SPORTS | PAGE 4
Tuscaloosa Academy’s Brown signs with Penn State
Check out the latest on Alabama sports, including recruiting
W EP E KULB Y LPIU AT E RHVE I NT G U T SUC S CAALLO OO OU A W E EAK LY CBALTI CI O NI OONFST OSSAA CN ENWTSY
WWW.TUSCALOOSANEWS.COM
February 12, 2014 CONTACT US Advertising: 205-722-0173 Home delivery: 205-722-0121 Vol. 10 | No. 6 1 Section
INSIDE Around Town calendar 2 PARA calendar 2 Sports 4 Classified 5
New national ID card leads to confusion STAR identification cards are not available at county license commissioner’s office By Lydia Seabol Avant Staff Writer
A new national identification card that will soon be required for Alabamians 50 or younger is causing confusion for some people trying to renew their licenses in downtown Tuscaloosa, according to the county license commissioner. The S TA R ID, or the Secure Trusted and Reliable ID, is not available at the Tuscaloosa County Li-
cense Commissioner’s office. “We’d like to take care of them, but we can’t,” Jeff Brown, the county license commissioner, told the County Commission on Feb. 5. People are coming to the license office only to be turned away, he said. State law requires the new form of driver’s license or non-driver ID card to be issued and renewed only by the Alabama Department of Public Safety — at the state troopers’ office. The Tuscaloosa office is at 2645
ON THE WEB To find out more about the STAR identification cards, go to www.dps. alabama.gov.
Skyland Blvd. E. According to the state Public Safety Department website, people born after Dec. 1, 1964, will need one of the new IDs or a passport to board a domestic flight starting Dec. 1, 2014. People born before Dec. 1, 1964, will need the new ID or a passport starting Dec. 1, 2017. The new driver’s license requires more types of governmental and res-
Northport medical facility planned
THIS WEEK IN SPORTS
UA baseball team opens season Friday against Saint Louis
Contractor volunteered during icy storm
Area clergymen give their take on national study focusing on the job’s difficulties
By Lydia Seabol Avant Staff Writer
By Jamon Smith Staff Writer
I Tough career Pastors were asked a series of questions in a survey given by the Fuller Institute and Pastoral Care Inc. Here’s how they answered.
90% report working between 55 to 75 hours per week
80% believe the ministry has negatively effected their families
80% say they feel unqualified and discouraged as a pastor
90% say the ministry is completely different than imagined
70% say they are constantly fighting depression
70% say they do not have a close friend
33% confessed to inappropriate sexual behavior with someone in the church
50% will not stay in the ministry for more than five years STAFF ILLUSTRATION | ANTHONY BRATINA
The Rev. Jeremy Burrage, lead pastor of Capstone Church
By Patrick Rupinski Business Editor
A $12 million skilled nursing and rehabilitation center with 75 private bedrooms is planned for Northport. The facility, which was announced Feb. 7, will be located along Hospital Drive on five acres just south of Northport Medical Center. The facility will be built and operated by Northport Holding LLC, an affiliate of NHS Management LLC, a Northport-based company that has 45 skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities in four states, including three facilities in Northport and another in Moundville. “We have been in this community since 1981,” said John Burchfield, NHS vice president. “We know there is a tremendous need in this community for this type of facility.” Construction could begin this summer and should take about a year. Norman Estes, president of NHS, said the facility likely would open in late 2015 or early 2016. It will have about 90 employees, about 75 of whom will be full time. Hiring for those jobs will be advertised starting about six months before the facility opens. Before any construction starts, the five-acre site — owned by DCH Health System — will have to be rezoned by the Northport City Council. The Alabama Certificate of Need Review Board in Montgomery also must approve the project. By law, the board approves new hospitals, medical-related facilities and expansions of such facilities, after determining SEE MEDICAL | 3A
Planned nursing and rehabilitation facility Northport h Medical di d l Center
69
82
NNor or hport . vd Bl
20th St.
Snow Mills Ave.
