Auburn CityFest to celebrate its 15th year
This year’s Auburn CityFest will be held Saturday, April 25, from 9a.m.-4p.m. at Kiesel Park.
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This year’s Auburn CityFest will be held Saturday, April 25, from 9a.m.-4p.m. at Kiesel Park.
Several changes will be coming to Chewacla State Park, and some have already been put in place.
The City of Auburn’s 34th Annual Easter Egg Hunt will take place Saturday, April 4, at 10 a.m. at Kiesel Park.
The City of Auburn and the Auburn Bicycle Committee will host the Auburn Bike Bash on Saturday, April 11, at Pick Elementary School.
The Professional Tennis Registry recently awarded Auburn’s Yarbrough Tennis Center the Public Tennis Facility of the Year.
The Professional Tennis Registry recently awarded Auburn’s Yarbrough Tennis Center the Public Facility of the Year.
The Professional Tennis Registry recently awarded Auburn’s Yarborough Tennis Center as the Public Facility of the Year.
The FCC made rulings upholding net neutrality, open Internet and expansion rights for municipal Internet providers Feb. 26. These rulings may allow Opelika Power Services and its 425-mile long fiber optic network to expand into Auburn and other parts of Lee County.
Many Auburn students know the beauty of Chewacla State Park, located just nine minutes from Auburn. However, a similar location, also not too far away, provides the same beauty and even more activities. In 1959, President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the Tuskegee National Forest, only 26 minutes from Auburn's campus. This year, the United States National Forest Service will bring together all the national forests to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act. This event will celebrate 50 years of wilderness preservation. Tuskegee's founding was comparatively late to some of the other national forests in Alabama, such as Bankhead National Forest which was founded in 1918 and Talledega National Forest in 1936. "The only thing I would want to express to patrons is that Tuskegee National Forest is not for offroading vehicles," said Thurmond, "There are off road trails at Bankhead and Talledega, but not Tuskegee." National Resource Conservation Service took over management of Tuskegee National Forest in an effort to save one of the most abused and eroded wastelands in Alabama, according to Dagmar Thurmond, district ranger for the forest. Also according to Thurmond, Tuskegee's forest currently ranks as the smallest in the Alabama National Forest System. While Tuskegee's Forest spans only 11,000 acres, it seems relatively small when compared to the average size of 150,000 acres, Thurmond said. The park, despite its size, Thurmond said, still offers many activities for the park's patrons to enjoy. Some of the many on-site opportunities include hunting and fishing areas, hiking and horseback riding trails and the Uchee Shooting Range. The small, dedicated staff works to preserve the forest and watch over the activities patrons participate in. Two of the most used locations are the William Bartram National Recreation Trail and the shooting range. "The William Bartram National Recreation Trail is one of our most popular trails, attracting one the highest rates of visitors last year," Thurmond said. The Bartram Recreational Forest runs eight and a half miles "passing through various types of forest wildlife habitat," according to the Tuskegee National Forest website. The Uchee Shooting Range is a unique part of the Tuskegee National Forest, allowing firearm owners to use their weapons in a safe and monitored environment. Passes for the shooting range are available at the Torch 85 Auto/Truck Plaza, Money Mizar Pawn and Jewelry and Firing Pins. Passes can be purchased for both daily and annual use. Tuskegee National Forest has also recently participated in a program used by the US Forest Service called the National Visitor Use Monitoring Program, which is a survey that counts how many people use the park daily and annually.
