With signatures on a lease last January, the Fort Redevelopment Joint Powers Authority set in motion a news story that would last all year. The JPA signed a master lease on Jan. 18, effectively taking possession of 2,000 acres and 800 buildings from the Army. Anniston Star readers voted the redevelopment of Fort McClellan as the No. 1 local news story of the year.
Readers were invited to vote for five local stories of major importance. Fort redevelopment got the most votes, followed by PCB contamination, Anniston municipal elections, tornadoes across the state, the new head coach at the University of Alabama, Brodie Croyle accepting a football scholarship at Alabama, and the new Honda plant in Lincoln.
Top stories
at a glance These are the stories Anniston Star readers selected as the top local news of 2000:
1. Fort McClellan redevelopment
2. PCB contamination
3. Anniston municipal elections
4. New head coach at University of Alabama/Brodie Croyle signs with Bama
5. Tornadoes
6. Honda
7. Republicans sweep state Supreme Court elections
8. Quintard Mall expansion
9. Water wars
10. Anniston schools in turmoil
11. Eastern Bypass stalled
12. Chemical weapons incinerator
13. New contract for Anniston Army Depot
14. The Animal Shelter
15. Faulty drug tests for people on parole or probation
16. Battle over proposed gas tax
17. Tull Chemical
18. Prep sports
19. Jerre Ford dies shortly after election to Anniston councilNational & International
These are the stories Anniston Star readers selected as the top national and international news of 2000:
1. The presidential election
2. Y2K bomb is a dud
3. Russian submarine sinks, killing all aboard
4. The bombing of the U.S.S. Cole
5. Tiger Woods wins three Grand Slam titles
6. Time Warner buys Turner Broadcasting
7. U.S. efforts to broker peace in foreign countries
8. Elian Gonzalez
9. The continuing effort to remove President Clinton from office | Fort redevelopment
The story of the fort’s redevelopment unfolded month-by-month, as deals were struck to divvy up the property.Groups who gained leases or contracts to buy property included Sacred Heart Catholic School, Auburn University’s Institute for Biological Detection Systems, The Buckner Group, architect Julian Jenkins and Consolidated Publishing Co., parent of The Anniston Star. Questions arose about the necessity of having the parcels appraised when the Buckner Group, a consortium of local businessmen, inked a deal for the historic Buckner Circle for $2.4 million, a fraction of its estimated value. The Buckner Group then asked to have the property appraised, and the JPA moved to establish appraisal and pricing procedures for all fort land. Meanwhile, another group of local businessmen filed a lawsuit over the JPA’s bid-letting practices; the court date is set tentatively for March. Wrapping up a tumultuous year on a positive note, on Dec. 12, the Army transferred most of the leased property. The JPA now holds the deed to some 1,300 acres including 800 of the approximately 1,000 buildings on the base. Additional transfers are planned in the coming year. PCB contamination
The year’s PCB coverage began in February, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it would open a Superfund office in Anniston and begin taking soil and air samples. The announcement coincided with the release of a federal report which made public concerns that soil-borne PCBs were more | |
widespread than had been known and that dangerous levels were present in the air and in residents’ blood. About 500 people turned out for the first of many meetings to seek cleanup and compensation.
When Gov. Don Siegelman came to town in April, he was bombarded with questions and demands from angry residents that he do something about the PCB problem. He sent a request to President Clinton for federally subsidized health screenings and appointed Calhoun County environmental expert Pete Conroy to head a new state environmental commission.
When results of EPA’s tests confirmed high levels of PCBs, the area of testing expanded. Contaminated soil was discovered at Oxford City Park. Contamination issues delayed progress on the expansion of both Quintard Mall and Alabama 21.
Meanwhile, long-running lawsuits against Monsanto made incremental progress. Waterfront residents at Lake Logan Martin took a settlement, and Calhoun County residents pushed for a trial date for their lawsuits.
