A passion for healthcare

Complete Health’s Joy St. John has had a lifetime desire to take care of people

Story by Paul South
Photos by Mackenzie Free

As a teen, before Joy St. John and her family moved from the Dallas County community of Tyler to Pell City, the health care bug bit her.

She was a candy striper, one of a small cadre of young women clad in red and white striped uniforms, who dispensed bedside smiles and kindness to the sick and their families.

“That’s what started everything and drew my interest to nursing,” she said. “Seeing (nurses) help people, I thought that was something that I would want to do.”

Joy’s medical assistants Heather Barnett and Angela Wolf are a key part of taking care of people at Complete Healthcare

Fast forward. St. John earned a degree in nursing at UAB and a graduate degree from the Ida B. Moffett School of Nursing at Samford to become a nurse practitioner and worked as a nurse at Children’s Hospital of Alabama in Birmingham.

Now, she’s back home in Pell City, serving as a nurse practitioner at Complete Health.

A nurse practitioner is a registered nurse who is qualified through advanced training to assume some of the duties and responsibilities once reserved only for physicians.

In Alabama, nurse practitioners are required by law to work under the supervision of a physician.

According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, nurse practitioners are one of the fastest growing professions in the United States. It was projected that the number of N.P.s in the country would grow some 45 percent between 2022 and 2032.

Increasing demands on doctors have triggered the growing demand for nurse practitioners, St. John said.

“(Doctors) just don’t have the time to see the amount of people that they have at their practice. (Nurse practitioners) are a great way to get patients in and seen, and we can actually be their primary care doctor if that’s what they wish.”

Complete Health Pell City is part of the Complete Health family of clinics in Alabama, Florida and Virginia. But while the Pell City facility is part of a larger corporate umbrella, it still cares for patients in a hometown way.

St. John works primarily in family medicine. “I’m a primary care physician for a good number of people. I diagnose problems, take care of chronic problems,” she said. “Sometimes people come in with undiagnosed medical problems. And then, we can start being their primary care provider and start doing preventative care.”

Complete Health Pell City also seeks to educate patients and their families about their condition.

As Pell City and St. Clair County have grown, St. John has seen her practice change. Complete Health has become a “one stop shop” for health care. “It’s definitely gotten bigger, with the addition of more doctors and the addition of more nurse practitioners,” St. John said.

“I have been here for 14 years. It’s been a great service to the community because we have CT scan, ultrasound and MRI, our own pharmacy, and we have a lot of specialty doctors that come in so (patients) don’t have to drive to Birmingham or Anniston to get specialty care.”

What sets Complete Health Pell City apart? “We can take care of the whole person,” she said. “We even have an urgent care that’s open seven days a week. Even after hours, they would have access to their records as far as their chronic conditions. We generally get people in pretty quick within one to two days.”

The business of healthcare, specifically navigating the huge health insurance marketplace, is the profession’s biggest challenge, she said.

“You sometimes have to modify a person’s plan of care because of insurance,” St. John said. “Their insurance sometimes won’t cover a certain medication or a certain test they need. It’s sometimes very frustrating to try to diagnose problems and take care of the patient when insurance won’t cover it. So, you have to make other decisions and talk to patients about what’s best for them.”

She added, “There’s no use in me prescribing an expensive medicine when they’re not going to pick it up (because of cost), when we can talk about it and go to another option. The amount of insurance plans out there is challenging for us.”

The presence of Complete Health and other healthcare providers has impacted rural communities in a positive way, giving those once-underserved areas better access to health care.

“Companies are able to put nurse practitioners out in rural areas where they might not be able to place doctors,” St. John said. “That’s very important for them and all the surrounding towns and cities to have access to health care.”

In the South, perhaps the most trusted people in the community are pastors and doctors. St. John has lived in Pell City since the 11th grade. She believes that makes a difference in terms of the doctor-patient relationship. That difference sometimes is seen in tangible ways.

“They send me cards on my birthday, send us Christmas cards, or you know, they know the details about me and our staff’s lives. It makes a difference, and they pay attention. We care about them, too.”

There are other little things that make her clinic seem like an old-time country practice that stretches beyond paying a bill.

“They bring us fruit, cakes, things like that,” St. John said. “Just like the old days. It’s one of the joys of practicing medicine in a small town.”