As a child, Patricia Barnes' sister could not pronounce her name. From this, her pseudonym Sister Schubert formed. Growing up in Troy, Barnes would cook and bake with her mother and grandmother. It was in the kitchen of her family's home where she perfected the art of baking. After three years of donating food to her church's holiday frozen food fair with exponential success, Barnes finally decided to make a business from her talents. Today, her renowned business makes frozen foods, specifically homemade rolls. Since its founding in 1992, Sister Schubert's Homemade Rolls has become a well-known distributer and producer of "melt-in-your-mouth-delicious rolls that go from freezer to table in minutes," according to the company's website. Products of Sister Schubert's company include all kinds of handmade rolls. From dinner rolls to specialty sausage wrap rolls, sweet rolls and everything in between, Barnes and her company have been pleasing consumers for years. The company is always making strides to please customers with new, delicious products. When asked about new products for customers to anticipate, Barnes said jokingly, "Of course we're always looking for new items and products, but you know I can't give any of those away just yet." While she enjoys success with her company, Sister Schubert's is only a small, specialized part of a larger corporation. The Lancaster Colony Corporation subsidizes many companies, one of which is the T. Marzetti Company, its specialty food group. Within the T. Marzetti Company are smaller family run businesses, such as Sister Schubert's, Pfeiffer and Chatham Village. Barnes attended Auburn University from 1971-1973, saying it was "meant to be" for her to come here. "My father attended Auburn, [and] my whole family attended Auburn," Barnes said. "It was almost like a meant-to-be thing for me. We love Auburn. Auburn is our home, and it's like family to us." Her time at the University and her sorority, Kappa Delta, both played a major influence in her modern day success. "I was a Kappa Delta at Auburn and my time with them taught me to love children, taught me to respect others and taught me to do all the things you're supposed to do to help people who are in need, such as the handicapped and the mentally disabled," Barnes said. "Those were the causes that the KD's undertook and still do to this very day. That was a big part of my college life at Auburn." Barnes has taken the life lessons learned through Auburn, and specifically those learned from her time with the Kappa Delta sorority, and applied them to how she runs her company today. "We care about our employees, and we want to have a great company that people both want to work for and enjoy working for," Barnes said.
One of the longest on-going debates revolves around the legal drinking age. The age is currently 21 and was changed in 1984 from 18, but I am of the opinion that it should be lowered back to 18. This might come across as an immature college student who wants to be able to drink freely, rage face and have no concern for the law, but there are many valid reasons as to why this is not the case. In the United States, the age of adulthood is 18. A person can legally purchase and consume tobacco products, vote, buy lottery tickets and even enlist in the military and serve the country. If you can join the military, fight and risk your life in the name of the United States, you should be able to go into a bar and order a drink. It is almost hypocritical that you are given almost all legal powers as an adult except for drinking. It seems strange that 18-year-olds are considered adults, yet not given all of the same rights as someone three years their elder. In a court of law, at the age of 18, you are no longer tried as a minor. You can be incarcerated for something that a year before would have resulted in a slap on the wrist and a fine. Teenagers mess up all the time and these years are jokingly associated with acne and rebellion. But these years are when we learn the ropes of life and prepare to become functional adults. Lowering the drinking age to 18 allows more time to get the teenage "wild-years" over with. Getting this stage of alcohol experimentation out of the way earlier allots more time to focus in on long-term goals. Alcohol is also very easy to obtain. We don't need to kid ourselves here. Fake ID's are easy to get for the right price and are usually good enough to work most places. People who are 21 very often help their younger friends out and buy them alcohol. The United States frequently associates and compares itself to the United Kingdom. We are similar to them in many areas, yet drinking age is not one of them. In the UK, drinking age is 18. A study from the Office of National Statistics in 2009 shows in the UK, only 1.76 percent of all deaths were alcohol-related. Of this 1.76 percent, the rates were highest among men and women aged 55-74 (41.8 percent for men, 20.1 percent for women) and the rates were lowest among men and women ages 15-34 (2.6 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively). This study shows fatalities from drinking do not generally occur in the younger population. Similarly, in the U.S., less than 2 percent of all deaths were alcohol related, according to the Center for Disease Control's annual National Vital Statistics Report for 2009. Of the alcohol-related deaths, those in the age range of 15-34 account for only 3.8 percent of the total alcohol-related deaths, while the 55-74 range accounts for 43.2 percent. Looking at the statistics from the U.S. and the U.K., there is no reason to think alcohol-related deaths would be any higher if the legal age was decreased. We can see that not much would change. The UK has a lower drinking age and the youth of the nation accounts for less alcohol related deaths than those who are older. The younger people are seemingly being safer and more responsible with their alcohol use. A change in the drinking age would also provide a positive economic impact. With more people allowed to buy alcohol, certainly there would be an increase in both the supply and demand for the product. More money would be flowing through the economy because there would be an increasedin alcohol purchases. Most people love to have a good time and drink with their friends. It's a major social aspect, not only in college, but throughout life. So cheers ladies and gents, and as always, drink responsibly.
