Multiple Pell City expansions mean new investments and jobs for region
A pair of expansion announcements in Pell City in recent months underscore the upward trend for economic development in St. Clair. They represent new investments of nearly $35 million, creating more than 50 new jobs, and the continuation of the county’s economic momentum in 2024 and beyond.
Douglas Manufacturing, acquired in early 2023 by Rulmeca Holdings, has already begun the $11.7 million expansion of its production facility, which will add four production lines. The $23.2 million expansion by Ford Meter Box Company Inc. includes construction of a 60,000 square foot building and manufacturing equipment to enhance production.
Douglas Rulmeca and Ford Meter Box are located in Pell City’s industrial park.
Douglas Rulmeca breaks ground
At a groundbreaking ceremony in February, Fabio Ghisalberti, executive vice president and managing director for Rulmeca, called it “a new great day for Rulmeca. When the acquisition of Douglas was announced last year on April 20, we declared that investments would have been realized in Pell City increasing manufacturing capacity and product line. Now, just 10 months later, we are proud to keep the promise, celebrating this first significant step towards a brilliant future for Douglas.”
Noting the location, he added, “I am pleased this takes place in Pell City, St. Clair County, where we are looking forward to contribute to the prosperity of the local community aiming to add great value to our customers thanks to a significant investment plan both in manufacturing space and high-tech equipment.”
Douglas Rulmeca is a leader and innovator in the conveyor industry.
“We are excited to break ground on our new idler plant, which will enable us to meet the growing demand for our idler product line and keep our customers moving ahead,” said Paul Ross, president and CEO of Douglas Manufacturing. “This project is not only an investment in our company, but also in our community. We are proud to be part of the economic growth and development of Pell City, St. Clair County and Alabama.”
Ross thanked local and state leaders for “their support of this significant investment by Rulmeca.”
The new idler plant will feature the latest equipment and automation technologies. It will adopt the premium Rulmeca PSV idler design, offering improved sealing, stability and durability, officials said.
Project completion is expected by the end of 2024, enabling the company to significantly increase its production capacity for key components such as pulleys, lagging, idlers, magnetics, impact beds and take-ups.
As a member of the Rulmeca Group, Douglas is one of 18 global manufacturing and sales companies with 1,200 team members and customers in over 85 countries.
The expansion is expected to create more than 50 jobs over a two-year period with an average annual salary of about $45,000, according to the Alabama Department of Commerce.
“We are excited that Douglas Manufacturing has decided to expand their footprint in Pell City,” said St. Clair County Commission Chairman Stan Batemon. Douglas was founded in 1978. “The combination of Douglas with Rulmeca will allow for continued growth and success of the company, and we are honored to see them growing here in St. Clair County.”
Ford Meter Box expanding in Pell City
Ford Meter Box expands … again
Ford Meter Box Company, Inc., a manufacturer of underground waterworks products, is upping its investment in the county, a move it has made multiple times in the past.
Headquartered in Wabash, Indiana, it is expanding its Pell City facility with a $23.2 million expansion that allows fabrication of large-diameter steel components and increased production capacity in the 60,000 square foot new construction.
Noting that the Ford Meter Box Company has had a presence in Pell City since 1982, Senior Vice President and General Manager Zachary J. Gentile Jr. said, “We are grateful for the continued support we have received from Pell City, the Pell City Industrial Development Board, St. Clair County and the St. Clair County EDC.”
“St. Clair County always welcomes new investment and quality jobs to our community,” said Batemon. “We are happy to be able to work with the City of Pell City to encourage growth among the companies in St. Clair County. This investment opens doors for new opportunities for our citizens now and in the future.”
With a nod toward the company’s history of expansions and investments in the county, Commissioner Tommy Bowers said, “We are excited that Ford Meter Box continues to grow their presence in Pell City and St. Clair County. They are a long-standing member of our business community who have always been great corporate citizens. We are excited about this latest project and wish Ford Meter Box continued success.”
Pell City Mayor Bill Pruitt echoed the sentiment. “The City of Pell City is proud to see the continued growth and success at Ford Meter Box’s Pell City facility. New investment and job growth will stimulate the local economy and highlight the fact that Pell City is a great place for business. We congratulate Ford Meter Box on their success and wish them nothing but success going forward.”
The Ford Meter Box Company, Inc. is a manufacturer of water meter setting and testing equipment, service line valves and fittings, and pipeline coupling, repair, and restraint products for the waterworks industry and ancillary markets.
We wake up and before we know it, it’s over … the day. … the season. … the year. The life.
Unavoidably, it will all come to an end one day, and we will have no choice but to reconcile with the life we created, the choices made and how we used the time we were given.