And, as you might expect, she often encounters her patients at the grocery store or elsewhere out and about.

“They’ll speak to me, or give me a hug,” she said. “It means a lot.”

And sometimes, they want a diagnosis for a malady among the cucumbers and collards in the produce aisle. “Sometimes they do,” St. John said. “But that’s a whole other story.”

St. John has served as a nurse practitioner for 24 years, beginning with a decade at UAB. Before that, the mother of two grown sons and a grandmother of two boys worked for 10 years as a registered nurse and nursing assistant at Children’s.

Like the candy striper experience, something closer to home deepened her commitment to a health care career – her dad, Lee Rhoden, and his last, long battle.

“When I was 26, my father passed,” she said. “He had lung cancer. I was able to offer my services. Just having someone in the family that knows medical terminology after a diagnosis is a blessing. Caring for him was a blessing. It pushed me toward the nurse practitioner part because I just wanted to do more than punch a clock every day. I wanted to really make a difference.”

 The youngest of four girls, St. John recalled one piece of advice her dad gave her, wisdom that sustains her on hardscrabble days.

“He always told us, ‘You get an education and be able to provide for your family. Don’t depend on anyone else.’ He always pushed us to set high goals. That was the beginning for me.”

For St. John across the years, a number of patient encounters affirm that she embarked on the right career journey. Those happen, she said, “all the time. I’ve diagnosed several new diseases or caught things that were missed before,” she said. “We have to take those moments and make them last until the next one. It’s the little things. People really do appreciate you.”

She added, “It’s tough not to bring things home with you. We’re human, too.”

Sometimes, she said, her profession gets unfairly labeled as not caring enough. But she and her colleagues at Complete Health Pell City are deeply committed to their patients, she said.

“This is a hard profession,” St. John said. “If you don’t love it, you aren’t going to make it. And you have to love people when they’re well and when they’re sick, when they’re mad, or they’re depressed. You have to show them empathy and sympathy. You won’t stay in this profession if you don’t love it.

“The Lord has a reason for placing us where we are,” she said. “We may be the one person who needs to tell them it’s going to be OK, and we’re here to talk about it.”

The Right Track

Architect designs, creates, builds model trains

Story by Scottie Vickery
Photos by Mandy Baughn

It’s been said that much about your childhood – your neighborhood, the house you grew up in, or the size of your backyard – often seems smaller when viewed through adult eyes.

For Malcolm Sokol, everything about Birmingham seems downright tiny. That’s because the retired architect and model railroad enthusiast has spent years recreating his version of the city’s Industrial District, all in miniature.

Trains are the centerpiece of Malcolm’s model city

He’s built his own small-scale 1952 versions of Ensley, Pratt City, North Birmingham, Elyton, Red Mountain and other areas, along with the railroads that connect them. There are restaurants, stores, warehouses, iron ore mines, steel mills, a rail yard, Sloss Furnaces and a railroad trestle. And he’s built it all within a room that measures 13 x 19 feet.

“A genuine model railroader tries to make everything as realistic as possible,” said Sokol, who now lives in Cropwell on Logan Martin Lake. There’s no doubt that Sokol, who estimates he’s spent more than 12,000 hours over the past eight years or so on his hobby, is the real deal. He’s got an assortment of regional and national awards for his designs to prove it.

“You can make a career out of a hobby, but when you love it so much it’s not like going to work,” he said. “You don’t put any value on your time with a hobby unless you plan to sell something, and I would never sell this.”

In addition to the time and money he’s spent creating his HO scale model railroad layout, Sokol has an emotional and sentimental investment, as well. It brings back memories of his childhood.

“I grew up in Fountain Heights, and when I was a kid, we used to walk down to the railroad tracks, which were about two blocks away,” he said. “We loved to watch the switching (of rails and cars) at all of the industries.”

Getting on track

Sokol, a member of the Wrecking Crew Model Railroad Club in Birmingham, got his first model railroad set when he was 8 or 9. “My father gave me and my younger brother, Howard, a Lionel O Guage railroad set,” he said. “We played with that thing until we wore it out.”

Some neighborhood friends had sets, as well, and they would put them together and play for hours. “That was my introduction to model railroading,” he said.

His interest was renewed not long after he and his wife, Marilyn, had their first child. They went to a model railroad show, where Sokol bought a set. “I said I was buying it for my son, but he was only a year and a half old at the time,” he said with a laugh.