The Auburn Department of Environmental Services does far more than simply cleaning up the toilet paper from Toomer's Corner after a Tiger's win. Overseeing a wide range of departments including recycling, solid waste, animal control and fleet services, is Timothy Woody, the director of environmental services for the city of Auburn. He and his staff have made major progress in the improvement of waste pollution in the city of Auburn. "I don't think [waste pollution] is considered a major problem for the city," Woody said. who has been the director since 2004. Curbside recycling programs and adding other items, such as scrap metals, to the list of recyclable goods have been major factors to the cleanliness of Auburn and the surrounding areas. In 2009, the city of Auburn entered into the East Alabama Recycling Partnership with the University, Opelika and Lee County. "We formed this group primarily to give us a better chance at having a county-wide recycling and waste-reduction effort," Woody said. "Everyone was out doing their own thing for their own communities, which people continue to do, but we thought we could do a better job together and looked at things from a comprehensive point of view." Recyclable goods are one of the main focuses for the city and Woody has goals and future plans to make them a priority to both help the environment and benefit the community. In Auburn, recyclable goods are sorted and then taken to facilities called MRF's, or material recovery facilities. However, Auburn doesn't have these facilities. If someone wants to recycle, they personally have to separate the glass from the cardboard from the newspaper and so on. With a MRF being put in place, which is Woody's long-term goal, people in the community would be more encouraged to recycle. "You'll have some folks that are conscientious and want to recycle and do the right thing," Woody said. "Some folks, it's not that they personally don't care, but people are busy and it's easier to not sort it out." Woody believes many who do not currently recycle might do so with a MRF in place in Auburn. "I'm thinking that it would self-enforce itself," Woody said. Having an MRF would allow people to simply put all recyclables in one bin and not have to go through the tedious process of sorting the goods on an individual basis. Solid waste is taken to a separate facility in Salem. The landfill facility for Auburn's trash has been operational since November 1985. This landfill contains trash from 13 counties in Alabama as well as three contiguous counties in Georgia: Troupe, Muskogee and Harris. The landfill is run by privately owned Waste Management; however, other companies such as Advanced Disposal also use the facility. When the solid waste arrives, it is put through a simple process. "[Waste] is pushed up, spread out and compacted," said Mike Malphrus, the district manager of the Salem Waste Disposal Facility. "Then, each day, [the waste] is covered in six inches of soil." This facility sees all kinds of waste every day. The most common waste product the facility sees is household garbage. Malphrus and his facility also try and help the environmental effort by extracting scrap metals from the solid waste to be reused.
The home of a Tiger Trailer Park resident caught fire Jan. 10, destroying the trailer.
In January 2012, Auburn voters and the Auburn City Council allotted a $5 million tax referendum fund to be used strictly for public projects. Two of the withdrawals for this fund have been used for the Frank Brown Recreation Center. Frank Brown, located at 235 Opelika Road, will soon begin its final phase of renovations. The final phase of renovations to Frank Brown will complete all of the Parks and Recreations renovations made to the campus located on Opelika Road. The expansion entails several new changes to the already recently refurbished facilities. The funds will supply a new racquetball court and the conversion of the old racquetball court into a new fitness area. This new fitness area includes treadmills, dumbbells, standard weight-room equipment and American with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessible weight-training equipment. The first round of renovations included refurbishing both the inside and outside of the facility as well as adding new classrooms, a conference room and a racquetball court. "Now, this new phase, which is also the last phase, is redoing the old racquetball court and converting that area into a larger fitness area that is open to the public and again there is no membership fee that goes along with that, it is free and open to the public," said Meg Rainey, the public relations specialist for the Auburn department of Parks and Recreation. The Hubert and Grace Harris Senior Center and the Jan Dempsey Community Arts Center surround Frank Brown. The Parks and Recreation Department maintains and pays for the entire campus. The Hubert and Grace Harris Senior Center provides programs for senior citizens ages 50 and above, and the Jan Dempsey Community Arts Center serves all ages in the fine arts. "Creating a campus feel for everyone, that was one of the major goals and one of the great things about having so many different facilities that serve so many purposes in one location," Rainey said. Frank Brown offers a variety of programs to the public without a membership fee. The only requirement is that patrons must be 16 or older unless accompanied by an adult. Some of these programs include classes for fitness training, martial arts, yoga, dance, and recreational league sports such as basketball, Special Olympics basketball and volleyball. The center changes its programs, advertised in their quarterly brochure, depending on the season of the year. The center is always looking for new teachers and new ideas for classes. People in the community are encouraged to share by either participating or leading classes. The center provides facilities for the programs and simply charges a small percentage for building use and program advertisement. With the last phase of campus renovation close to completion, the parks department will soon hold a grand opening of all of their new facilities for the public to use and enjoy.
