the choir for our program. We had great attendance from our local citizens, and we also had visitors from out-of-town. I thought the Choir did very well with our music tonight. This type music is not as simple as singing Christmas Carols because of the arrangements. We also had to memorize the words along with the music. I think it was worthwhile for all of us.

Sunday morning we attended Sunday school and Church. We had lunch at home with some of the kids and grandkids. I spent a quiet afternoon at home and tried to memorize a little more of the music for the program tonight.

Sunday night I sang with the choir again for our Christmas Program. I thought it was better than last night. We seemed to be a bit more relaxed after singing on Saturday night. We had another great crowd that just about filled the house. Kay and I went to Logan’s for dinner with Al and Susan Todd after the Christmas Program.

Monday morning I had my regular radio show. Tim Lambert and I did a show based upon, “What Happened On This Date in History”. I thought it was an interesting show. I plan to incorporate this as a part of each show. It is interesting to me to know who was born on this date, which died on this date, and what happened on this date.

My Finance Director and I met with County officials about a project that we are hoping to become a part of. This would be of great benefit to the city and county when it comes about.

Monday night, Dec 22, the Council met for a regular meeting. This meeting was one week early because of the holiday schedule. We felt folks would be more involved in family and football on the 28th, and would not be too interested in city business. The following items of business received attention from the City Council:

1. Held a public hearing regarding the sale of alcohol for Jiffy Food Mart located on Highway 72. This is due to a change in ownership.
2. Approved travel expenses for the Gas Department.
3. Set a public hearing for Spencer, LLC to rezone property located at Lucas Ferry Road and Highway 72.
4. Re-appointed James Stark to the Personnel Board.
5. Approved a resolution to purchase property on Highway 31 South. This will be a joint-purchase with the County Commission in the total amount of $70,000.
6. Approved the purchase if one front-loading truck for the Public Works Department.
7. Authorized the Water Department to submit a pre-application to the 2010 Alabama Clean Water State Revolving Fund Loan program.
8. Approved the lease of property to the Limestone Chamber of Commerce.
9. Approved the transfer of the franchise from Private Cable, Inc. to Knology, Inc.

I went to Decatur later to attend a Legislative meeting with the new 2 Year College Chancellor, Dr. Freda Hill. She is a nice person and I think she will do a great job with this department. I also got to talk with Rep. Bill Dukes, former Mayor of Decatur, who is serving in the State Legislature. Bill had announced his retirement, but rescinded that announcement, and is running for re-election. I also talked with Sen. Arthur Orr and Rep. Mickey Hammond about my plans to run for the State Legislature.

Tuesday morning, Dec. 22, I did the regular radio show to discuss city business and the actions from last night’s City Council meeting. I always enjoy being with Kirk Harvey and Ken Fox for this program. We cover a wide variety of subjects on the show, and usually have a couple of call-in questions to answer.
I had lunch today with Evan and Jennifer Thornton, and Jarrod Hester at Maria Bonita’s. The food was good, and we enjoyed the company of each other.
I met with County officials and our Utility personnel today regarding a project the city and county is working to implement.

I spent the afternoon in the office taking care of business.
Wednesday was a slow day in the office taking care of business and meeting with citizens and employees who had issues or complaints about the city. We did not have Church or choir practice tonight, so Kay and I stayed home and had a quiet evening.

Thursday morning I spent a good bit of time shopping for gifts for the family.
Thursday night we were spending a quiet night at home, listening to the hard-blowing wind coming through our town. Our lights went off around 11:00 and we had to light several candles to be able to see. I drove around the neighborhood to see what was happening and found that a tree had fallen on a line on West Washington Street, and knocked out power, west of Hine Street, between Washington and Highway 72.

I was coming back home when Fire Chief Danny Southard called me and informed me that the wind had damaged our new fire station that is under construction. I went to the sight and the portion of the building that will be the truck bay had been blown down by the wind. It was a sad sight to me because our employees have worked hard to get the building to this point. We do have insurance to cover the damage which won’t be a huge amount, but we had put a lot of work into the building.