Today, Sokol loves sharing his hobby with their three children and their spouses, along with their seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. The Sokols’ home may be the only house on the lake where guests want to spend as much time inside as they do by the water.

 “They love to run trains,” he said of his family and friends. “Everyone who comes here says, ‘Let me see what you’ve done on the trains’ They love to see the progress.”

There’s always something new to see in his train room, which used to be part of his garage. When Sokol got serious about his hobby, he finished the area, adding a ceiling and walls. He put the Masonite backdrop on three walls of the room, and he and his grandson, Garrett, used stencils to paint clouds and mountains. He later installed additional mountains he’d painted on panels of Masonite in the foreground, creating a multi-dimensional background.

The first two years were dedicated to building the frame and foundation for the layout and for laying the track. Using historical rail maps for Birmingham as a guide, Sokol added some of the industrial buildings that were built alongside the city’s tracks. His layout includes Loveman’s Warehouse, Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. and the A&P Warehouse and Distribution Center.

First National Bank and Pete’s Famous Hot Dogs are represented in the layout, while some of the stores, such as Marilyn’s Knit Shop, were named for family members. Businesses in the Ensley section of the layout include Ideal Furniture, The Bank of Ensley and Gilmer Drugs. Sokol recently added Phase 2 of his railroad, which extends into an adjacent room measuring 13 x 6 feet.

Details matter

Sokol said the skills he honed during his architectural career, which spanned more than 30 years before he retired as CEO of Evan Terry Associates in 1998, has come in handy. “It definitely helps,” he said. “I have the design ability and the construction knowledge.”

Being his own client has allowed him the freedom to build everything just the way he wants. Although much of the layout was based on historical renderings, he took some artistic liberties, as well. “When you own a model railroad, you’re the owner and designer and you can make all the decisions,” he said. “When you’re playing all the roles, it’s easier.”

Special attention is paid to the lighting setup down to the street lamps

Sokol’s attention to detail is amazing. Although many model railroaders buy pre-made tracks, he bought the rails and used a band saw to cut 35,000 tiny wooden ties, which he attached with miniature metal spikes. “It’s all hand-laid, just like the real railroad does,” he said.

Most of his buildings are scratch built, meaning he designed, cut, assembled and painted them by hand, rather than using a kit. A watercolor artist, Sokol’s painting skills add an additional level of realism to his cities and buildings that takes time to create. He spent six months, for example, building and painting the railroad trestle, which is modeled after the L&N Cane Creek Trestle #10 in Brookwood.

Sokol’s favorite building, which happens to be the first one he made, is one he named the Starry Eye Mattress Company. In addition to the architectural details, there’s a dumpster, trashcans, barrels, bales of cotton and small wooden pallets where workers can be seen stacking mattresses.

The design won two regional awards, including Best in Show, and was displayed one year at the National Model Railroad Association’s convention. “One of the kit manufacturers from Maine found me and said, ‘I want to build a kit out of this model,’” he said.

Sokol gave him permission and the kit maker changed the name of the business to Sokol’s Mattress & Furniture Company as a nod to the creator. The original limited run of 500 kits, priced at $160 a kit, sold out in the first year. Some are currently being re-sold on eBay for more than $200.

While many of the railroad accessories can be purchased, Sokol spends hours creating his own. Model railroad switches, which allow trains to be guided from one track to another, can be purchased for about $30. “I built my own switches for $2 worth of materials,” he said. “I probably saved about $3,000 right there.”

Although saving costs in what can be an expensive hobby is a motivator, part of the fun for Sokol is figuring out how to make his own buildings and structures. The blast furnace on his Sloss Furnaces layout, for example, was made from a wiffle ball bat. “I needed something that was rounded and tapered, so I just cut off each end of the bat,” he said.

He made his lampposts, which are only a few inches tall, out of three different thicknesses of tubing. All of the lighting on the layout, whether on lampposts or in buildings, is fiber optics, he said.

Much of the materials he uses comes from his own backyard. He gets scoops of dirt, bakes it to kill any bugs, sifts it, and attaches it to the ground of the layout with white glue. He makes tree trunks from azalea limbs, drilling holes in the trunks to add smaller branches. Sokol uses hairspray to make clumps of painted ground foam that he uses for the foliage on trees and bushes. “I’ve given workshops on making trees,” he said.

