Category: St. Clair Business

Kerry Joe is the man to see

Story by Sam Jackson
Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.

The first frost ushers in autumn, and the initial bloom means spring has arrived. But Pell City has a different kind of seasonal litmus test for summer: the opening of Kerry Joe Foster’s produce stand.

Pell City Produce, located a stone’s throw away from the Pell City Civic Center and Logan Martin Lake on Stemley Bridge Road, opened for the summer on April 1 this year. It will remain open until the end of September, with May through August typically acting as his busiest months. As spring turns to summer and into fall, he sells fruits, vegetables, Amish cheeses, local honeys and much more from his tent. If a food is grown in season, you can find it at Foster’s stand.

He hasn’t always been in the fruit-and-vegetable business, though. Foster previously worked with a construction company he opened with his father, but after suffering a heart attack, Foster was forced to step away from a 31-year construction career. In 2008, his outdoor produce stand opened its doors — figuratively, of course — for the first time. Since then, it’s become somewhat of a Pell City institution.

He doesn’t grow the products he sells, rather, he acts as a kind of farmer’s market conglomerate, buying fresh produce from close-to-home markets throughout Pell City, Vincent and Birmingham to sell under one roof at his stand in Pell City.

The array of growers he purchases from gives him a varied spread of 15 to 20 different kinds of products to offer on a given day.

These trips to purchase fresh goods aren’t monthly or weekly for Foster — they’re daily. His stand is open Wednesday through Saturday at 10 a.m., so Foster wakes up at 4:15 a.m. each of those days to make his rounds from market to market before arriving back at his tent. He usually drives about 100 miles each day when collecting products to sell, but the more miles he drives, the fewer miles his stand’s visitors have to log.

“(Customers) appreciate me being here,” Foster said. “They’d rather buy like this. You can hop out and get right back into the car. They like the openness of it.”

And how the customers do like it. A typical day at the stand sees more than 100 shoppers, many of who are repeat customers. Watching Foster in action, it’s easy to see why so many come back time after time. He jauntily smiles, chats and laughs with people and turns even the most routine transaction into a friendly interaction.

Jean Phillips, a weekly stand patron, sees his helpful demeanor and constant presence as an important part of his stand’s success.

“He’s always friendly and very helpful,” Phillips said. “He’ll even help you to your car with vegetables. I don’t think I’ve ever been by when he wasn’t there.”

It’s not uncommon to see customers purchase items in bulk, especially tomatoes, which Foster says are the most popular seller and his personal favorite product. Many people come from out of town to purchase them.

“A lot of people say, ‘We’ve heard your tomatoes are the best,’” Foster said. “That really means a lot to me.”

The stand’s notability draws customers from Pell City and the surrounding area, and Foster wouldn’t have it any other way. His favorite part of the job is meeting people from all walks of life, especially those who may come from farther away.

“I’ve had a lot of people from different states who are visiting — Oklahoma, California, Michigan,” Foster said. “They hear about (the stand) and have to come by to see what I’ve got. That’s always fun for me.”

Foster also loves that his job gives him the chance to remain outside and has always considered himself an “outdoors guy.”

Although his stand is only open from Wednesday to Saturday, Foster doesn’t take a three-day weekend. On Mondays and Tuesdays, he usually sells tomatoes to restaurants like nearby Good Ole Boys and The Shack and delivers unsold, though still edible, products to widows from his church. He says there is nothing wrong with these donated items, but he would rather give them away than let them go to waste.

This all may sound like a busy week for Foster to handle by himself, and that’s not far from the truth. Luckily, he has some help with the stand. Although Foster makes all product-purchasing runs on his own, Frank Boyanton, known as “Mr. B,” and Foster’s wife, Tanya, assist with some of the stand’s day-to-day operations. Mr. B is especially helpful, volunteering at the stand every Wednesday through Saturday.

In addition to his wife’s help, the stand’s family affair continues with his mother-in-law, Frankie Underwood, who makes a variety of fried pies to contribute to the stand’s product supply.

If you’re wondering how Foster maintains the will power to be around succulent fruits, vegetables and pies all day without being tempted to snag a bite or two, worry not. To prevent selling subpar products, he samples every item he displays.

This commitment to excellence comes across in the products he sells, Phillips said.

“I stop by because he has really nice vegetables,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever gotten any that were not fresh and good.”

The fruits and vegetables on sale are impeccable. Banners advertising “fresh produce” are draped near a picturesque spread of colorful southern garden favorites.

The stand’s location is in the heart of Pell City. Yet it’s Foster’s charm and friendliness that make his stand the destination point for return customers.

The next time you see his truck drive past, overflowing after a morning farmer’s market run, you’ll know he’s bringing good food and Southern hospitality to what has become an iconic institution.

Vintage Touch Making
Furniture Into Art

Story by Graham Hadley
Photos by Mike Callahan
and Jamie Parker

Where you see junk, they see a table, a chair, a bench, a lamp, even a work of art.

