SPORTS, PAGE B1
LOCAL, PAGE A12
Indians doomed by mistakes in BRHS game
BOE extends capital outlay extension plan
THE WETUMPKA HERALD Elmore County’s Oldest Newspaper - Established 1898
Wetumpka, AL 36092
50¢
WEDNESDAY • APRIL 24, 2019
THEWETUMPKAHERALD.COM
VOL. 121, NO. 17
Lowest in the state: STAFF REPORT TPI Staff
Unemployment levels remained basically unchanged statewide and Elmore County’s unemployment rate is the lowest in the state, according to the Alabama Department of Labor.
Art trail returning Saturday
‘Welcome to Wetumpka’
New Wetumpka Chamber of Commerce executive director Shellie Whitfield said her family wanted out of Colorado, looked for a small town to move into and discovered Wetumpka. Submitted S bmitted / Th The H Herald ld
New chamber director says city has everything for the good life
By CLIFF WILLIAMS Staff Writer
By JIMMY WIGFIELD Managing Editor
The second annual Tulotoma Art Trail returns to Wetumpka this weekend in an effort to bring guests downtown. “We simplified it from last year,” volunteer Carol Hickman said. “We are focusing on art and bringing people downtown to businesses and restaurants too.” Like last year with the history mural, organizers hope a live art event will bring crowds to downtown. “We have added a steam punk competition,” Hickman said. “I didn’t know what it was. It is where four guys take junk, weld and make something from it.” Hickman said they will not have days to create a piece of art from junk. “They will have four hours to make something,” she said. “Then people can vote on their favorite.” Hickman said the creations will be for sale but it will be a year before the new owners can take possession of the creations as they will be on display. See ART • Page A3
S
hellie Whitfield was weary of living in Colorado but she didn’t open a map, close her eyes and land a finger on Wetumpka thinking she would one day lead the chamber of commerce. “We knew we wanted to leave Colorado,” she said. “We were tired of the cost of living and the schools were not good. For about a year I worked on a spreadsheet with all the things we were looking for — close to the beach, good schools, a small community, low crime rate. We were looking for a divine sign. So we started driving. By the third day we were discouraged. Then we came over the bridge into Wetumpka.” She and her husband wanted to see some commercial property and she said people from the city responded and spent an hour talking
Stanhope Elmore High School principal Ewell Fuller speaks with a couple of students. He said he is a principal to make positive changes in the life of youth.
to them. “They put their hands out and said, ‘Welcome to Wetumpka,’” Whitfield said. “We decided to move here. We love it here.” That was nearly two years ago and Whitfield didn’t know it then but her organizational and marketing acumen would result in her getting one of the highestprofile jobs in the community. But first she and her family, including two South Korean adoptees who are 14 and 16, had to get accustomed to the heat of June in central Alabama. They bought the landmark Big Fish House in downtown Wetumpka and she remembered the toil of moving in. “It was hot,” Whitfield said. “I thought we would die unloading the truck and having to go up those stairs. It’s a lot of stairs just to get to the front door, then it’s two levels.” Now she wants to take Wetumpka to a new level using her more than two decades of experience in marketing See CHAMBER • Page A2
No excuse for failure, SEHS principal says excuse for failure in life, Fuller said. Some school officials work so closely with students that when they graduate from high school they are at the level of college sophomores, he said. And technology has advanced dramatically. “Good Lord,” Fuller said. “I was taking typewriting classes in high school and these kids don’t even know what a typewriter is.” Fuller, 46, was named principal of Stanhope Elmore in Millbrook at the beginning of the present school year. Prior to that, he was a physical education teacher or assistant principal for 13 years at various See FULLER • Page A2
By RON COLQUITT For The Herald
Ewell Fuller said he became a teacher, assistant principal and now principal of Stanhope Elmore High School not to make a lot of money but to make positive changes in the lives of youths. “It’s not the money, it was the ability to make changes,” Fuller said. “You could see things that were going on, some good that you needed to add onto and some that needed to change.” A lot of positive things have changed since his high school days so there is no
Ron Colquitt / For The Herald
Today’s
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Weather High
Building construction employment increased to 21,200 in March while aerospace products and parts manufacturing employment increased to 13,100. Construction sector weekly earnings showed tremendous growth over the See JOBLESS • Page A2
“We’re seeing great growth in some of our high-wage sectors,” ADL Secretary Fitzgerald Washington said in a release. “Building construction employment has increased by nearly 11 percent over the year and aerospace parts and manufacturing is right behind it with more than 10-percent growth.”
Alabama’s preliminary, seasonally adjusted March unemployment rate remained at a record-low 3.7 percent from February to March is and well below March 2018’s rate of 4 percent. Elmore County’s unemployment rate tied for the lowest in the state with a quartet of other counties at 3.3 percent.
Elmore County has lowest jobless rate of 3.3 percent, which is lower than state’s
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