But that’s not today. We still have time – to make revisions, right our wrongs, try again. But there’s a trap we often fall into the older we get … We begin to adopt the “old dog” mentality. This false belief that we’re past the point of revision … that ‘we are who we are’ and can learn no new tricks. Thus, we’re forevermore limited by the choices we have already made. We buy into this ridiculous notion that once we reach a certain age, we’re beyond modification because our true selves, and life plans are drawn in permanent ink. We’re not. They’re not.
The overarching narrative of our lives can always be revised. We can’t change the past, but we can always refine ourselves and change the trajectory of our current lives at any time.
I believe we were created under the idea that we never stop ‘becoming’… we should, by all accounts, remain under constant revision until the bitter end. The work of being human isn’t meant to stop until we do.
We are complete upon our last breath. … Never before.
– Mackenzie Free –
Wife, mother, photographer & current resident of the unassumingly magical town of Steele, Alabama
Story by Roxann Edsall Photos by Mackenzie Free and Roxann Edsall
John Liechty and Richard Edwards chat about old times as they turn along a switchback on Slab Creek Trail at Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve in Springville. The two have spent countless hours hiking together over their nearly three decades of friendship.
Edwards got Liechty hooked on hiking when the two worked at the same company in Columbia, South Carolina. The friendship grew when the two moved their families to Birmingham to open a new office for that company.
Liechty has since moved back to Tennessee, where he was born, but hiking, and their passion for it, continues to be the thing that brings them back together.
The Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve has been open less than two months, but the word is out about this hidden gem.
Doug Morrison, the driving force behind it all
Liechty and Edwards heard about it in a newsletter update from the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Recourses. “We’ve done a lot of hiking, lots of backcountry stuff,” says Liechty. “The trails here are great with the elevation, the rise and fall. It’s all good. Y’all have a good thing here.”
The 422-acre Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve is a Forever Wild Land Trust property, owned by the state of Alabama and managed by the City of Springville. It boasts four hiking trails, for a total of 7.3 miles of trails. Creek Loop Trail is designated solely for hiking. Fallen Oak Trail and Slab Creek Trail are open to biking also, while hikers on Easy Rider Trail share the space with horseback riders. Benches along the trails offer a place to rest or to bird watch, with picnic tables and portable restrooms available in the parking area. While you can canoe or kayak the creek, there is currently not a put in or take out point on the property. Plans include adding pavilions for outdoor education.
Preserve Manager Doug Morrison says environmental education is a top priority at the preserve. “Personally, I’d like to make 70% of our mission about education,” he says. “The recreation is going to happen. There are so many things to enjoy here. But if you can somehow get the message out that you can enjoy nature and not love it to death, that’s a good goal.”
Morrison’s personal motto is “explore and discover,” and it’s what he hopes people will do at the preserve. “I love to see kids outside learning and discovering things as they run around this place. There’s a lot to learn in nature. We had a home-school group out here yesterday, and they had a great time.”
With a little research, a visitor might learn that the area provides critical habitat for many aquatic creatures. One might discover that clean, moving water is necessary for mussels to thrive, and that the existence of several species of mussels in the Big Canoe Creek watershed is a testament to its cleanliness. One might further note that 18 miles of Big Canoe Creek has been listed as a “critical habitat” under the Endangered Species Act.
John Liechty and Richard Edwards
After moving to the area in 1999, Morrison began kayaking the creek and learned about the environmental importance of Big Canoe Creek. He helped to form the group “The Friends of Big Canoe Creek,” which at the time was mostly neighbors who loved the creek.
They learned about the critical habitat that is provided by the Big Canoe Creek watershed and about the threatened and endangered species that make their homes there, including the threatened Trispot Darter and the endangered Canoe Creek Clubshell mussel, found only in the Big Canoe Creek watershed.
The 50-plus-mile-long Big Canoe Creek, runs through the nature preserve and is touted as the “Alabama’s crown jewel in biodiversity.” More than 50 fish species can be found in Big Canoe Creek.
In 2010, and again in 2018, this exemplary biological diversity was explored and documented during what scientists call a “BioBlitz,” a 24-hour-long period where experts from various environmental fields survey and catalog all forms of life found in the specified area. Finding such biodiversity and both threatened and endangered species is what helped in the efforts, spearheaded by The Friends of Big Canoe Creek, to preserve and protect the land for future generations.
Had Morrison and The Friends of Big Canoe Creek not stepped in as advocates, the area might look very different today. When they learned of a developer’s plans to build a subdivision on the property, the The Friends of Big Canoe Creek petitioned the developers to make changes to ensure the creek would be protected.