On Dec. 6, 2013, an annual gingerbread village display will be unveiled in the lobby of The Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center. The gingerbread village, created through a partnership with the Auburn University College of Architecture, Design, Construction Master of Integrated Design and Construction Program and The Hotel and Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center. Together, they work each year to produce this annual ginger bread extravaganza. Using high-definition LiDAR technology, a remote sensory tech that measures the distance and size via a targeting laser analyzes reflected light, students of the College of Architecture and DCMIDC Program obtained exact diagrams of several buildings both on and off campus. They then constructed wooden replicas from their diagrams. After students construct a wooden frame of the buildings, The Hotel at Auburn University's executive sous chef, Robert Mason, and his team assemble the gingerbread on top of the wooden frames by hand. "A couple of pounds of dough are used [on top of the wooden frames], but if you weigh it all together, it is close to 100 pounds of dough we have to roll up," Mason said. The display takes 2-3 days to assemble in the hotel and is then moved to the lobby for viewing on the day of the unveiling. Several buildings from around campus are displayed in addition to pathways made of candy. Some of the buildings include the Hotel at Auburn University, Samford Hall and the Auburn train station, accompanied by a set of train tracks leading throughout the display. Hundreds of people attend the village's unveiling and thousands attend driving the month-long course that the display is presented to the public. The display draws people from all across Auburn, including both students and residents, in hope to see their favorite buildings. "Everyone has their own favorite, but if I had to say the Hotel would be my favorite," Tim Aylsworth, director of sales and marketing, said with a chuckle, New buildings being added for this year's display include the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art and the President's house. The show will be unveiled following Auburn's annual Christmas parade, beginning at 5 p.m. outside of the hotel on the corner of Thach Avenue and College Street. All in attendance of the parade, as well as others, are welcomed and encouraged to come to the unveiling of gingerbread village in its sixth year of construction.
Since 1976, Steve Lang has a Christmas-themed light show at his home on Fontaine Drive. However, recently the show moved locations because of Lang's inability to continue the show. Now, in the show's second year, at National Village, from Nov. 29-Jan. 5, the lights display will be an annual fixture for years to come. The display is open every night between 5-10 p.m. and free for all who want to attend. In past years, there have been an estimated 30,000 viewers for any given year. "I have been going to (the show) with my kids forever, and I wanted to see it continue," said Don Conner of Conner Brothers Construction Company. Conner Brother's Construction Company is responsible for the development of both National Village and the light show. With work for the show beginning in August, significant amount of effort is put into the re-creation of the show each year. The show uses more than 185,000 lights on hundreds of handmade light fixtures for the synchronized display. A special function uses a radio station channel and repeats an 18-minute series of Auburn Christmas favorites that correlate with the light show. "People can watch it from their cars and listen to the music or they can get out with their kids if it's a nice night and just sit and watch on the grass. Its pretty cool," Conner said. The show continues to grow each year thanks to Conner and brothers. "We are growing it each year," Conner said. "This year we are starting to convert lights to LED for more efficiency. (The show) is not Callaway Gardens yet, but we are going to continue to expand it." While National Village will hold this year's show, it's not the main purpose. National Village is a living community. On property are several amenities for homeowners to enjoy: boating and fishing, resort style pools, tennis facilities, nature trails and on top of that a membership to all three golf courses of the Robert Trent Jones Trail is also available. Opelika's Mayor Gary Fuller and his family will be in attendance for the shows annual opening and said he encourages everyone else to come out for the show, according to National Villages's Facebook.