Jamie Parker and her fiancé, Travis Reed, run Vintage Touch in Pell City’s historic downtown area — a store that carries home furnishings and décor items that are truly unique.

And by “unique,” they really do mean absolutely one-of-a-kind.

“My fiancé and I create repurposed furniture. We just sold a sofa or entry table that was made out of an old porch column and part of a gate. We built around that, added some wood, made it look like old barn wood — look old and new at the same time,” Jamie said.

“We are a store of all things. You never know what you are going to find in here.”

Vintage Touch opened Dec. 21, 2014, in the building that once housed Pell City Grocery “years and years” ago.

And since then, business has been growing steadily as more people are rediscovering Pell City’s historic downtown district as a walking and shopping area.

The couple had run booths in other places around Birmingham, but picked Pell City for their first store.

“We decided to open here because we live here, and I love this downtown area,” Jamie said.

“We have truly been blessed. We were a little worried, coming from places like Vestavia to a little town, but sales have been increasing every month. Pell City has really showed us a lot of love. People are so friendly.

“Our customers want to see downtown make it; they want to see downtown rise back up, and I want to see that, too.”

That walking-and-shopping atmosphere is proving to be almost a perfect combination for the kind of business Vintage Touch does. Much of what is sold in the store is made in the store, and customers can see the process of turning junk into treasures firsthand.

“They see that we are in here doing the work. When people see you putting your time into something, it makes it that much more special to them,” she said.

It’s a process Jamie and Travis love — all of it — from “picking” items from old barns and yards, combing flea markets and similar venues, even finding discarded furniture set by the street, to rebuilding it into something new.

Their designs cover the spread. They have an old tractor steering wheel made into a lamp hanging in the window and have made a bench they created from an old truck tailgate that was sold for more than they paid for the truck. It now sits in an office entrance at a firm in Birmingham.

“We can look at something that someone else thinks is trash and turn it into something that is so beautiful, so unique, that people just fall in love with it,” Jamie said.

“It’s something my fiancé and I can do together, he has a full time job, and this is a lot of hard work, but it is fun.”

Travis’ full-time job is as a farrier — a horseshoer — and a blacksmith (“He’s really good at it,” Jamie interjected), and along the way, working on farms, he has found all sorts of treasures for the shop, including old watering troughs that get repurposed into things like benches to chairs.

“Those are some of our most popular items. We have people waiting for furniture made from old watering troughs,” Jamie said.

The prices in the shop are as varied as their designs — you can always find something you can afford.

“We strive to be extremely affordable,” Jamie said. “We even sell to other stores to resell for more, and we all make money. We want people to be able to walk in here and see what we have that they want and be able to afford something,” Jamie said.

In addition to selling their artistic furniture, the store sells some accessories Jamie and Travis have found along the way, vintage items like lunch boxes and advertising signs and promotional materials.

The couple will also take on special-order jobs, but say things turn out the best when they still have some room to be creative with their designs.

Vintage Touch does sell merchandise for a few select vendors, but what they sell has to follow the business rules of being unique and special, just like the store.

Follow Vintage Touch on Facebook.

Looking to create ‘Medical Home’

Story by Carol Pappas
Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.

In 2001, Dr. Rock Helms — not too far removed from medical school — founded a practice in his hometown of Pell City. By 2015, it is setting a new standard in health care for the entire region.

Construction crews are putting the finishing touches on Northside Medical Associates’ latest venture, a state-of-the-art imaging suite, and plans by Williams Blackstock Architects for another phase of the burgeoning practice is on the drawing board. It will be a 40,000-square-foot addition that is a joint venture with a diverse group of specialists.

The Northside partnership of Helms, Dr. Michael Dupre’ and Dr. Bob Whitmore is on the move to make Northside what Helms describes as a “medical home” for the region. The comprehensive services they offer can all be found on the same campus just south of Interstate 20 off U.S. 231.

It’s a new trend that has started in health care around the country, giving patients full access to their primary care, specialty physicians and diagnostic testing all in one place. It is spurred by a push from Medicare that has “naturally been progressing” — a concept that makes practical sense for the practice and patients alike.

Dupre’ is overseeing the imaging-suite project set to open soon. It is hard to conceal the excitement — and the pride — when he talks about it. A wide-bore, open MRI, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, is the centerpiece of it, the only one of its kind in St. Clair County. Before, Northside had to send its patients to larger, metropolitan areas to acquire these kinds of services. Now, it’s just a few steps from their doctor’s office in an 8,000-square-foot addition built by Goodgame Company.

What sets this cutting-edge diagnostic tool apart, Dupre’ explained, is not only its precise imaging capabilities but its openness, quietness and its quickness. No longer must patients endure a lengthy process in cramped and noisy conditions.

Toshiba’s unique technology puts the magnet in a vacuum container that doesn’t allow the transmission of sound. The patient and technician could carry on a conversation there is so little noise, which wasn’t possible with the old technology. “The imaging plane is wider so you don’t even have to have your head inside to get the scan most of the time,” Dupre’ said.

