Keep Opelika Beautiful

This writer’s conscience was bothering me because recently we wrote about a very busy committee of Keep Opelika Beautiful’s, the Beautification & Awards Committee.  Equally busy but in a different venue is the Business & Industry Committee that spawns so many of Keep Opelika Beautiful’s programs that benefit the community.  This committee is composed of men and women representing businesses and industries in our area.  From this committee has come recycling publications mentioned before in the column. One of its greatest accomplishments, five or six years ago, was reviewing all the city’s ordinances that dealt with the environment.  It took them six months of meetings, but they got it done with recommendations to the Mayor and City Council.  We are pleased to report that many of the changes in environmental ordinances such as the big black monsters, otherwise known as garbage cans, were enacted by the City Council.  But then there was the matter of enforcement of the ordinances.  This committee wrote not one but two letters in support of a Code Enforcement Officer, and was prepared to address the City Council and plead its case.  Didn’t have to . . . the City council approved the position, and six to eight weeks, after interviews, Shane Kyles filled the position.  He has been super . . . junk cars disappearing; weed control, etc, etc.  Since then the “big black monsters” do not linger on the curbside as long as they used to, and if they do, enter Shane’s counterpart in the Solid Waste Division, Kenneth Dill, Assistant Solid Waste Superintendent.  All this because one of Keep Opelika Beautiful’s key committees was concerned.  These are business people and they don’t mess around with small talk.  Consequently, KOB doesn’t waste their time.  They meet every other month and what is produced in one hour keeps this writer busy for a month.  A favorite program of this small committee is the recognition of the Clean Businesses. Like the Beautification and Awards Committee, it recognizes neatness and attractiveness.  However, it also checks the loading docks, waste receptacles, etc.  So the committee considers it quite an honor to recognize these businesses.  Last but not least is a favorite of everyone on the Committee - - the Adopt-A-Mile program.  The sponsors of these miles are the people who keep your gateways and street areas clean. Right before our Citywide Cleanup in March the Opelika Lions Club took West Frederick Road from Bread & Buggy to the Auburn City limits.  Yes, it is more than a mile, but you know what, those members have already cleaned it twice to make certain it looks good for Opelika.   Now, we have been informed that the Opelika Rotary Club is going to take East Frederick to Long Street.  Are we smiling?  You betcha!  Meet the Committee, please::  Jerry Katz, chairman, Bill Trant, Lee Sadler, Ashely Marsh, Clint Neimeyer, Ashley Durham, Joyce Newland, Sandra Traywick, Mike Malphrus, Sherri McCollum, and Janet Mulvaney.  Join us dear reader, Until the next time . . . 

Keep Opelika Beautiful.

Let Keep Opelika Beautiful be the first to wish you, dear reader, a happy 4th of July!  This year, the calendar date gives many of us a three-day weekend to celebrate.  Some people take the week of the Fourth as vacation week because they get that holiday, so in vacation leave they only have to use four days to have actually a ten-day vacation. Years ago, in the area of Virginia where this writer grew up, that was a big furniture manufacturing area, the furniture plants “closed down” for the Fourth week to re-tool machinery, etc. in the plants.  All employees had the same week of vacation. It was as if the cities and towns were on vacation, .and the schedule was repeated in December.  It became a July and December ritual and the area revolved around “time-off.” It did propose an interesting question as to when the maintenance personnel and engineers took their vacations. From those years through today, this writer often wonders just how many people think about these liberties that our brave forefathers won for us with a Declaration of Independence.  We take our liberties for granted, when we should be vigilant about them. There would not be a Keep Opelika Beautiful, a Red Cross, etc. and all non-profits without the people having the liberty to organize it, volunteer their own personal service . . . all liberties the individual has.  And this writer believes in what Noah Webster wrote,”Wherever public spirit prevails, liberty is secure.”  He should know for he lived during the time that this young country was being born and public spirit was at its zenith.  But no, that is not quite correct.  Public spirit today has to be comparable.  Keep Opelika Beautiful benefited from a young Opelika citizen who exercised his liberty of choice.  You have read about the passion young Davis Bartels (pictured) has about KOB’s little red caboose before in this column.  A couple weeks ago, this writer received a call from a Chamber co-worker that there was a visitor waiting to see me.  As I hurried to the office. the idea of someone waiting to see me sparked my curiosity since I knew KOB’s morning calendar was clear. Upon arriving, waiting for me was Davis, his mother, and grandmother, Davis and this writer chatted about our favorite thing - - the caboose. During the conversation I learned that Davis had brought money from his bank, plus money that Daddy and Mother and both grandparents had given him for his caboose crusade.  Davis helped me count the money and lo my astonishment, we counted $ 277.79!  Pictures were taken. Look for photographs taken on KOB’s Web site, keepopelikabeautiful.com.  Thank you Davis.  Keep Opelika Beautiful, your family and even your forefathers are proud of you as we celebrate July 4, 2008

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” — Thomas Paine.

