This Week In History: Sept. 24, 2008

Published 10:28 am Wednesday, September 24, 2008

By Melanie Patterson

The North Jefferson News



The following events were reported in The North Jefferson News during this week in 2003, 1998, 1988 and 1978.



Five years ago

• For arts and crafts buffs, mecca is coming to Gardendale. Hobby Lobby has chosen Gardendale for its 303rd store. The retailer has leased the majority of the former Wal-Mart building and is scheduled to open Oct. 4.

• Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse held a board-cutting (yes, a board) ceremony Wednesday to mark its official grand opening in Fultondale. The store is the company’s fourth in Jefferson County and is one of 24 in Alabama.

• The School Health and Education Division of the Jefferson County Department of Health is teaching a class that all Jefferson County school employees who administer medicine to students must attend.



10 years ago

• The Fultondale Police Department receives a $61,052 grant that the department and Fultondale High School administrators will use to identify and hopefully prevent any drug-related activity at the school.

• The town of Kimberly continues to add new residents as more families are moving to the area. Kimberly court clerk Shelly Tolbert said 30 building permits have been issued this year for new home construction.

• A mob searching for Beanie Babies has convened at Dreams Avenue in Morris. Morris residents can find a line of people almost every day between 11 a.m. and noon just waiting for them. The Beanie Babies trend started two years ago.



20 years ago

• Fultondale’s City Council was asked Monday to consider a 3-percent lodging tax that could raise an estimated $40,000 annually. Councilman Greg Morris, who heads the council’s finance committee, proposed the tax.

• A special trust fund has been established for the children of a Jefferson County deputy sheriff from Mt. Olive who was killed en route to a false alarm robbery. Deputy Larry Cokeroft’s children are Becky, 8, and Jennifer, 5.

• Several months of police undercover and surveillance work are being credited with the recovery of thousands of dollars worth of stolen t-tops by Fultondale police last week. Police served a search warrant at the Fultondale Mini-Storage last week and recovered 147 t-tops inside.



30 years ago

• Two men are up for the police chief’s job in Warrior following the death of Police Chief John McMahon several months ago. The two men are Jimmy Lakey and Kimberly Chief of Police Douglas Hathcock.

• Exactly 65 years after the Fultondale Church of Christ located in its Walker Chapel location, the membership of the church met for the first time at the new facility on Elkwood Drive in Fultondale. The $175,000 church will seat about 300 people.

• The Morris Town Hall was crowded from one wall to another in three rooms with residents from Shady Acres and from the city of Morris to discuss the possible annexation of Shady Acres. Tempers flared until people found out there would be no vote that night, then the rooms cleared out.