And it’s quicker. Most studies take 15 minutes or less. It has the ability to test 25 patients a day versus the 10 to 12 average with the older technology.

An added benefit, since it is done outside a hospital setting, is that the patient usually has much lower co-pays, similar to a doctor’s visit.

Dupre’ said the partners saw a “huge need” for this phase of their practice, especially in sports medicine, geriatrics and for the veteran population. “We want to keep our patients here. We felt like it fit well with our vision.”

The vision continues with a multi-specialty building planned for construction in the fall of 2015 with completion expected by summer 2016. While specialties are part of the practice already, this will enable specialty physicians to own part of the facility and be housed along with other physicians Northside is recruiting. Additional imaging will be included as well.

The newest phase of Northside’s medical home will include cardiology; ophthalmology; optometry; pulmonary; ear, nose and throat; orthopedic surgery; dermatology; urology and gastroenterology specialists.

Meanwhile, Northside has reached out to other areas to provide medical services in other communities where there is a need. In recent months, Northside clinics have opened in Vincent and Moody with full-time staff. The Moody location offers after care in the evenings and on Saturday as well. Northside’s main location has been offering after care for years, recognizing a need to become more accessible and more flexible in its hours of operation.

In today’s environment, it is “challenging to survive in a smaller practice,” Helms said. Demands on a one or two-doctor practice take their toll, and it gives larger practices an opportunity to look at multiple locations and expand services to areas of need.

A separate company, Northside Services, has been formed to assist other practices with tasks like billing, coding, quality measures and accounting — “all the things it takes to run a practice,” Helms said.

Its outreach has begun to focus on occupational medicine. “Employers are under pressure to keep insurance costs down,” so Northside is working with companies and industries to institute wellness programs and develop on-site clinics where the doctor conducts exams at the company, Helms said.

It is Northside’s way of seeing medical needs throughout the region and filling them, much like its in-house pharmacy, Northside Apothecary, fills prescriptions and even offers free delivery.

As Helms puts it: “We are trying to create, basically, a medical home where you can obtain all your healthcare needs in one place.”

Businesses band together to help feed children

Story by Carol Pappas
Photos by Michael Callahan

“On the count of three. One, two, three!,” beckoned Pell City Superintendent Michael Barber. Sixty young voices — in unison — rang out in an animated reply across the lunchroom of Walter M. Kennedy School.

“THANK YOU!,” they said, putting the perfect exclamation point on a good idea that has caught on across the school system.

The object of their gratitude stood in the front of the room, scarcely able to conceal their smiles. It was a group of business people who saw a need and filled it by filling the lunch plates of a school full of children — for free.

It’s a not-so-random act of kindness that plays out each week in schools throughout the school system. It’s lunch, courtesy of Town & Country Ford, Woods Surfside Marina, Tradesman Co., Robinson Law Firm and Metro Bank.

Doug Bailey, general manager of Town & Country, came up with the idea when he received an email about his own daughter’s lunch account being low. It sparked thoughts about the struggles of parents every day, trying to meet financial obligations that seemingly never end.

In turn, it became the catalyst for what Bailey called a “crazy idea” for his business to feed a school one day. The first month was in October. By November, five other businesses chipped in, and now the goal has become feeding one school one week each month en route to covering every elementary school twice per year.

Of course, if more businesses join the effort, the goal is within reach that much quicker.

“We want to support people who support us,” Bailey said of the program that helps parents with a financial obligation that really does make a difference.

Bailey said he took his inspiration of paying it forward from the late Curtis Capps, a successful businessman who was at the heart of scores of good works throughout the region. Capps had told him Pell City was a “community that takes care of its own.”

By the businesses feeding children in the school system for free, it takes that burden off of the parents. “Our families get a little reprieve at a time when there are so many demands on them financially,” Kennedy School Principal Dr. Leah Stover said. “These are hard-working families who take responsibility for their children. It really is a blessing.”

Charlie Robinson of the Robinson Law Firm couldn’t agree more. “It’s not about us. It’s about the kids and their families and giving back to a community that has been good to us. It hit home to me when I saw that a gallon of milk cost more than a gallon of gas. When parents are both working, they have bills and obligations that come along with family. That’s tough.”

Metro Bank’s vice president, Matthew Pope, talked of the relationship between good nutrition and learning. Children cannot focus when they are hungry.

“This gives them the opportunity to meet their fullest potential,” he said.

“The rewards of giving back have been so well received by the community,“ said Fred Casey of Tradesman. “We have received thank you notes from parents. I am thankful for the opportunity to give back to the community. It has just been a pleasure to us — phenomenal.”

Jerry Woods echoed the sentiment. “It is great to give back to our community,” he said. “These kids’ parents made my business the last nine years.”

“This is one of the most wonderful programs I’ve seen in my 28 years in the school business,” Barber said. “It is encouraging to see the community get behind these kids.” It forms a strong connection between business and schools. “It makes a difference. It’s good all the way around.”

Clean plates all around the lunchroom with smiles from adults and kids to match are a good indicator that Barber’s assessment is exactly right.