Friday morning, Dec. 25, Kay and I went to our daughter Whitney’s house, to see the kids Christmas. We had some good things to eat while we were there. Our son Daniel and his family were not coming over until tonight, so we had a leisurely day, waiting for them. We all loaded up and took a Christmas Day ride across Elk River to see the countryside. We went down through Baker Hill Road, through Elk River Mills, to Karo, Pleasant Valley, Temperance Oak, Lentzville, and back to town. The day was beautiful, and we enjoyed our Christmas sojourn.

Daniel and his family came over tonight for our Christmas. We enjoyed the food and fellowship. We had a big time opening our presents. I stayed up pretty late tonight
Saturday was a lazy day for all of us. We did not do much at all except lay around the house and watch television. All the kids and grandkids were enjoying their Christmas presents.

Sunday morning I attended Sunday school and Church. We were down in attendance at our class, but our Worship service was well-attended. We had lunch at home with our kids. Kay had prepared a great lunch of white beans and ham.
Sunday night I went to Church, and later our family joined the Whitt’s at their home for a Christmas supper. Our entire family was there. Ryan Merkt also dropped by to visit. Ryan is a childhood friend of the kids and he now lives in New York. We had a great visit, and we played a fun game, Catch Phrase.

Monday morning I had Holly Hollman, reporter for the Decatur Daily, as my guest on my radio show. She had all the big stories of 2009 that took place in our community, and we talked about them.

I spent the day at the office trying to get things caught up before our year ends.
Kay was very sick today and couldn’t do much at all. We got some headache medication for her that gave some relief, but she did not do much at all. We spent a quiet night at home.

Tuesday morning, Dec. 28, I went to Dubs for coffee. The regular group of coffee drinkers was there, and Winston Jackson had a guest with him. Bill Griffin, who is Winston’s wife’s cousin, was visiting from Texas. Bill is the son of Mr. Barney Griffin who ran the store at Crosskey for about fifty years. Bill has been gone from Athens for many years, but has many relatives remaining in the area. Bill ran the Pure Oil Station across Forest Street from the Dixie Lee Service Station and Café when I was at Athens High School. Bill was a good guy that we all admired because of the cars he owned, and how fast he drove them. Bill’s brother, Frank, and his sister, Nancy, were closer to my age than was Bill.

I spent the day in the office catching up on work. There is always a lot to do after the holidays. Kay and I carried most of our kids and grandkids to lunch at Subway today. We all enjoyed the outing and the sandwiches were very good.

Kay, Dinah, and I went to see Sherlock Holmes tonight at the local theater. I thought this was a great movie. We don’t go out to the theater very often, and it takes me a little while to get accustomed to the surround sound and the stadium-type seats. The sound always makes me look around behind me to see if something is coming up on me. This movie depicted Sherlock a little differently than the picture I have of him through reading the stories. They also made Dr. Watson to be a more sophisticated, aware of his surroundings, type person than the original stories. However, I enjoyed the movie, and I am sure there will be sequel to it.
I spent all day Wednesday in the office trying to tie up loose ends of our year’s activities.

Thursday at lunch, Kay and I took Asa and went to Surins in Madison with Charles and Kelly. Kelly had come in from Atlanta for a short visit. We enjoyed being with her for a couple of days.

Thursday night we went to Marshall and Pat Weldey's house for our Sunday school class party for New Year’s Eve.

We later went to my sister Joan Stanford's house for her annual New Year’s Eve party. Most of the Stanfords were there, along with our kids and grandkids. Kay and Joan’s childhood friends, Jo Ann Gilbert, and Marcelle Leopard and husband Roger attended. We had plenty of good things to eat, and we played Mexican Train dominoes and other games until around two o’clock. We got home around two thirty, and I didn’t go to bed until nearly four o’clock.

Friday morning, Jan. 1, I got up to watch the Auburn/Northwestern game. Kay fixed a late lunch or early dinner for everybody. We ate black-eyed peas, cornbread, bacon, and several other items for our meal. .I went to Huntsville and got Luke and Jillian to spend night with us. Daniel and his family did not get to come over for Joan’s party, or during New Year’s Day. We enjoyed having his kids to visit with us and their cousins.

