30 years ago in CCN history
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By Christa Jennings
Senior Staff Writer
The January 28, 1993, edition of “The Coosa County News” highlighted athletics, Cub Scout events, a fishing tournament, decisions made regarding vacant school buildings, and more.
Three decades ago the local Cub Scouts held its annual Pinewood Derby with David Chappell winning first place, Matthew Dean winning second and Clay Wilder winning third.
Additionally, members of Cub Scout Pack 167 were featured for their accomplishments, with six young men receiving their Bobcat badges. Those were Jay Mizzell, Whit Mitchell, Jeffery Risher, Bill Mitchell, Chris Turney, and Adam Grimes.
The newspaper also reported that the county-wide basketball tournament would begin that night, with Goodwater and Rockford meeting in the first game. For 1993, the annual county-wide basketball tournament was hosted at West Coosa Elementary School.
The three-day tournament included preliminary games such as Rockford versus Goodwater, Kellyton versus West Coosa, Kellyton versus Goodwater, Rockford versus West Coosa, Kellyton versus Rockford, and Goodwater versus West Coosa with seventh grade, eighth grade and girls’ teams competing in the tournament.
In other school athletic news, that edition also highlighted the cross-county rival elementary basketball game between Kellyton and West Coosa, with the Kellyton teams making clean sweeps in all three games.
It was also reported that at that time the Coosa County Historical Society and Preservation Authority was compiling a publication of the churches of Coosa County. At the time, the society had already published its index of Coosa County cemeteries.
Thirty years ago it was also reported that the Coosa County Historical Society was listed as one of the best organizations of the small counties in Alabama. It was noted in that edition that in just a few short years the organization had “acquired a three-story museum, a 12-acre park at the Oakachoy Covered Bridge and more recently the Woman’s Club Building in Rockford, which has been renovated as a home base.”
That edition of the newspaper 30 years ago also highlighted that the Hatchett Creek Bass Club had held its champions tournament fish-off for the 1992 season just the Saturday prior at Lake Jordan. The top six fishermen for the 1992 season competed head-to-head to determine the overall champion.
Allen Pike won the overall championship with a catch of 8.7 pounds, which included the big fish for the tournament of 3.3 pounds. Randy Ward finished in second place and had a 3.2-pound largemouth bass as his big fish.
At the time it was reported that since 1989 the Hatchett Creek Bass Club had held an average of 12 fishing tournaments a year, including special kids and spouses tournaments. The club had 22 members as of that edition 30 years ago.
It was also reported then that at the recent Board of Education meeting proposals to lease vacant school buildings were the primary topics.
Three decades ago the City of Goodwater requested permission to lease the old agriculture shop at Goodwater School to use as the Senior Citizens Center for the northeast portion of Coosa County. At the time the city was in the process of accepting responsibility for the center from the county government.
During that meeting in January 1993, the board approved a 25-year lease to the city for the property at a nominal fee.
The board had also received a single bid to lease the old Stewartville campus, and during that meeting the board appointed then Superintendent Larry Hardman to negotiate with Mitchell and Company on a possible lease for the facility. The final negotiated lease would then be presented to the board for approval.
See other highlights of 30 years of “The Coosa County News” periodically in future editions throughout the year as we continue to celebrate three decades of dedicated local news coverage, honoring “The Coosa County News” first being published May 20, 1992.