By Melanie Patterson

The North Jefferson News



The following events were reported in The North Jefferson News during this week in 2004, 1999, 1989 and 1979.



Five years ago

• Gardendale officially annexed in 937 acres Monday. The acreage is expected to become a residential and commercial district that could one day bring in millions of dollars in tax revenue every year. The property includes more than a mile of frontage on Interstate 65 south of Cracker Barrel to the Fultondale city limits.

• Gasoline prices are skyrocketing. Prices at local stations are fluctuating from $1.49 to $1.54 per gallon. The jump is the highest ever recorded for the month of January. Prices averaged $1.42 this time last year.

• Warrior City Council members had a heated discussion this week when councilman David Hines made a motion to borrow up to $550,000 in the form of a bond issue. The motion failed to pass.



10 years ago

• The body of Kelly C. Joseph, a Gardendale man who had been missing for 25 days, was found Monday in a van behind the Gardendale Post Office in The Garden Shopping Center.

• Jefferson County Junior Miss Sally Spaulding, 18, of Gardendale, won first runner-up in the Alabama Junior Miss program last weekend in Montgomery. Spaulding said she was glad to have the scholarship money. She won $3,100 in cash and a $1,000 renewable scholarship to Birmingham Southern.

• The Bragg Junior High School cheerleaders took part in the pre-game show at the Comp USA Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Eve. They began to practice for the event in March.



20 years ago

• A fire early Wednesday morning has completely destroyed the Kimberly Town Hall and most of the town’s equipment, including the town’s two police cars, a dump truck, bush hog tractor, backhoe/loader tractor and a pickup truck, according to Mayor Sammie Maze. Only the town’s fire station was unharmed.

• A 2-year-old from Hayden died at Children’s Hospital after a power window in her great-grandmother’s car accidentally rolled up on her while her head was half out the rear window. She had apparently reached the power window switch.

• Raymond Youngblood reported a burglary at the Dairy Kreme restaurant, 1112 Decatur Highway, Fultondale, in which $225 was taken.



30 years ago

• Soaring orange flames continued to shoot upward from the Tuesday morning wreckage of a tanker truck as late as Wednesday afternoon. The truck was reportedly on fire as soon as it veered into the concrete fixture at the temporary end of Interstate 65 North. It was the worst accident of its kind in the north Jefferson County area.

• Five new businesses have opened in north Jefferson County, including the Char-House Restaurant and Garywood Clothing in Fultondale. In Gardendale are three new stores: Gentlemen’s Corner clothing store, Gardendale Salvage Sales, and Lyne’s Florist and Gift Shoppe .