50% say they would leave the ministry but have no other way of making a living
n November and December last year, three Christian pastors committed suicide within 30 days of each other. The Rev. Teddy Parker Jr., senior pastor of Bibb Mount Zion Baptist Church in Macon, Ga., shot himself at his home Nov. 10 while his family and congregation waited on him to arrive at church to deliver the sermon. It was reported that he suffered from manic depression. In a sermon called “Facing Your Storm with Confidence” posted on YouTube May 13, 2010, Parker said he felt that God wasn’t talking to him and that he was facing his storms alone. Twenty days after Parker’s death, Pastor Ed Montgomery, who served at Full Gospel Christian Assemblies International Church in Hazel Crest, Ill., killed himself in front of his mother and son. Montgomery was reportedly still grieving the loss of his wife, Jackie Montgomery, who died from a brain aneurysm the year before. On Dec. 10, Isaac Hunter, the former pastor of Summit Church in Orlando, Fla., reportedly shot himself in his apartment. Hunter had resigned as pastor of Summit Church in fall 2012 after he admitted having an affair with a church staff member. His wife of 13 years had also fi led a domestic violence petition against him, describing his behavior as unstable and suicidal. Pastors are not exempt from troubles, they say, but many people — including pastors’ congregants — aren’t aware of the struggles pastors face because they usually keep that information to themselves. According to Pastoral Care Inc., a national nonprofit organization designed to help ministers from ever y Ch r ist ia n denom i nat ion through research, educational support and providing immediate assistance, more than 1,700 ministers leave ministry every year because of the difficulties of the job. SEE PASTORS | 3A
“If you care about people, I don’t know how these kinds of things wouldn’t affect you. We’re called to be shepherds, and we have to take care of the sheep. ... Life is tough and this is a hard job, but we’ve been called to it and the Bible never promised that life would be easy. We just trust in the Lord.”
Rehabilitation center would offer speech, physical, occupational therapy
Hospital Dr.
During the unexpected snowfall on Jan. 28, it would have taken Northport dump trucks nearly 90 minutes to travel back and forth from the iced-over U.S. Highway 43 to Northport Public Works on Harper Road to fi ll up with sand. But thanks to one Northport business owner, that wasn’t a problem, said City Administrator Scott Collins. That’s because Jimmy Burns, owner of JB Construction, volunteered the use of a nearby sandpit and his equipment to load the city trucks with sand just north of the intersection of U.S. Highway 43 and Alabama Highway 171. “If Mr. Burns hadn’t stepped in, it would have delayed traffic even more than what it was,” said Northport Mayor Bobby Herndon. “Mr. Burns saved hours for our citizens. He was a lifesaver.” The intersection of highways 43 and 171 was Northport’s biggest problem area, with vehicles having a difficult time going uphill , Collins said. “That was the single biggest traffic issue we faced during the two-day event,” Collins said, referring to the near intersection. Drivers were stuck at the site for more than three hours on that Tuesday afternoon. One of them was Burns’ wife. “I went looking for my wife because she hadn’t gotten back from work,” Burns said. His wife, like dozens of other drivers, had been stuck on the road for more than three hours. The city was sanding U.S. Highway 43 to help people get home, but one of their trucks had just dumped all the sand and was about to head back for more. “I just did what anybody ought to do, to help,” Burns said. Burns’ sandpit is a quarter of a mile from the intersection of Alabama Highway 171. Burns used his equipment to fi ll the trucks. “Right after they spread it, it was like they opened the floodgate,” Burns said. Burns did a service for Northport and its residents, Collins said publicly during the Feb. 3 Northport City Council meeting. “He really did do us a huge favor and help get thousands of cars through that intersection,” Collins said. But Burns said he didn’t want the recognition; he was just trying to help. “We all have to pitch in and do what we have to do when people are in need,” Burns said.
idential documentation, a requirement of the federal REAL-ID Act of 2005. The goal is to increase national security against terrorism by requiring more proof of identification. David Hartin, Tuscaloosa Emergency Management Agency director, said he already has his new STAR ID, but it wasn’t an easy process. He attempted to get it twice SEE CARD | 3A
ML K
Wednesday
Archibald’s
t. 12th S
1 mile
d. Rice Mine R
STAFF GRAPHIC | ANTHONY BRATINA