Municipal elections
A group of Anniston residents lobbying for a change in the form of government lost their bid, but city government changed nonetheless. When the municipal elections were over, every member of the City Council had lost his seat.
Former Ward 2 Councilman James Montgomery was the last to concede, going to Circuit Court to have Herbert Palmore’s election revoked. Judge Allen Crowe dismissed the case, and finally the new council was seated.
After voters settled the change of government question in a June 27 referendum, the main issue in the mayoral election appeared to be whether to bring a theme park to Anniston.
Council candidates in every ward promised to address education, economic development and city services.
Alabama coaching turnover
Although not strictly local news, few stories had more interest to Anniston Star readers than the demise of Mike Dubose as head football coach at the University of Alabama.
The writing was on the locker room wall after Bama’s loss to Central Florida Oct. 29. Rumors that Dubose was on his way out were rampant the next day, and on Nov. 1, the university made it official.
Miami Hurricanes coach Butch Davis was the first choice as a successor to Dubose. When Davis took his name out of contention, Dennis Franchione accepted the job a few days later.
Franchione, who had been the head coach at Texas Christian University for three years, spent his first days on the job recruiting, and in short order succeeded in signing Rainbow City’s Brodie Croyle to play for the Tide next season.
Tornadoes rake the state
Tornadoes twice took lives in our area this year.
An April twister killed Annie Surrett in the Vigo community, just a few miles from where the Palm Sunday tornado claimed 22 lives six years ago.
Other violent storms crossed the state during the year, but by December residents thought the danger of tornadoes had passed. They were wrong. A storm system on Dec. 16 dropped funnel clouds on at least four communities, taking 11 lives in Tuscaloosa and one in Geneva. Homes were damaged and 12 people were injured in Etowah County, but no one died.
Calhoun County residents rallied to the aid of their neighbors, collecting food, toys and clothing for storm victims and donating money. The Red Cross reported receiving donations totaling $1.1 million statewide.
Honda revs our engine
Honda began taking bids from local contractors in January, and within two weeks had awarded the contract to build its $400,000 million plant to a Birmingham firm.
During the first three months of the year, more than 17,000 people applied for the 1,500 jobs at the plant.
County politics led Jefferson County to hold up its promised $2 million payment as its part of the state’s package of incentives to Honda.
The city of Lincoln awarded contracts for water lines and utilities during the week before the plant’s groundbreaking.
The groundbreaking itself was the biggest party Lincoln had ever seen, and the celebration continued for several days. As Lincoln and Pell City residents prepared for influxes of new residents, Honda treated the current populace to 5 tons of barbecued ribs at Talladega Superspeedway.
The happy feelings were cut short for some Lincoln residents when the state presented its buyout offers for properties in the way of highway expansion. Increased traffic around the Honda plant necessitates improvements to local roadways.
The bubble deflated a little more when it became clear that Honda was looking for its suppliers more than 40 miles from the plant. That means that most of the supplemental jobs and income will go to counties that did not contribute to the incentives package and will limit the availability of Honda-related jobs in Calhoun and Talladega counties.
Several local companies got contracts for the plant construction, though: FabArc of Oxford will fabricated steel to be used in construction of Honda’s assembly plant and administrative offices, and Acker Electric Co. of Anniston will provide the electrical installation for part of the plant.
By early August, the first segment of construction was complete, and the first group of local employees started their jobs in November.
In other news ...
Several other news stories garnered votes from readers as among the top news of 2000. Remember the Water Wars … The Eastern Bypass … Quintard Mall expansion … problems at the Animal Shelter … the Republican sweep in the state Supreme Court elections … the fight over a county gasoline tax … the continuing turmoil in the Anniston school system … Anniston Army Depot’s contract for a new armored vehicle … the chemical weapons incinerator … faulty drug tests for people on parole or probation … environmental questions about Tull Chemical … prep sports … and the untimely death of Councilman Jerre Ford.