When the economy took a downturn in 2008, the planned development stalled and gave members of The Friends of Big Canoe Creek a chance to talk to the landowners about nominating the land for purchase by the Forever Wild Land Trust.
Established in 1992, Alabama’s Forever Wild Land Trust purchases lands to expand the number of public-use natural areas to ensure they will be available to use freely forever. It took nine years to get the initial 382-acre parcel and another 40 adjacent acres approved for purchase, but by 2019, the combined tract officially became Forever Wild property.
“In conjunction with the Economic Development Council of St. Clair County, Freshwater Land Trust nominated Big Canoe Creek to be acquired by the Forever Wild Land Trust,” said Liz Sims, Land Conservation Director of Freshwater Land Trust. “We are elated to see such a large portion of the Canoe Creek watershed and its biodiversity protected, including the threatened trispot darter fish habitat.”
Horse trails are a highlight
Since that time, Morrison, along with the The Friends of Big Canoe Creek, has worked with the City of Springville, the St. Clair County Economic Development Council and the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to develop plans for the property.
In 2022, Morrison was hired by the City of Springville to officially manage the project. After 15 years of work to protect and preserve the land and creek, Morrison is finally seeing the joy it is bringing to visitors. He is seeing crowds of at least a hundred on weekdays, with weekends and holidays swelling to nearly twice that number.
Vicki and Kevin Folse heard about the preserve on Facebook and came out to hike. “It is absolutely beautiful,” says Vicki. “We took some time to sit on a bench on the trail and had some quiet time with God.” She thanked Morrison and all those who worked on the project for the opportunity to enjoy the property.
Jeff Goodwin lives just four miles from the preserve. “I come a couple times a week,” he says. “I’m a big hiker, so having this land to hike on this close is a huge benefit. And it’s way more interesting than walking through the neighborhood. I’m hoping they add some longer trails.”
While the trails are not the longest they’ve ever hiked, Richard Edwards and John Liechty agree they are well planned. Edwards, who grew up just minutes from a section of the Appalachian Trail, has spent countless hours hiking trails around the country. His longest hike was 160 miles on the John Muir Trail in California.
Six years ago his sight began to deteriorate due to a condition called nonarteritic anterior ischemic optical neuropathy. “I’m almost blind,” explains Edwards, “so rocks and roots are hard on me. These trails are really a dream.”
Even so, Liechty walks in front of his friend to alert him to any potential hazards. “We’ve kind of had a role reversal,” laughs Liechty. “He led me to hiking, but now I’m leading the hikes.” They agree that time spent together enjoying nature is good therapy.
Good therapy in the form of outdoor recreation can be enjoyed at Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve Wednesday through Sunday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. now through October, with closing time shifting to 5 p.m. from November to February. Admission is free.
If you go in the afternoon, take a good look at the metal fish on the left side of the entry gate. The color of the Trispot Darter changes as you move to the left and right. It’s just another thing that’s unique to this beautiful piece of paradise. And it’s forever protected, forever yours to enjoy.
Editor’s note: Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve is located at 1700 Murphree’s Valley Road in Springville. If you would like to help support the preserve, you can make a tax-deductible donation online at bigcanoecreekpreserve.org.
Story by Carol Pappas Photos by David Smith Discover Archives photos
It’s called a tipping point – that moment when an idea catches a spark and spreads – much like the momentum of a wildfire.
It is exactly that point where St. Clair County found itself 25 years ago with nothing more than an idea of how economic development could work for the future. This was the crossroads question: Do it the way it’s always been done or venture outside the box and bring an entire county together toward a common goal?
At Saks signing, from left, seated: Steele Mayor Alfred Lackey; Chairman Stan Batemon; Walter Scott, Saks Inc. Standing, Wendy Cornett, Saks attorney; Charles Robinson, Steele attorney; Pat Coffee, Steele clerk; Kenny Coleman, Metropolitan Development Board; John Wilcox, Steele IDB chairman; Warren Matthews, Saks attorney; Bill Weathington, county attorney; Lyman Lovejoy, owner; Ed Gardner Sr., EDC director; Tommy Bowers, EDC chairman; Elwyn Thomas, owner.
Lucky for St. Clair County, officials chose the latter, it took hold, and it’s been spreading like wildfire ever since.
You might say it was luck when the St. Clair Economic Development Council was created, but those who were there at those historic crossroads know differently. Those groundbreakings and ribbon cuttings that have become virtually a weekly routine around these parts today did not happen by accident.
Like laying a foundation brick by brick, a group of visionaries carefully transformed an idea into what St. Clair Countians may take for granted these days. But it was all part of a strategically laid plan.