Freedom 21 will hold its second annual 5K run, Oct. 19 at 8 a.m., but with a twist. Freedom 21, recipient of the Davidson Bruce Foundation Grant in both 2012 and 2013, works as a Christian, non-profit organization raising awareness and funds to help end human trafficking. "We knew we wanted to have an annual 5K," said Teresa Carden, Freedom 21 executive board member. "This will be its second year, and we were thinking, 'What would be fun?' We thought the Color Me Free 5K Run idea would be fun." According to Freedom 21's mission, their goal is to mobilize as one body, in an unified mission to wage war against the epidemic of human slavery in our nation, in our world and on our watch. "We want to focus on awareness in the community," said Lori Sewell, president of Freedom 21. "A lot of people know about human trafficking; you ask them what the definition is, and they're knowledgeable about it. But they do not know what happens in Auburn." This issue is not localized to Auburn. It is a major issue across the nation. In 2012, President Obama declared January as National Trafficking Awareness Month. An approximated $32 billion industry, the Department of Justice ranks sexual trafficking as the second fastest-growing criminal industry with a reported 2,525 cases in 2010. An estimated 1,000 of those cases involved children. Many organizations nationwide are fighting for this cause, including Polaris Project, which set up a national trafficking hotline to report cases. Polaris Project also established a nation-wide network of safehouses for victims to recover medically, psychologically and mentally, in addition to helping them find jobs post-recovery. Sewell said she hopes to open a similar type of safehouse here in the Auburn area. Passion City Church in Atlanta also takes a stance on the issue. Passion holds a yearly Christian fellowship conference for college students focusing on major issues of the world and what can be done to help. Last year, the topic centered on the end of human trafficking and raised $3.3 million in donations. "I went to the Passion Conference last year and saw how lives can be affected by human trafficking," said Jake Miller, freshman in business marketing. "I just want to do something to help people in situations like these victims are in." The Color Me Run's registration costs $50 and money goes to Freedom 21's goals of raising awareness in the local area. For more information visit ColorMeFree.com or their Facebook page. Sponsors included Chick-fil-A, Weichert Realty/Porter Properties, Prudential Realty and Charter Bank, among many others.
Luke Bryan will visit the Auburn-Opelika area as part of his fifth-annual Farm Tour at Ingram Farms, Thursday, Oct 10. In addition to the concert, Bryan also tours as an opportunity to help those in need. Last year, eight students from agricultural families benefitted from the Luke Bryan Farm Tour Scholarship which helped them pay for college. Tickets are $35 and parking is available for ticket holders. Parking opens at 2 p.m. for those looking for the full-tailgating experience. Doors open at 5 p.m. with Bryan beginning at 7 p.m. Bryan's newly released album, which debuted Aug. 13, "Crash My Party," currently ranks No. 6 on Billboard's Top 200 albums. With singles such as "Beer in the Headlights" and "That's My Kind of Night," which currently ranks number one on Country Billboard's Top 100, Bryan delivers a somewhat new sound, positively reviewed by listeners. Many Auburn students anticipate the show, and one in particular is Jack Pomerantz, freshman in business. A fan of Bryan's music, he attended two previous concerts at Atlanta's Lakewood Amphitheater and said he remains equally excited for the upcoming show. "Luke Bryan is always a great time," Pomerantz said. "Both times that I have gone, I had a fantastic time and I'm sure that this one will be the same way. He seems to never disappoint." Matt La Penta, sophomore in finance, said he is also excited for the show. He has attended Bryan concerts in the past, and his favorite part is the tailgating before the show. "I love getting out there early and just hanging out with all my friends," La Penta said. Cole Swindell officially signed on as the show's opener along with The Peach Pickers and Chancie Neal. Swindell, a singer/songwriter, is a personal friend of Bryan's. Swindell writes music for many top-country artists such as Bryan and wrote Craig Campbell's hit "Outta My Head." The Peach Pickers consist of singer/songwriters Dallas Davidson and Rhett Akins and are also scheduled to make a performance. Both Davidson and Akins have written several songs on country music's top billboards. Some of Davidson's songs include Lady Antebellum's "Just a Kiss" and Randy Houser's "Runnin' Outta Moonlight," while some of Akin's works include Lee Brice's "Parking Lot Party" and "It Goes Like This" by Thomas Rhett. Chancie Neal will be the last of the opening acts, playing songs such as "Silverado" and "My Louisiana."