Until the next time . . . Keep Opelika Beautiful.

Sara Nan and Jim Levins, co-ward captains on KOB’s  Beautification & Awards Committee follows through on the committee’s mission with a beautiful yard and continuing the beauty on their deck. “The mission of the Beautification & Awards Committee is to create a spirit of community and pride by awarding and recognizing outstanding efforts in neighborhood beautification and improvement to the Natural surroundings in our city.”  Too bad the captains can’t give themselves an award!  Thanks Sara Nan and Jim for all your efforts! - Shirley

If I could have jumped for joy last Thursday afternoon, I would have, for we pulled off our surprise planned for Caroline Dean with a wildflower trail being named for her in the beautiful woodland located behind the historic Covered Bridge in Opelika’s Municipal Park.  This surprise sort of planned itself.  Chuck Browne and Stan Roark of the Extension Service and the Master Gardeners were responsible for beginning planting of the Caroline Dean Trail.  Caroline had spoken to the group earlier about wildflowers, and easily became the inspiration for bringing a trail about for people to walk in the natural loveliness of the woodland, spotting a native yellow azalea there or a wild hydrangea here. The Trail is in its embryonic stage with planting to continue in the fall allowing time for this initial planting to get “rooted” and surviving a summer’s drought (heaven forbid).  So much credit has to be given to many people that this writer fears she will miss someone, but here goes.  Claud Brown who acted as the “father” to the Covered Bridge talked to me about Keep Opelika Beautiful planting a trail in the woodland. There was no existing trail at the time.  KOB hosted a luncheon with Claud, Caroline, Stan Roark, Bill Harrelson and I.  After a follow-up meeting with John Seymour, city administrator, Bill Harrelson, director of Opelika Parks and Recreation and Mike Hilyer, director of ESG, it was decided to focus on Claud’s drawing of the proposed trail.  Next came wonderful Clay Scott, who bush-hogged poison ivy and honeysuckle, etc. to even find the ground underneath.  Next was Opelika Light and Power who came and cut down trees to develop a trail.  Along the way, Claud had secured the help of an Auburn fraternity whose guys worked all day one Saturday and cleared and cleared.  Then it was time for the Master Gardeners to begin their weekend stint of planting starting on a Friday and working on Saturday with Stan Roark and Dani Carroll leading them.  Then just when we thought we had everything in the works to do our “little thing” for Caroline, she was off to Washington, D.C. to receive a national wetlands award.  But that worked out well for us because it gave ESG’s Public Works people time to come in and “gussy up” the Trail really nicely.  The trick was to get Caroline into the area without her seeing the sign with her name on it.  Claud brought her in the area via the service road so she literally walked the Trail and under the sign to join the gathering.  It was at her back as she spoke, and when Mayor Fuller spoke honoring her, he had to gently turn her around to see her name on the Trail’s entrance.  The photograph William White took of her, as she viewed it, that appeared in Friday’s Opelika-Auburn News, said it all.  And now, “you know the rest of the story.”

Until the next time . . . Keep Opelika Beautiful.