For years, Pell City Realtor Ed Ash assumed responsibility for economic development and by all accounts is owed a debt of gratitude. Many of the early industries were recruited and the projects landed because of Ash’s efforts.
In about 1998, he decided to retire from industry recruiting, and officials faced a decision. What do we do next?
“We figured we needed a full-time recruiter,” said Bob Barnett, who serves as chairman of the Pell City Industrial Development Board, a post he still holds. But they wanted to take it a step further – make that several steps – and develop it as a countywide effort. “It was an idea that just started taking wings. Everyone saw the need.”
Barnett and then commission chairman, the late Roy Banks, are credited with giving the idea those wings early on.
They enlisted the counsel of Circuit Judge Bill Weathington, who was county attorney and Moody city attorney at the time, and he skillfully set up the framework of what would become the EDC. Municipalities came on board, and the idea was in motion.
“One thing we realized was in order to get economic projects, we needed to incentivize differently to compete with surrounding counties and larger municipalities,” Weathington said. “We determined that together, we could compete.”
“Together” is a recurring theme throughout this 25-year success story. Up to that time, municipalities operated from their own silos, sometimes competing with each other.
Former Gov. Don Siegelman and EDC Executive Director Ed Gardner Sr. with Yachiyo executives at groundbreaking
The new concept meant they could compete effectively with others outside the county rather than battling among themselves. What was good for one was good for all.
“We could do things we could not do individually, and if we helped each other, we could help the county have a better chance of landing some of these things,” Weathington said.
With over 8,000 new jobs and $1.7 billion in new investments to its credit since that time, Weathington concluded, “it turned out pretty well for us.”
Banks was a driving force early in the planning, urging Weathington to structure it so that it would be “fair for everybody,” he said. As history would have it, Banks was defeated that year for the chairmanship by Stan Batemon.
But Batemon, recognizing the importance of the effort, not only kept it going in his administration, he and the commission appointed Banks as a member of the first EDC Board of Directors. The structure of the board was critical to the ‘together’ plan. Representation on the five-member board was spread around the county, and no elected official was allowed to serve, a move aimed at keeping politics out of the process.
The charter board was Tommy Bowers, Pell City, chairman; Terry Stewart, Ashville; Joe Kelly, Moody; Lyman Lovejoy, Odenville; and Banks, Pell City. The county commission gave the first $100,000 to fund it, and each municipality invested based on a percentage of their population.
The structure of the board has remained the same. “It still functions like it was set up,” Weathington said. “It speaks well” that the boards, mayors, council and county worked together across administrations to ensure the continuity of mission. “You don’t find that everywhere,” he said.
Weathington noted that Barnett was involved in bringing the idea to the table and played an instrumental role in “making this happen.” Banks, he said, guided the process. And Batemon was the “salesman, made us look good and sold a lot of people on St. Clair County.”
Sibling rivalry thwarted
The biggest fear at the beginning was that the first major project would go to Pell City rather than another municipality and endanger the concept of working together. But it went to the tiny town of Steele in the northern tip of St. Clair County, which landed a Saks Fifth Avenue distribution center.
In fact, the second project went to Steele, too – Yachiyo, an automotive supplier.
Former Pell City Mayor Guin Robinson followed the late Mayor Mack Abercrombie into office in the early goings of the EDC. Recognizing that locating the first industry outside Pell City would actually help the overall, long-term success, he recalled telling former Executive Director Ed Gardner Sr. that it would not hurt his feelings if the first project landed elsewhere.
When the second project went to Steele, he told Gardner in jest, “Hey, Ed, I didn’t mean they all had to be outside Pell City.”
Robinson’s tenure eventually saw plenty of growth. The expansive Walmart development, Jefferson State Community College and a host of other industrial, commercial and institutional projects dotted the landscape.
Chairman Batemon at the podium
Now Dean of Economic Development at Jefferson State Community College, Robinson has a rare vantage point as councilman, mayor and college official. The EDC is headquartered on the third floor of Jefferson State. “At that time, the community recognized the importance of the future of the EDC, and Jeff State recognized that as well.”
During the late Jefferson State President Judy Merritt’s term, the college expressed its desire to locate EDC there if space was available. “Judy Merritt and her team, which included current President Keith Brown, embraced the idea. Making that decision before the building was even built says a lot about the importance of EDC and its future.”
Robinson referred to the college’s mission of economic development and workforce development as a “natural fit” with EDC’s own mission and what would become a solid partnership.
Other areas of the county found natural fits, too, because of the strong foundation EDC was building. Moody saw Red Diamond, a global coffee and tea manufacturer pull up its 100 year-old roots in Jefferson County and head to St. Clair County, building a stunning facility there and making sizable initial and subsequent investments in expansions and generating significant job growth.
