Another year is in the books. 2016 was a big year of surprising news, political drama and new developments coming to the Auburn area. Here are the top 10 community news stories of 2016 that The Plainsman followed in Auburn.
The stories are ranked by their importance to Auburn, Auburn University and Auburn students as determined by the Community News Staff here at The Plainsman. They are not ranked by their popularity or metrics.
10. Taco Mama, Starbucks, Gigi's Cupcakes Drive-Thru and other developments are planned to open in 2017
2016 was another year of growth in Auburn, with many new stores opening downtown and several new industries finding their way into Auburn's industrial and technology parks. With new local stores opening every month, three major chains are expanding into the Auburn area as well including Taco Mama, Starbucks and a Gigi's Cupcakes Drive Thru.
The new Taco Mama will be located downtown in the Magnolia Plaza buildings, the first stand-alone Starbucks can be found on South College street between South Donahue Drive and East University Drive, and Gigi's Cupcakes' first ever drive-thru will be located just across the Opelika border on Opelika Road. All three are planned to open in early 2017.
Read the stories: Auburn's first stand-alone Starbucks coming in 2017, First Gigi's Cupcakes drive-thru planned for shopping center and Taco Mama coming to Auburn in 2017
9. City scrapped plans to build a large hotel and grocery development downtown
In the spring, the City Council approved preliminary plans for a public-private partnership to build a large new development in the place of the city's existing Gay Street Municipal Parking Deck. The development was slated to include a 90–130-room boutique-style hotel, a 30,000-square-foot hotel and a new, larger parking deck that would have added several hundred new public parking spaces downtown.
Over the summer, however, the city announced it could not reach an agreement with the private partner, Black Water Resources, which had been redubbed Auburn Ventures LLC. According to the city, there are no current plans to redevelop the downtown parking deck, but it is hopeful that the lot can eventually be redeveloped.
Read the story: City scraps downtown hotel and parking deck project
8. Uber launched in Auburn
After months of negotiations and more than a year and a half of absence, the ride-hailing service Uber returned to Auburn's streets Aug. 18. The City Council passed an ordinance amendment two weeks prior, which allowed for Uber's swift return to the Loveliest Village on the Plains. The ordinance was modeled after a similar ordinance in Tuscaloosa.
Uber has been operating in Auburn for about five months with no major issues reported.
Read the stories: Uber launches in Auburn and Uber on college town operations, game days
7. Alabama suffered from an extreme drought, and Auburn implemented emergency plans
For most of the summer and fall, Auburn and the rest of the state of Alabama suffered from an extreme drought, which prompted Gov. Robert Bentley to issue a drought emergency and the city to implement emergency conservation plans. The drought emergency included a no-burn order for the whole state.
On Dec. 1, the city and many parts of the state received the most significant amount of rainfall they had seen in months. After several rounds of rain, Bentley lifted the drought emergency. However, the state is still in an extreme drought and water conservation is still encouraged.
Read the stories: Governor issues drought emergency, Drought affects locals as Lee County remains under severe drought, Auburn Water Works Board passes mandatory water restrictions and City gets most significant rainfall in months
6. Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore was suspended for violating judicial ethics
Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore was suspended from his post in September, marking the second time Moore has been effectively removed as Alabama's top judicial officer. The Alabama Court of the Judiciary found Moore guilty of violating the state's Canons of Judicial Ethics by encouraging the state's 67 probate judges to defy the U.S. Supreme Court on same-sex marriage.
Moore has contested that he never encouraged the probate judges to defy the U.S. Supreme Court. His attorneys have also said that his suspension — which will last until his term runs out in January 2019 — was illegal and uncalled for. Moore has filed paperwork for an appeal with a Special Supreme Court. The remaining justices of Alabama's Supreme Court recused themselves from his case.
Gov. Robert Bentley has also interviewed Moore for the state's senate vacancy.
Read the stories: Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore suspended, files appeal over suspension, Governor announces members of Special Supreme Court to hear chief justice's appeal and Chief Justice files first brief in appeal over his suspension
5. Gov. Robert Bentley was accused of an affair, and House members filed articles of impeachment
In March, former Alabama Law Enforcement Secretary Spencer Collier accused Gov. Robert Bentley of having an affair with one of his top political aides, Rebekah Caldwell Mason. Collier had been fired by Bentley only days prior. Shortly after Collier made his accusations, a recording of Bentley have a sexual conversation with Mason over a telephone call was released.
Since the accusations were made, which Bentley and Mason have denied, members of the Alabama House of Representatives have filed articles of impeachment against Bentley. Those articles were filed in April after reports suggested Bentley may have used state resources to facilitate the affair with Mason.