I really got excited during the Auburn/Northwestern game. I thought Auburn let down several times during the game. I think the coaching was pretty good, but too many mistakes were made by the players on the field. Anyway, we won the game finally, and that is what counts.

Friday night we stayed home with kids. I watched Florida and Cincinnati play ball but Cincinnati never did get into the game. I thought they would make a better game of it. I guess when Tebow plays one of the best games he ever had, the other team really takes it on the chin. I am an admirer of Tebow, even though Florida is a football enemy of Auburn. I believe he is a dedicated, Christian young man, dedicated to helping people who are less fortunate, and he wants to help spread the Gospel to other nations. He has raised more than $300,000 toward that effort. I am proud of him and I feel he will be successful in a NFL career.

Saturday morning Charles came over and cooked eggs and pancakes for breakfast. Kids came over.

Charles, Jesse, and Will jumped in the pool today. They said this is the beginning of their Polar Bear Club, and that this will be a yearly event. They had Della and Brian Johnson film the event and entered it on You Tube. It is funny to see. I thought it would be three big men dashing across the yard to jump into the pool, but it seems they had to coax each other into jumping into the pool. Charles said it took a long time for him to jump because he thought his heart might stop because of the cold.

We cooked hamburger tonight and stayed home.

Sunday morning I went to Sunday school and church. Our class attendance was down but our Church service was well-attended.

We came home and snacked for lunch. Charles and Allen began working on one of the bathrooms at Charles’ house. He is putting a new tile floor, new fixtures, half-paneling, and will paint the upper walls and ceiling. We made several trips to Lowe’s this afternoon to get materials and tools to complete the job.

Sunday night I went to Church for our Communion service. After I returned home, Kay and I went to Catfish Cabin to have supper. When we arrived, Mark and Phyllis Whitt and their family had just ordered supper, so we sat down and ate with them. We enjoyed visiting with them. They have been in Nashville for several days and enjoyed the New Year’s Holiday there.

Monday Morning I had Bill Vaughn on my Monday Morning with the Mayor Radio Show. We talked about the new billing system for the utility bills. This was a good time to talk about utility bills because of the cold weather, and people having a hard time making ends meet financially.

Monday night we stayed at home because it was so cold.

Tuesday morning I spent most of the morning in a lawyer's office dealing with problems that developed during a construction project. This involved the State Department of Transportation, and it took some time to come to a reasonable conclusion about the matter.

Evan Thornton and I had lunch at Clark's Restaurant today. I saw a group of ladies there having a good time with their lunch and visit. I have known them for most of my life. I told them when I saw them there it reminded me of seeing all of them at the swimming pool when we were growing up in Athens. We all wished it was summer again, and we were kids at the pool.

I spent most of the afternoon in the office dealing with problems and business of the city.

Wednesday morning Evan Thornton and I traveled to Prattville for a meeting with Mayor Jim Byard and his staff. Our meeting was to discuss several issues with them to find how they handled financing for some projects in their city. They hosted us for lunch at the new Bass Pro Shop. This is a fantastic store and the restaurant had excellent food. I had alligator and codfish for lunch. After our meeting and lunch, we went to downtown Pratville to see how they are progressing in all their revitalization efforts. We also went into Montgomery to the State surplus warehouse to see if we could find some computer screens. We got back home around six-thirty. We stayed in tonight.

Thursday morning there was a little snow, but the temperature was around freezing and the bad stuff didn’t come in as expected. Work was normal today and nothing bad seems to have happened in our town.

I carried all our Athens family to Marie’s at Jones Cross Roads for lunch today. We enjoy going to Marie’s from time to time. I met Marie’s daughter and husband, and their daughter and son-in-law. They all live north of Little Rock, Arkansas. They are here for an after-Christmas visit, and to watch the Alabama/Texas game with Mama Marie.

I guess this is enough for this letter. Take care and I’ll see you next time.



I guess this is enough for this time. Take care and I'll see you next time. 

Mayor Dan