Sights and sound

The electronics that are part of the railroad layout are as impressive as the designs. One of the most popular features is a lightning and rainstorm over one of Sokol’s buildings on his miniature Red Mountain. The soundtrack features thunder and wind, slamming screen doors, barking dogs and other lifelike noises.

The evolution of the technology used to operate the trains makes everything more realistic, Sokol said. “It used to be that every train on the track would go at the same speed and in the same direction,” he said. Now, there’s a computer chip in each locomotive, and model railroad engineers can run trains backward, forward and at different speeds, all on the same track. They can also control sound effects, such as bells, horns and brakes.

Although Sokol completed most of the work on his layout himself, he had several model railroader friends who shared their expertise. Steve Singer helped lay the ties and build the benchwork, which is the foundation for the trains and scenery. Winston Greaves helped with the electronics, and Dave Whikehart helped build the structures. Sokol said he figures everything is about 80 percent complete, but don’t hold him to it.

“A lot of people will ask model railroaders when they are going to be finished, and the answer is they will never be finished,” he said. “There is always more detail to add, and some will build a scene, decide they don’t like it and start over with a new one.”

Although the trains have brought Sokol much joy, they are not his only hobby. He and his wife love to travel – they’ve been to Australia and New Zealand this year and often spend a month or more in a city so they can live like the locals. Although he loves the adventure, he’s always glad to get back to his model railroad.

For the past 15 years or so, he and the other members of the Wrecking Crew club have built locomotive exhibits for the McWane Science Center, which are displayed during the holidays. Aside from the fun of helping to create the layouts, he enjoys watching the children and families enjoy them.

“It’s very rewarding,” he said. “This is a great hobby.”

Big Canoe Creek Jam

Jammin’ for a great cause

Story by Carol Pappas
Photos by Mackenzie Free

It certainly wasn’t a first for Homestead Hollow. They’re used to hosting an outdoor festival drawing crowds from all around the region. But for newly opened Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve, its successful first venture looks like a gateway to an annual fundraiser.

Event was held to help fund the Big Canoe Creek Preserve

Creek Jam was an all-day, outdoor musical festival, featuring bands, entertainment and activities for the entire family and drawing 1,500 to 2,000 attendees. And Homestead Hollow provided the ideal setting on its main stage featuring: Winston Ramble, Jason Bailey Trio, The Stepdads, Love Rat, Len Park, Cottonmouth Creek, LeeJ The DJ and more.

An educational tent was run by two of the Big Canoe Creek Preserve Partners, Jimmy Stiles and Jill Chambers. Jimmy brought creek critters, such as a baby alligator, snakes, turtles and other species. Jill brought microscopes for kids to view all sorts of things found in Nature. The Nature Conservancy, Forever Wild and the Coosa Riverkeeper also manned educational tents.

Camping was available, providing more time to listen to the bands and to explore the preserve.

“It was a good turnout,” said Preserve Manager Doug Morrison. “We’ve had good feedback. People came from Gadsden, Hoover, Locust Fork – from all over. We were real pleased.”

The feedback, he added, centered on how impressed they were with the venue and “how well put together the event was.”

It had a little something for everybody with artisans and makers as vendors, food galore and music of all genres – and plenty of it.

Festival goers spread blankets, set up camp and lawn chairs or strolled through the open fields to just enjoy the day and the outdoors.

After all, that’s what it was all about – the treasures found in simply getting outside – just like at the preserve.

Morrison thanked sponsors for their support:

A great day was had by people of all ages at the festival
  • St. Clair County Commission
  • City of Springville
  • Buffalo Rock/Pepsi, our Presenting Sponsor
  • Big Canoe Creek Preserve Partners
  • APEX Roofing
  • Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, The Caring Foundation
  • St. Clair EDC
  • AmFirst
  • Peritus Wealth Management
  • PPM Consultants
  • Hill, Gossett, Kemp, P.C.
  • Thompsons Tractor Rental
  • Schoel Engineering
  • Springville Dental

In-Kind Sponsors:

  • Cahaba Brewing Company
  • Ghost Train Brewery
  • Back Forty Beer Company
  • Steel Hall Brewing
  • Sweet Home Spirits
  • Creative Entertainment
  • Bob Tedrow of Homewood Music
  • Rusty’s BBQ
  • The Farm House