In its 25 years, every area of the county has benefited from new or expanding industry investment as well as commercial ventures, a testament to their working together philosophy.
First hire
The EDC Board’s first decision set the course. Maybe the stars were aligned just right, as they say, or more probably, it was the vision shared by those who made it happen.
Ed Gardner Sr. was serving as head of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs in Gov. Fob James’ administration and was leaving office. He previously served as assistant secretary of Housing and Urban Development in Washington D.C.
His contacts and relationships in business and government circles were legendary. “If we could get him,” Lovejoy recalled, it would make all the difference. They hired him, and it did make all the difference.
When Gardner was honored by EDC in 2018 with its Chairman’s Award, Robinson remarked, “You can have all the necessary things for success, but it takes a leader. And it takes someone who can put all the ingredients together. You can call him an architect. You can call him a builder, but Ed put it together. … We all knew we had those things, but we needed someone to put it together. I’m forever thankful and forever grateful that that person was Ed Gardner.”
“Boy, did we hit a homerun,” Lovejoy said. Gardner had a working relationship with Metropolitan Development Board in Birmingham. He knew people to contact, not just in the state but around the country. He made the wheels turn. We were at a running gallop right off.”
Directors lineage
That gallop never seemed to let up. When Gardner retired, the board hired his son, Ed Gardner Jr., who was deputy director for economic development for the City of Auburn. At the time, Auburn was viewed by many as the pinnacle of economic development in the state.
He stepped into the role, and more successes followed. The first German industry – Eissmann Automotive put its first North American plant in Pell City. That led to VST Keller Oerlikon. Gardner, Jason Goodgame of Goodgame Company and Batemon traveled to Germany to help swing the deal. That led to WKW locating in Pell City as well. Today, Eissmann and WKW are St. Clair County’s largest employers.
Before he left, the wheels were in motion for the other two components of a trifecta for institutional growth in Pell City – Ascension St. Vincent’s St. Clair and Col. Robert L. Howard Veterans Home joined Jefferson State Community College – on the sprawling site fronting Interstate 20.
Gardner would oversee tremendous growth in the county over his five-and-a-half-year tenure.
During those years, he guided a fundraising campaign that saw the EDC budget grow from $200,000 a year to $2.5 million over five years. He hired an assistant director, Don Smith, and a retail specialist, Candice Hill, so that EDC could focus fully on all facets of economic development.
Smith was a former colleague from Auburn. When Gardner left the City of Auburn, he said he told Smith, “Hang out here and learn a little bit, and I’ll come back and get you.”
Fortunately for him and St. Clair County, he did. Smith became assistant director for the EDC and later executive director. Gardner Jr. left in 2010 for the Birmingham Business Alliance and later Power South, and Smith ascended to the role he has held ever since.
“It was the best decision of my career,” Smith said. At EDC, he worked as assistant with Gardner Jr. for one and a half years and then served as interim director for six months before being named executive director.
Groundbreakings for the hospital and the veterans home came at the beginning of his taking the helm. Scores of industrial and commercial developments have followed, and they show no signs of slowing.
His innovative and strategic thinking have given birth to new initiatives – Tourism, led by Coordinator Blair Goodgame, and Leadership St. Clair County and a newly created Grant Resource Center, led by Candice Hill, director of Grants and Leadership. He named Jason Roberts director of Industry and Workforce Development.
“Don is forward thinking,” said former EDC Chairman Tommy Bowers. “He has a great team.”
Looking to the future from the lofty position of $233 million in new annual wages announced to date, Smith and his team are poised to announce 1,200 new jobs and $350 million in new investment over the next five years. It is a target they are already on track to exceed.
Lovejoy’s assessment was right. EDC hit a home run indeed.
New Springville barn uses horses to heal peoples’ bodies and souls
Story by Joe Whitten Photos by Mackenzie Free and submitted Photos
“There’s something about the outside of a horse that’s good for the inside of a man.”
While that quote has been wrongly attributed to several famous people, including Winston Churchill and Ronald Reagan, research indicates it probably dates back centuries before they were born.
Nevertheless, the sentiment expresses in a nutshell what Nicole Whitehead Tucker has in mind for Canoe Creek Stables in Springville.
“Canoe Creek Stables is home to Light Of The World Adaptive Horsemanship, a faith-based nonprofit with the mission of helping others heal and grow while enjoying one of God’s greatest gifts, horses,” she says, quoting her mission statement. “We use adaptive horsemanship to provide both physical and emotional benefits to those in need.”
