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April 5, 2019 Vol. 127, No. 68 www.alexcityoutlook.com 75¢
Styles clash between Auburn and Virginia
A blast from the past Old Lafayette Street culvert replacement will require dynamite By JIMMY WIGFIELD Managing Editor
Cliff Williams / The Outlook
CACC student Hartasia Thompson, right, of Alexander City helps Dadeville Elementary School firstgrader Eli Veres listen to his heart.
The Lafayette Street culvert in Alexander City is nearly a century old and at the end of its life but it won’t be replaced quietly. That’s because public works director Gerard Brewer said it was built on rock during the Great Depression by the Civilian Conservation Corps and dynamite will be required to blast its foundation into pieces. “I think that culvert was put in during the 1930s,” Brewer said. “The old CCC did a lot of work around here. I think the CCC boys did this. It’s amazing they did it with local materials. Here we are spending $170,000 in 2019 dollars and we’ve got all this equipment and they had a lot of blood, sweat and tears in it, a lot of hard, backbreaking work and know-how. I’ve got to tip my hat to that.” Brewer said the city has performed preliminary work at the site this week to temporarily relocate water and gas lines but Lafayette Street at Warren Hill Road will be closed for four months beginning in May for the aging culvert to be extracted and replaced with new pipes. “Without this, it would collapse,” Brewer said. “It would take a couple of big rains and it would be gone and we wouldn’t be controlling it.” Brewer said bids on the pipe will be awarded at the April 15 meeting of the Alexander City City Council and the project will cost $170,000, which has been budgeted. The cost would be higher if the public works department didn’t perform most of the work itself, according to Brewer. The city will install nine sections of 12-foot by 4-foot culverts and a couple of 5-foot sections on each end to reduce the likelihood of flooding in the area, Brewer said. “The new pipes are a little bigger than what is in there,” he said. “We’ve had near flooding in there so we are oversizing the pipes to prevent a backup. There is no bottom in there now; the pipe is three-sided and sitting on rock. The new pipe will have a bottom and sit on gravel.” Brewer said his department saw the road above the culvert begin to sag last year and determined cracks in the wall of the culvert See CULVERT • Page 10
Fun with learning Students get their hands dirty with interactive lessons By CLIFF WILLIAMS Staff Writer
S
Cliff Williams / The Outlook
Top: Dadeville Elementary School first-graders react to oobleck made by Central Alabama Community College students as part of a STEM program at the school Thursday. Above: First-graders touch bubbles filled with carbon dioxide as they learn about bubbles and surface tension.
ounds of repulsion and laughter could be heard as first-graders at Dadeville Elementary School went from station to station in the school’s courtyard. At first one might think the children were playing but a small inspection revealed the first-graders were learning science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) with the help of students from Central Alabama Community College. The learning didn’t go unnoticed by first-grade teacher Karen Sanford. “The kids need to be engaged,” Sanford said. “They need to be moving, learning and experiencing rather than sitting at a desk. First-graders especially need to have hands-on experience. It is how they learn best.” CACC chemistry professor Dr. Jeremy Carr brought some of his students to have a fun learning experience with the first- and second-graders at Dadeville Elementary. The interaction between the young and old students is something Carr has been doing at CACC See LEARNING • Page 3
Jacob’s Ladder students win statewide writing contest By GABRIELLE JANSEN Staff Writer
Gabrielle Jansen / The Outlook
Kindergartner Sadie Bishop reads her award-winning story to her classmates. Bishop was one of two Jacob’s Ladder students who placed in a statewide contest.
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Two kindergartners at Jacob’s Ladder Creative Learning Center recently placed first and third in Alabama Public Television’s young writers contest. Kindergartners Seth Schouten, who placed first, and Sadie Bishop, who placed third, will be honored at the Alabama Book Festival in Montgomery on April 13. Jacob’s Ladder kindergar-
ten teacher Dorothy Hunt said she had a student place third last year, and when she attended the awards ceremony last year she learned the illustrations the children did were just as important as the story. “During the year we talked about different types of illustration and different ways that books are illustrated and why there are illustrations in books,” Hunt said. Hunt said Schouten and See CONTEST • Page 8
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