The impeachment investigation has since been suspended on request from the Alabama attorney general. Attorney General Luther Strange, in a letter to House members, said his office was conducting an investigation that may "overlap" with the House's, though he never specified if it was an investigation of Bentley. House Speaker Mac McCutcheon and Rep. Mike Jones, who chaired the impeachment committee, said the attorney general was conducting a criminal investigation of Bentley.
Strange is reportedly a top contender to be appointed by Bentley as Sen. Jeff Sessions' replacement since President-Elect Donald Trump selected Sessions to be a part of his Cabinet as attorney general.
Read the stories: House suspends impeachment investigation, Governor subpoenaed in impeachment investigation and Alabama representatives filed articles of impeachment against Bentley
4. 36-year-old Melissa Boarts was killed in a police-involved shooting, and officers were cleared by grand jury
In April, detectives of the Auburn Police Division killed 36-year-old Melissa Boarts. Boarts was reported to have been driving erratically on Interstate 85 between Auburn and Macon County. Eventually, police got her to pull over in a rural, dirt road in Macon County, where police said she rushed officers with a knife. When she charged officers, police said a detective shot and killed her with one shot to the chest.
Since Boarts was killed in April, her family has launched a protest campaign against the city. A Macon County grand jury was convened over the summer, and the officers involved were later cleared by the grand jury. The Boarts have a lawsuit pending against the city.
Read the stories: 36-year-old shot by the Auburn Police Division, police say it was justified, Grand Jury rules Auburn police-involved shooting as justified, Police stand by description of Boarts after family provides toxicology report, and Court documents identify police officers in officer-involved shooting
3. Fire Battalion Chief Joe Lovvorn won former Auburn Rep. Mike Hubbard's House seat in special election
Auburn Fire Division Battalion Chief Joe Lovvorn defeated three other Republican contenders to win House District 79 in a special election called after former House Speaker Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, was removed from his House seat after being found guilty of violating the state's ethics law. Lovvorn defeated entrepreneur Sandy Toomer, lawyer Brett Smith and real-estate developer Jay Conner in a special election in September.
An Auburn student, Gage Fenwick, also ran as a libertarian but failed to qualify for the general election ballot. With no general election opponent, Lovvorn was announced as the winner of the seat and was sworn in in September. He will join other legislators in Montgomery for the 2017 Legislative Session, which is set to begin in February.
Read the stories: One-stop Shop: Meet the House District 79 Republican candidates, Lovvorn wins: Fire battalion chief clinches House District 79 Republican primary and Joe Lovvorn wins House District 79 seat
2. The Magnolia Avenue Toomer's Oak caught on fire
The Oak caught fire at about midnight on Sept. 25 after Auburn's 18–13 win over LSU. It was hosed down within minutes by the Auburn Fire Division, but the extent of the damage to the tree is still unknown. Auburn officials have suggested the tree will die, but others have said its future is still unknown.
Video surveillance appeared to show Jochen Wiest, a 29-year-old German man who lives in Auburn, lighting the toilet paper. After he lit the tree, and it was consumed by flames, a female Auburn student confronted him and chased him after he tried to run away. It also showed another person attempting to extinguish the fire before it engulfed the tree.
Wiest will not be allowed to return to German as he awaits his trial in Lee County.
Read the stories: Student who chased Toomer's fire suspect: 'Not today', Toomer's fire suspect identified and Toomer's fire suspect may be allowed to return to Germany
1. Former House Speaker Mike Hubbard convicted of 12 felony ethics charges
After more than two years of investigation and court hearings, former House Speaker Mike Hubbard, a Republican from Auburn, headed to trial over the summer for 23 felony ethics charges. After a two-week trial, Hubbard was found guilty of 12 of the 23 charges. The jury found that Hubbard had violated Alabama law by accepting "consulting" contracts from individuals who had business before the state Legislature and by taking "things of value" from lobbyists and people who hire lobbyists.
Hubbard was sentenced to four years in a state penitentiary by Lee County Circuit Judge Jacob Walker. Hubbard has filed an appeal with the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, which is expected to head to trial next year. Hubbard has denied any wrongdoing and maintains that his indictment and conviction were politically motivated.
He was first elected as a representative from Auburn in 1998. In 2010, he led a historic Republican takeover of the Alabama House of Representatives, marking the first time that Republicans gained control of the House and Senate in more than 136 years.
Hubbard remains out on an appeal bond.
Read the stories: Former House Speaker Mike Hubbard guilty of 12 felony ethics charges, Hubbard sentenced to four years in prison and Former House Speaker files appeal
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