Jake and Nicole Tucker
Adaptive Horsemanship is recreational horseback riding and horsemanship lessons adapted for each individual’s needs, goals and abilities. It utilizes mounted and unmounted activities to provide both physical and emotional benefits.
Potential students include autistic children, children suffering from emotional and physical trauma, those with crippling diseases such as cystic fibrosis and veterans suffering from PTSD. Nicole wants to use horses to help these folks and more. That’s why she is working on her certification from CECTH, the Council for Education and Certification in Therapeutic Horsemanship.
Nicole has had horses all of her life. But her dream to use them to help others mentally and physically began when she was a teenager.“My younger brother, Kyle, was born with cystic fibrosis,” she says. “I watched him grow up battling this disease. He inspired me because he never gave up. He died in May of 2019, when he was 29, but he never lost his spirit. I owe a lot of my personal and spiritual growth to him.”
Her husband, Jake, also comes from a horsey family. He lost his brother the year before Nicole lost hers, and it helped Jake develop the same passion she has. “I also want to take horses to places like Children’s Hospital, church events and nursing homes,” Jake says.
“My brother and I talked about doing this for about a month before Kyle passed away,” Nicole says. “I told him about my dream, too, and he said, ‘That’s awesome, Sis.’”
The Tuckers broke ground on a 100 x 100-foot barn on April 1, 2023, after Jake had sketched the design. They contracted to have the outer shell erected, and they finished the inside themselves. “What a journey,” she says. “Jake even built the wooden fence, and he has never done that before. He has no training in carpentry. He was a fuel truck driver for McPherson Oil for 10 years, and now he’s maintenance man at the new Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve, which is next door to our property.”
Ella and her horse Shady
One side of the barn measures 30 x 100 feet and has 15 stalls. The arena is 50 x 80 feet and covered with sand, while the other side is 20 x 100 feet and has space for seven more stalls. Ten skylights and a chandelier in the center of the arena light up the premises. “I ordered the chandelier via Amazon, and Jake built a crank system so we can lower and raise it,” Nicole says. When he asked her why she needed a chandelier in the middle of a riding arena, she replied, “For barn dances and fundraisers.”
The structure is bathed in Scripture, literally. Several posts and internal walls are covered in Bible verses because Jake and Nicole invited people to write their favorites on them. Some wrote the Scripture reference, while others scribbled entire verses.
“If you take out the wall panels of the social room, for example, you’ll find the internal walls covered with verses,” Nicole says. “Friends, family members, even the Alabama Power crew and concrete contractor wrote them on studs, posts and the plywood under the paneling there.”
To handle the $250,000 price tag of the barn, the couple dipped into their savings account and took out a loan that comes with $1,400-a-month payments.
Lessons are one hour long, and include riding, grooming, lunging, tacking up, learning the parts of a saddle and building a relationship with the horse. They cost $65 per hour. However, low-income persons can be sponsored through donations and fundraising.
“This barn has been a Band-aid for me,” says Nicole. “In the past few weeks, I’ve had conversations with families about what they are going through, including a couple of people who were autistic, and a couple with sensory disorders. They found me via Facebook.”
She started a Facebook page in October, before the barn was even finished. As of Feb. 29, she had 5,500 followers, but her goal is 10,000. “Imagine if 5,500 people said a prayer for our program,” she says.
The barn houses nine horses and three ponies, with five of those used for equine assisted activities. The others are personal ones. Two activity horses include a white horse and a pony from a woman in Mississippi who learned about Nicole’s mission via mutual friends on Facebook and contacted her. “She drove them over the next day, along with some hay and feed,” Nicole says. “That’s a four-hour trip one way.”
Other donations have included two Haflingers, a brother and sister named Candy and Cane. “These are our two main buggy horses, but we use them in our adaptive horsemanship program, too,” Nicole says. “They were given to the program by the family of my great-uncle in Tennessee, who died in the summer of 2022. We got them that November.”
Open house was a great time to meet the animals
A more recent equine donation was the return of her “heart horse,” which she had sold when her brother was ill. “As my brother got worse, I started riding less, because I was just too emotional to enjoy it,” she explains. “So, I sold Handsome to a sweet lady in Georgia. I stayed in touch with his new mom for five years, and she’d update me on him from time to time. Then in February she gave him back to me because she wanted him to be part of something special. I still can’t believe it!”
Handsome is a 16-year-old Tennessee Walker with a lot of personality. “We used to compete in local horse shows in Western and English gaited classes,” Nicole says. “I feel like I got a HUGE piece of my heart back. My brother would be so happy!”
Other in-kind donations include the bathroom, three carriages and the sound system for the barn. The donation of the three carriages came as the indirect result of fulfilling another lifelong dream, that of becoming an airline pilot.
