Category: St. Clair Business

231 bridge named for visionary developer

Story by Carol Pappas
Photos by Graham Hadley

When you travel over Pell City’s William C. Ellison Bridge on U.S. 231 over Interstate 20 in years to come, no need to wonder who that namesake might be.

It is hard to look around Pell City and not see a connection to Bill Ellison, even if you’ve never met him. The legacy of his work may be in the grocery store you shop, the mega retail center where you buy clothes, gifts and products for your home or business.

Find it in the hotels where family and friends may stay while visiting or watching a movie at the cinema. The connection is there even when you sit down to eat at a restaurant, enter your favorite fast-food drive-through or fill up your vehicle with gas.

Over the past four decades, Ellison has been the visionary who saw needs in his adopted, beloved hometown of Pell City and blazed many a trail to fill them. A developer by trade and serving as president and CEO of I-20 Development, make no mistake, it’s more than a job to him. It’s a passion.

With dozens of developments throughout the city to his credit, generating 40 percent of the City of Pell City’s tax base, the Ellison connection reaches well beyond those brick-and-mortar testaments to his success stories. Consider the beneficiaries of that burgeoning tax base – schools, roads, law enforcement, infrastructure. The sweeping connection to him in all corners of the city is unmistakable.

As city, county and state officials gathered in September to herald the official beginning of yet another development – a 147,500-square-foot shopping and lifestyle center – they seized the opportunity to give Ellison a lasting thank you.

Unveiling a sign that bears his name was the perfect tribute – William C. Ellison Bridge, connecting the Walmart Supercenter development on U.S. 231 North that sparked Pell City’s largest retail growth with Pell City Square, a 19.5-acre development that takes that growth to the next level.

The link that connects them is Ellison, whose dogged determination brought both projects to fruition. The first started with a convenience store, a gas station and a vision. Now, it’s a sprawling retail, hotel, entertainment and restaurant district.

Cross William C. Ellison Bridge, and the property that once housed only a county hospital and acres of woodland will be home to nationally familiar names like T.J. Maxx, Hobby Lobby, Old Navy, Ulta Beauty, PetSmart and Five Below. And there’s more to come along with those.

Ellison is quick to point out that it’s not a one-man show. He often talks of “team” and “we,” deflecting the credit and the spotlight to others.

“Really, it’s we, not me,” he told the gathered crowd. “I’m just a team player.”

Visibly moved by the bridge name unveiling, he added, “Being recognized by my peers, family, and friends today is the highest honor of my 40-year career. This bridge symbolizes how past, current, and future administrations can all work together to create incredible projects for the community.”

Mayor Bill Pruitt described Ellison as a visionary who “sees what Pell City could be,” noting a long list of developments behind which Ellison was the driving force.  “Who is Bill Ellison?” the mayor asked. “He is truly an unstoppable force. He has left an indelible mark on Pell City and St. Clair County.”

Pruitt noted how far the city has come in terms of growth since Ellison’s first development across the interstate. “It’s a short trip from where we were to where we stand now.”

And the William C. Ellison Bridge now connects them both.

Big things happening: Breaking ground on massive retail development

Story by Carol Pappas
Photos by Graham Hadley

When ceremonial shovels hit the ground, sending symbolic dirt flying, it signaled a new level of growth for Pell City and St. Clair County.

It has been a long, tough road, but three years later, Pell City Square, a 147,500-square-foot retail and lifestyle center is now official. Officials broke ground Sept. 8 on the 19.5-acre site fronting I-20. It closed the chapter on another historic groundbreaking – St. Clair Regional Hospital decades ago – and opened a new one on the future of the ninth fastest growing city in the state.

It will include retailers Hobby Lobby, T.J. Maxx, Ross Dress for Less, Old Navy, Five Below, Ulta Beauty, PetSmart, Rack Room Shoes and other retailers not announced yet. They describe it as a multi-use lifestyle center, which includes outparcels for such developments as sit-down restaurants and is the largest retail investment announcement in St. Clair County since Springville Station Shopping Center in 2005.

Not COVID, not complex partnerships, legal red tape nor any other hurdle would stop this partnership of Noon Real Estate, St. Clair County Commission, City of Pell City and the St. Clair County Economic Development Council.

“They never stopped working,” said Don Smith, executive director of St. Clair EDC. “They banded together to keep moving forward.”

“I share Don’s excitement,” added Pell City Manager Brian Muenger. “This day has been coming for so long. The mayor and council were unwavering in pushing this project to completion.”

In 1968, officials were celebrating the laying of the cornerstone of St. Clair County Hospital. The county’s population stood between 26,000 and 28,000. Today, it tops the 95,000 mark. Pell City was a community of 5,000 people. Today, 15,000 call it home.

“We’re growing,” explained Muenger, and needs change. City officials kept hearing from citizens that they wanted “to keep their dollars here. This shopping center is going to do exactly that.

Muenger talked about the impact of a massive shopping center on a city the size of Pell City, benefitting schools and providing funds for infrastructure to better serve its citizens. “This is a great day for the city. It took a lot to get here.”