Last week when writing this column, the weather was predicted to be in the mid-90s but the “real feel” was supposed to be l04 degrees!  This is June and it is not suppose to get that hot yet.  Of course it helped a great deal that the KOB office is air-conditioned, but as this writer tried to compose on the computer, my attention kept being distracted by two quiet, beautiful color photographs across the room on a credenza.  With the office covered up in recycling bins, file cabinets, boxes and papers galore, some how this flat surface remains remarkably clear, and I suspect it is because of the photographs.  Okay, we have your attention now?  Even with the air-conditioning, this writer’s attention escaped from the computer monitor and imagination took over riding in a canoe on the Coosa, as Bob Patton had done over ten years ago, and feeling the cool splash of the water but more importantly, viewing the hundreds of Shoal Spider Lilies in their glory on Hatchett Creek.  One photograph was taken from the canoe and the lilies stood in the water as if it was their turn on the fashion runway.  The other one Bob got right up in the bed of lilies and took a “face front” picture as if the lily was about to say “hello.”  The photographs are breathtaking and I begged Bob to let me enter them in a Kodak competition for they truly look as if they belong in National Geographic or Smithsonian magazines.  This writer spent so much time daydreaming or “building dreams” as my Mother used to say, that I just decided to daydream this column.  I’ve finished my trip now and rearranged the “flowers” on the credenza thinking about Thomas Spencer’s recent article in the Birmingham News about the “scenic river route that runs through Alabama from mountains to bay.”    Now when we moved here from Virginia I used to say that topographically Alabama was vertically what Virginia was horizontally.  Virginia had its mountains in the west with beautiful foliage and ski resorts and its beaches and the ocean in the east.  Alabama has the same north, and south with the Gulf and the Bay.  (The sand and the Gulf are prettier.  There I said it!  I may never be able to return to Virginia!)   In the Spencer article, he mentioned that a 631-mile river trail will open next month from the mountains of Alabama to Mobile Bay.  It will be the longest river trail in any state. Just think of all the history of Alabama one would learn traveling this river trail  And to think Fred Couch, just a few years younger than this writer, had this dream for the river trail and that was just two years ago!  Just goes to show “dream-builders” come at any age.  Thanks Dr. Bob Patton for my cooling trip last Friday, imaginary or not - -. and for this column.

Until the next time . . . Keep Opelika Beautiful

It had to be done!  Too many people are involved in our Beautification & Awards program for this writer to neglect mentioning them.  You might not know them because the city is big, but I will guess that you will . . . one might be your neighbor,  Hey, you might see yours.  If not, get busy.  Keep Opelika Beautiful’s Beautification & Awards program is guided by a hard-working committee.  The committee is composed of volunteers who serve as  ward captains responsible for driving all over their wards - - Ward IV and Ward V are huge - - and selecting two yards to be recognized every two weeks.  Okay, now let’s do the math.  You have five wards times two signs times two weeks.  Did you get 20 signs a month?  That’s about right.  These captains have all kinds of challenges in the selection process.  Of paramount concern to some might be the cost of gas to do this program.  It is their cars and their gas being used.  But that doesn’t seem to bother them as much as finding just the “right one” for their sign selection.  Last year they really had a hurdle dealing with the drought.  This year they also face the cost of gas as they ride the wards making their selection. Theirs is not an easy job, but they do it cheerfully because repeatedly some citizen will express his or hers appreciation for the surprise award.  There are great stories shared at the committee’s meeting once a month.  The yards should be rewarded.  The beauty of the yards in this city is something that you want to say, “come with me to Matisse’s garden - - right here in Opelika.”  Some are that breathtaking.  More importantly it says to the visitor and to their fellow neighbor that they care.  First let me introduce the “ward captains”  Ward I, Carrie Jones, Ozell Preston and Willie C. Smith; Ward II Gary Clarke, Percy Marks and John Morgan; Ward III – the Tulip Garden Club, ala Jeanette Burdette and Helen Edwards; Ward IV Mattie Fort and Helen Levette and Ward V, Clint and Rose Anne Hurd and Sara Nan and Jim Levins.  Now for the folks that have received recognition this year  Annie B.Galloway, Annie and Edward Hunter, Patsy Huston, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Morgan,, Margaret Parker, Yvonne and David Stinson, Sarah Wright, Angela and Rufus Bailey, Bertha and Larry Beauregard, Joyce Manning, Trey Capps, Keith Buck, Debbie and George Purves, Dudley and Al Cook, Fred Allen, Lori and Tom Evans, Mr. and Mrs. Wilbert Harrison, Kristin and Edward Pigg, Gary Jernigan, Ilge and John West,, Jean Hampton, Michelle Hunt,, Jonee Lambert, Barbara and Terry Longest,  That’s the first round of names covering the city .They will be contenders for the Biennial Yard of the Year recognition to be given out in September, 2009.  So, you see, dear reader, this Keep Opelika Beautiful program did need to be mentioned.

Until the next time . . . Keep Opelika  Beautiful.