“I had wanted to be a pilot since I was 6-years-old,” says Nicole, who is 43. “My grandmother lived near the Birmingham airport, and I grew up lying in her yard and watching the planes go over. I’m stubborn, and I had no back-up plan.”
She got her pilot’s license at 19, started her aviation career as a flight instructor, then did corporate flying to get jet experience. Later, she was a commercial pilot for ExpressJet, a regional airline, for five years. She quit to start a family. “I’ve gone back to corporate aviation so I can control my schedule,” she says.
During the Springville Christmas Parade of 2022, she saw people like the homecoming queen riding in cars, and joked to her husband about how great it would be to have a carriage so she could auction a seat in it and donate the proceeds to a charity. The next day while she was co-piloting a corporate client to a meeting in Texas, he came into the cockpit and struck up a conversation.
“I showed him pictures of our horses and told him about my dream, and when we landed back in Birmingham later that day, he asked if he could talk to me. He said he had three carriages he wanted to donate, and he did. He paid for the delivery of the first one, and we picked up the other two.”
And that’s why an additional side of the barn was added to the original plans. The carriages include a Purple Princess that has hydraulic brakes and battery-operated lights, an Amish buggy and a covered wagon.
Other animals besides horses are being added to the mix. “We were given a five-day-old lamb whose mother rejected her, and we are working on adding more little critters to the barn, including a mini cow,” she says.
“We will also be taking over the petting zoo at Homestead Hollow this year. I’ll be working the May events with Anne Sargent, who has run it for 10 years. She’s going to show me the ropes, and then I’ll take over for future Homestead Hollow weekends. The petting zoo will be a big part of our barn, as it will bring lots of smiles to children. I’m so excited!”
And what about those “dream crushers,” the people who said she and Jake can’t do it, it won’t happen, they need deep pockets to make this dream come true? Nicole says phooey! “Think of what would not be accomplished except through deep faith.”
The sign above the coffee pot reads, “Even the darkest night will end, and the sun will rise.” That quote by author and playwright Victor Hugo is as much a part of the blueprint of Ashville’s newest business as is the smell of coffee that wafts through the cozy space. The story belongs to Holli Smith and Heather Warren, the sisters who own Lala’s. It’s a story of family, of love and loss, but it doesn’t end there.
The sign outside the building reads “Lala’s,” and a hot cup of coffee is just the beginning of their offerings. This place, located in the Ashville Historic District on the city’s courthouse square, is a bookstore with a bar where one can order hot and cold beverages, including various beers and wines. They also offer hot food options, with their stone-hearth oven pizza being a crowd favorite.
They just opened in December, but the owners’ plans include trivia nights, wine and beer tastings and live music. Heather and Holli’s grandmother’s piano sits against the wall just waiting to be played. The promise of a song is echoed by a nearby guitar.
The music stopped for the Smith and Warren families just over five years ago when Warren’s 19-year-old daughter, Haleigh, died from a pulmonary embolism. Haleigh’s nickname was Lala, a name given to her by her cousin, Smith’s son, Zander. “She loved reading, trivia, music and food, all the things we’ve decided to do here,” says Smith. “That quote over the bar is symbolic of our journey, coming out of that darkness.”
The bar itself is the handiwork of Smith’s husband, Merrell. It is crafted from red oak plywood and whiskey barrels. Tin tiles from the building’s former ceiling add character to the bar’s front wall.
More of the building’s history is evident throughout the business. The restroom door, a remnant from the days the space was used during the 2014 renovation of the courthouse across the street, reads, “Office of the Tax Collector.”
A large group table in the back is a refinished glass cutting table from the time when the space was used as storage for the adjacent Teague Mercantile business.
“During the renovation, we kept as much of the original structure as we could,” adds Smith. It was important to them to preserve the historical integrity of the building as much as possible. Smith’s son, Zander, is currently researching the building’s history for his fourth-grade history fair project.
The sisters both graduated from Ashville High School and now teach at that same school. Holli teaches Honors and AP English, while Heather teaches Honors and AP Science. Their love of travel is evidenced in the décor, maps, and pictures of many different countries hanging on the walls of Lala’s. “We’ve always talked about doing something like this,” says Smith. “We’d be traveling and visit a place like this and talk about how we could have our own coffee shop and bookstore.”
Their biggest blessing so far, the sisters say, has been the support of community. “We have been overwhelmed by the support of business neighbors and city leaders as well,” says Smith. “The soft openings were crazy! We weren’t prepared for the number of people who came out to support us.”