Located at the corner of Interstate 20 and U.S. 231 South, it will sit on the site of the former hospital. The property came under ownership of the St. Clair County Commission and the City of Pell City in 2011 to enable building Ascension St. Vincent’s St. Clair, a state-of-the-art hospital just across the interstate.

After years of planning and negotiation, officials agreed to highest and best use would be negotiate an agreement with Noon Real Estate, a seasoned development firm with plenty of retail experience. The goal was to bring in name brand retailers to keep shoppers in the county rather than spending those dollars elsewhere.

“The county commission has a history of supporting our communities to create new tax revenues and jobs in St. Clair County,” said Commission Chairman Paul Manning. “We believe this project will allow us to continue to grow St. Clair County’s economy while filling a retail need in the community.”

Muenger agreed. “The construction of the Pell City Square development is transformational for the city and its residents. The addition of these national retailers will provide our citizens with more options to shop locally than ever before.”

“It’s been four years in coming,” said Noon Real Estate President Kevin Jennings. He thanked “the team” that made it happen, but he singled out a key player that provided the spark. “It all started with Bill Ellison,” who met him at a shopping center convention in Las Vegas to pitch the benefits of locating in Pell City. “Here we sit seeing this happen. Come back next fall and bring your credit card.”

Jennings’ partner, Jamey Flegal, said Ellison’s “vision and passion sold us on it,” and he credited another key player with closing the deal – Council President Jud Alverson, who pored over the numbers to ensure the deal not only could happen but would benefit all involved. Calling him “a rock star,” he said the city should be proud to have him in leadership. “It is rare to have leadership understand the numbers.”

Metro Bank is handling the financing for this project, and Smith lauded the bank’s involvement. “They are an incredible asset to this community.”

He also thanked attorneys John Rea of Trussell, Funderburg, Rea, Bell & Furgerson and James Hill of Hill, Gossett, Kemp & Hufford with helping the team over all the legal hurdles en route to the historic groundbreaking.

In another historic move that day, officials unveiled a new sign for the I-20 bridge connecting the northern and southern sides of the interstate as William C. Ellison Bridge.

Mayor Bill Pruitt talked of Pell City’s “great potential” and how “Bill Ellison saw that.” To Ellison’s credit are developments leading to the commercial district anchored by Walmart Supercenter, the South Park Shopping Center anchored by Publix and now, Pell City Square. Those developments generate 40% of Pell City’s tax revenues.

Humbled by the recognition, Ellison said, “I put my heart and soul into my work every day because I love Pell City.”

Tracy Rybka turns old clothes into heirloom quilts

Story by Elaine Hobson Miller
Photos by Richard Rybka

You might call Tracey Rybka a “memory preservationist.” She turns old shirts, used quilts, scruffy housecoats and fabric scraps into quilts that preserve memories of the people who wore or used those original items. She calls them T-shirt and memory quilts. Her customers call them wonderful.

“My dad always wore overalls,” says Vicki Buckner of Springville, a happy Tracey’s Stitches & Designs client. “When he passed away in 2020, I took his overalls to Tracey, and she made miniature overalls for 20 teddy bears. I gave those bears to my nieces and nephews – his grandchildren – for Christmas that year, and they loved them. All of them are in their 20s and 30s, and they say they bring back lots of memories of their grandfather. Tracey did a wonderful job.”

Tracey has been sewing since she was a child. Her first project was a skirt for 4-H Club, and her first quilt was for her own granddaughter. “My mother sewed and quilted, and she has quilts all over the world,” Tracey says. “Almost 10 years ago, my daughter went through some fertility issues. After five years, she and her husband gave up, then she got pregnant. I wanted to do something special to honor my mom and my new granddaughter, so I made a baby quilt. I was hooked.”

Between them, she and her husband, Richard, have five children, seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Tracey has made quilts for all but a couple of those descendants. “I watched YouTube and read quilt magazines,” she says. “I still do. I probably have 50 magazines.” She keeps several projects going at the same time and estimates she has made 50-60 quilts in the past 10 years. “The majority have been memory quilts and T-shirt quilts,” she says.

Her sewing room in her Springville home contains boxes of fleece, rolls and bags of batting, plastic see-through bins of zippers, threads and fabric scraps. Three clothes racks are draped with WIPs (works in progress), including quilts and some finished Christmas stockings. Several fabric animals watch from atop the bins, awaiting their final touches. She makes dogs, bears and bunnies from the same basic pattern, changing the length of their ears for the various species.

Often doing her hand work in a chair draped with the first adult quilt she made, she has a 10-foot long-arm machine nearby for the quilting process. Originally, she quilted on her mother’s long-arm, a 1950 Singer A1 built for use in a sweatshop. “I used it my first four to five years, but it got hard to find parts for it,” she says. “So, I bought another used one.” She in fact has two working long-arms – her mom’s being disassembled and packed away.

She works from home Mondays and Tuesdays from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m., teaches sewing classes for all ages on Wednesdays at Sewing Machine Mart in Springville, then heads to Mentone with Richard, a photographer. They stay through Sundays, working from her shop from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Tracey opened the shop Aug. 1 and teaches classes there on Saturdays. She and Richard hope to buy land and move to Mentone someday. For now, they have a camper on leased land.