In addition, Morrison had high praise for:

Terri and Dean Goforth, who provided the venue space; Mayor Dave Thomas and Springville City Council; Commission Chairman Stan Batemon and the County Commission; all volunteers; Salient Projects, who organized the soundstage, bands and helped tremendously with planning; city employees from Parks and Rec; the planning committee – Terri & Dean Goforth, Mayor Thomas, Lucy Cleaver, Lee Jeffrey, Mandi Rae Trot, Candice Hill, Blair Goodgame and Morrison; Springville Parks and Rec Board; bands and individual musicians who played on the side stage and vendors.

Saving Chandler Mountain

Once historic enemies join forces to keep a proposed dam project off the mountain

Story by Paul South
Photos by Mackenzie Free and Leo Galleo

When Seth C. Penn ponders Chandler Mountain, he thinks of the Indigenous peoples who walked the mountaintop 6,000 years before Christ trod the earth.

Darrell Hyatt thinks of generations of his family, who yanked a living from the mountain’s rich soil. The Hyatts came to the area when the only way to navigate the mountain was by wagon, horseback or on foot.

And Joe Whitten, an amateur historian and retired educator who came to St. Clair County in 1961, hiked from the base to the top of the mountain at age 80 and plans to do so again, even at 85.

Their backgrounds are different, but the three men share a love for the mountain and an understanding of the importance of the successful battle to fend off an Alabama Power proposal to build dams there. It was a plan that would have flooded the valley, displaced families and damaged sacred sites and archaeological treasures.

Community comes together for common cause

While bluegrass music at Horse Pens 40 and tomatoes – the area’s iconic signature crop – sprout in the minds of most Alabamians when the name, Chandler Mountain, is mentioned, make no mistake, it is holy ground.

According to Penn, Southeastern Region coordinator for the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance and a citizen of the Cherokee Tribe of Northeast Alabama, all land is sacred for Indigenous peoples, regardless of location. But the mountain is unique.

“Chandler Mountain is an area where tribal territories met,” Penn said. “This was a place inhabited by several different tribes, Cherokee people and Muskogean people as well. This is an area where you could see different looking people, different looking tribes, different languages. That makes the mountain unique unto itself.”

There are archaeological and ecological features on the mountain sacred to the tribes.

“How the water flows, the hydrologic buildup, makeup and processes are important ecologically and also sacred, considering the values of water, plant life and animals,” he said.

Prayers and other ceremonies were conducted on the mountain. And while the story may be apocryphal, it is said that Chandler Mountain is the only place where a peace treaty was signed between the Cherokee and Creek tribes.

“I have never seen that document,” Penn said. “So as far as the credibility of that, it’s very debatable and very questionable. So, my response to that would be, I’d like to see that happen in present time, so that an actual treaty exists.”

One piece of ancient history that does exist are the rock formations, stone structures and Cherokee pictographs, rock art that native peoples may have painted with their fingertips, according to a report by Dr. Harry Holstein, a professor of Chemistry and Geosciences at Jacksonville State University.

These drawings and structures, as well as the stars, all play into the ceremonial and governmental history of the mountain and its ancient inhabitants, Penn said.

“This is a place where we might go to higher ground in search of a spiritual connection. It’s a place where territories met. So, at times we might meet in council-like setting, where topics might be discussed among our tribe or with other tribes even. Trades could also take place,” Penn said.

From a spiritual perspective, he added, “The whole sacred, ceremonial prayer aspect of events that took place – with certain rock features facing certain directions, certain astrological features in line with certain features, that all plays into the ceremonial aspect of it.”

A Family’s Story

With all their earthly belongings, John Hyatt and his wife arrived on horseback from Hurt County, Ga., and settled near the Horse Pens area in 1875, where they homesteaded 120 acres.

“There have been Hyatts on that end of Chandler Mountain ever since,” said John Hyatt’s great-grandson, Darrell.

He lives near the base of the mountain. He can recite his family’s history like a precocious schoolboy. John Hyatt’s brother, Otis, was the first person to farm the tasty Chandler Mountain tomatoes.

But the mountain is about more than tomatoes. Darrell has lived in the Chandler Mountain Valley since 1969, and at his current homestead since 1981. There, he reared his children.