Reawakening ‘the square’
Just across the street, business neighbors Chad and Esther Smith agree that the community has been amazingly supportive of their clothing and gift store. They’ve just celebrated their first anniversary of business for Farm Wife and Company. Their hope is that more businesses will join them and create more foot traffic in the downtown square.
Chad calls it a “wild dream,” that plan that he and his wife, Esther, began to talk about a few short years ago. The couple, steeped in the farming community in St. Clair County, had talked about one day opening a small retail shop of some sort in Ashville.
Ice cream at Farm Wife & Co.
They were already woven into the community as owners, with his brother and sister of nearby Smith Tomato LLC. The tomato farm, located in Steele, has a retail side where customers can visit the farm to purchase fresh produce and farm-branded products.
The two were busy helping to run the farm and the retail side of that business, but Esther and Chad Smith kept dreaming of opening their own retail shop. “Chad said I have that special touch for fashion and design,” says Esther. “We wanted to open a shop, but we didn’t want it to be a boutique. We wanted to be able to offer something for all ages.”
Their 1,800-square-foot storefront, Farm Wife and Company, is in court square in the heart of Ashville and is packed with a variety of unique giftware for all occasions and clothing for all ages. From wedding and baby gifts to special small-batch lotions made in Mooresville, Alabama, the inventory is unique and tasteful. There is even a men’s clothing and giftware section specifically designed by Chad.
He and Esther bought the old storefront before Thanksgiving in 2021 and began renovating it themselves, while also working on the farm. It was a labor of love that spanned a full year, before the store opened in December of 2022, just a month after Ashville’s bicentennial celebration.
The farm motif is interwoven throughout the store, from the farmer-specific quote behind the checkout desk to the barn façade that leads into the ice cream shop in the back of the store. “We see couples or people with kids come in and one person shops and the other comes to the back and sits down for ice cream or a cup of coffee,” says Chad.
The name Farm Wife and Company tells the story of their lives. Even her license plate says, “farm wife.” “We’ve always been in farming,” explains Esther. “We met on the farmland we now live on. My mother and both of my grandmothers were farmer’s wives, and Chad’s mother, too.
“We could have gone to a larger city, but we didn’t want to,” adds Esther. “Ashville needed it, and we wanted to open our store here.” They’ve just celebrated their first anniversary as a business. After initially intending to rent the space, they had the opportunity to buy it and jumped on it. “I think it was just God’s plan for us,” Esther says. “Everything just kind of fell into place. We had wanted to be on the square because it’s so visible and because the courthouse is so beautiful!”
Ashville Mayor Derrick Mostella is grateful for this small business and others who have brought the downtown area back to life.
“It’s those family businesses, like Farm Wife and Company, Lala’s, GNX and Little Art Tree, that represent us so well,” says Mostella. “They are the ones that set the tone for shopping local and keeping people invested in our town.”
Meanwhile, the city is doing its part, working on several projects to improve sidewalks, adding to the functionality of the downtown area. “We’ve got several projects in the works,” says Mostella. “We’re really sprucing up our park and recreation department and would love to be able to build a recreation center. We’re also looking at developing our land out near the interstate.”
Mostella campaigned prior to his election in 2016 on a promise to promote a downtown renaissance. “Business in downtown had gotten pretty bleak for a while,” he admits. “We always had those anchor businesses like Kell Realty, Charlie Robinson Law Offices, Sew Nice and Teague Mercantile. Then Dr. Labbe with Ashville Dental Center renovated the old pharmacy and relocated his business to the downtown. He was the first to realize the value of these old buildings.” Others soon followed.
GNX Gun Exchange opened in September of 2021 in an old bank building on the square. “It’s not your typical gun shop,” says co-owner Misty Thomas. “Since it was an old bank, we still have the vaults.” When she and her husband, Shane, went looking for a place to open their store, the bank building became available.
GNX Gun Exchange
“We love being downtown,” adds Thomas. “It’s not a huge town, but they’re amazingly supportive. Events downtown are great. We always have a great turnout.” Events are held in the square for July 4th, Halloween, and Christmas, which promote foot traffic around the square, which encourages shopping at local merchants.
For Esther at Farm Wife and Company, being in the heart of downtown is part of the dream. She hopes that the growth of her store and others will help to make Ashville a place where people will want to come to spend time. “That would also allow us to do more and give back to the community,” she says. “We want to continue to serve others.”
Keeping the family atmosphere of a small town while promoting business development is a tricky balance for city leaders. Mayor Mostella says Ashville is handling that growth by simply remembering who they are.
“We are looking for growth, not for the sake of growth, but for growth that works with who we want to be,” he says. “We want to be able to offer different amenities, while still not outgrowing our small-town feel. It’s a balance.”