“We fell in love with Mentone 20 years ago,” she says. “It has a touristy, creative atmosphere.” Her shop is in a 115-year-old school building, formerly Moon Lake Elementary School, that has been turned into Moon Lake Village. Rooms are rented to artisans such as Tracey. “We have the fourth-grade classroom,” she says.

 In her Springville classes she has taught 9- and 10-year-old Girl Scouts from Trussville, and her eight-year-old granddaughter is getting private lessons at Tracey’s home. “Mine are one-day classes lasting two to five hours each, and the students walk away with a finished project, such as 2-by-2-foot scrappy quilts, pillow cases and zipper bags,” Tracey says. “I usually furnish them a kit with all the materials they’ll need.”

While she orders most of her fabric online because of quality issues, choices, and the ease of getting it – not to mention wholesale pricing – some of her best work has been from scraps. “I save everything,” she says. “I make scrappy-fabric wall hangings from old sheets and pillowcases, stained shirts and torn jeans.”

An example of a “landscape quilt” hangs on a wall of her shop. Another WIP, it is a farm scene with a red truck, ducks, a barn and a house. She cuts wavy strips of fabric for the mountains in the background and the fields in the forefront. “I sold one last year with a swing made of fabric and jute that actually moved,” she says.

She encourages her students to use whatever materials they have on hand. “A quilt backing can be an old sheet, or you can make a quilt reversible with scraps on both sides,” she explains. “Then you just have to buy the batting. Actually, you don’t really need batting if the fabric is thick enough.” Although she pieces her quilts together on a sewing machine, she has no issues with those who prefer to do it by hand. “I’m not the quilting police,” she tells her students.

Dubbing her scrap-method “up-cycling,” she took a king-size quilt with holes and stains, cut all of that out, and made baby quilts, lap quilts, diaper bags and pillows. “That carried on the memories of that quilt,” she says. She has made jackets and vests from old quilts, too. “So, you don’t have enough tees or whatever to make a quilt? Add fabric,” she teaches.

Her T-shirt quilts are made primarily from kids’ tees and sports tees. The memory quilts are made from shirts, gowns and housecoats, overalls, blue jeans, baby clothes and just about any other type of clothing. “I’m working on T-shirt quilt now with a little boy’s leather vest in it,” she says. “The vest is a tiny thing. The boy is now in college, and his mom is having it done as a Christmas gift.”

She also makes cork wallets and purses. “I learned about cork on YouTube,” she says. “Thecork is grown in Portugal, where cork oak trees are stripped, and the best bark is used for wine stoppers. The remainder is graded for other uses.”

According to an online article on cork fabric, the outer section of the tree bark is harvested with axes, not machines, then peeled back to reveal the cork layer. The cork is laid out to dry for six months, then boiled in water, flattened and molded into whatever material it’s going to be. “It’s pressed and then pressed again but with fabric the second time, to make cork fabric,” Tracey explains. Stripping the bark does not hurt the trees, and the bark grows back. It can be harvested every 9 to 12 years, causing no harm to the tree, so it’s eco-friendly.

“You can’t sew with cork on a domestic or household sewing machine, though,” Tracey says. “I use an industrial-grade machine. I buy patterns off YouTube. My bread-and-butter is the T-shirt and memory quilts, but my fun is making purses and wallets.”

Denise Key believes she was one of the first people to hire Tracey to make memory quilts. Her husband’s parents had died, and hers were already passed away. While going through each parent’s belongings, she came across some old quilts made from clothes that were, in turn, made from flour sacks, and quilts made from old children’s dresses. “I had quilts made for our children and grandchildren,” Denise says.

There were some items too worn for Tracey to do anything large with, but she made them into small throws and pillows. “My nieces got a baby bag and all kinds of cool things from them,” Denise says. “Tracey probably made a dozen or so things for each side of my family. She would put a new backing on or whatever was needed to preserve it.”

Rhonda Reece commissioned Tracey to make six lap quilts and several pillows from her dad’s shirts. She gave those to her children and grandchildren, then had a tote made for her Bible, a hobo purse and doggy-doo bags to carry doggy bags when she walks her four-legged friend. “The doggy-doo bags are so cute,” Rhonda says. “She does wonderful work. And she’ll sit down and explain how she’s gonna make it or will custom make it the way you want it.”

It’s these kinds of comments and the emotions evoked by her work that give Tracey so much satisfaction.

“One of the first memory quilts I made was finishing one started by a woman whose dad had passed away,” she says. “It was made from his shirts. Her mom had dementia. The day the woman picked up the quilt, her mom was with her, and didn’t know who she was or where she was. But when her daughter put the quilt in her mom’s lap and asked, ‘Do you know what this is?’ the elderly woman looked at it and said, ‘I think this is your dad’s shirt.’ The daughter and I cried alligator tears.”

Editor’s Note: You can find Tracey’s Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/TBRdesigns.