At one time, he pondered moving his family out west. But the tug of home was too strong, the ties too deep. In his family, Darrell has always been known as “the man who came back to the mountain.”

Artifacts found tell story of Native-Americans living on land

“I always knew this mountain was different,” he said. “We could never pull ourselves away. It’s not just the family history. It goes back thousands of years.”

He found paleo-points on the mountain, and he and his wife found the pictographs. In turn, they brought Holstein as well as a rock expert from the University of Tennessee.

“Dr. Holstein said this was the most significant archaeological find on the upper Coosa River drainage area,” Hyatt said.

That archaeological find played a significant role in the defeat of the Alabama Power project.

What would have been the impact of the project if it had moved forward? Often, before Alabama Power shelved the plan, Darrell imagined his last day in his beloved valley, where his kids grew up and where he walked the mountain, climbed its rocks and contemplated the world in solitude.

One of the dams would have been built within 1,000 feet of his home. Rocky Hollow, the Mount Lebanon Cemetery, a number of archeological treasures and dozens of families would have been washed away.

The Hiker

Darrell remembers the first time he and Joe Whitten hiked the mountain, following Steele Gap Road. Whitten was 80.

“Joe, are you ready to stop?,” he would ask.

“Where’s the top?,” Whitten replied. Hyatt pointed upward.

“Let’s go,” Whitten said. And they did. “I think I can do it again,” he added.

Whitten talks of the importance of Chandler Mountain to the quality of life of St. Clair County and to its economy.

“It was in a remote section of the county that the pioneers made a beautiful place of,” Whitten said. “As time progressed, they tried various fruits. They grew peaches there for a time, but the tomatoes made the mountain famous.”

The Alliance

Two groups that history saw often at odds, the Indigenous tribes and new settlers of the 19th century, joined with the City of Steele and Montgomery politicians to fight the utility. The fight continues because the utility still owns significant acreage there.

In the face of opposition from locals, as well as Public Service Commission President Twinkle Cavanaugh, Alabama Power Company scrapped its plans to build a hydroelectric storage project and remove homeowners from Chandler Mountain in August 2023. The utility withdrew its efforts to seek a license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

In these politically fractured times, is there a lesson to be learned from the alliance that fought it?

Flat top of mountain a distinctive characteristic

“Absolutely,” Darrell said. “This community in my eyes was starting to lose itself. (The dam project) pulled everybody together.”

In local folklore, it’s told that John Hyatt built the market road down the backside of the mountain near what’s now U.S. 231, in an area known as Hyatt’s Gap. And the mountain can be seen from Alabama’s highest peak, Mount Cheaha.

“It’s very distinct,” he said. “And I think the Native Americans saw that, too. It’s sacred. Very sacred to them.”

Whitten said that even in these difficult days, the successful effort to block the project, “shows there can be unity. Peoples can come together and work together on projects that are needful to the community and the county and the state.”

He added, “What is there is important to the state as well, because it’s part of our Indigenous history.”

Penn agreed. “Obviously, it’s an ancestral holy place for an Indigenous person,” he said. “But because of those thousands of years of prayers building a foundation for a sacred setting, it’s just as much a sacred place for that farmer who says a prayer while he’s out there planting or harvesting. It’s a sacred place to that family who comes together and prays before a meal every time they eat dinner. It’s a sacred place and a significant place to many people.

“While our significance to the mountain and the sacredness of the mountain predates the settlers, I don’t want to discredit that it’s important to many of them as well in present time.”

Of the alliance, Penn said, “We’re a whole lot better when we can put differences aside and find common ground and work together regardless of backgrounds, faiths or political affiliations.

“Chandler Mountain is a unique situation in that we can come together. We have done that, and I’d like to see this initiative grow. I’d like to see Alabama Power realize, ‘Look, we had wrong intentions here. This isn’t where we need to do this. We just need to pull out and let go and give this mountain back to the people who truly care about it. And that is the Indigenous people and that is the local Chandler Mountain Community. That is our mountain and should be our mountain. That’s how I feel about it.”

 “Alabama Power does not have any plans for the Chandler Mountain property,” said Alabama Power spokesperson Joey Blackwell in an email response in April.

When Alabama Power announced it had scuttled its proposal, there were celebrations on Chandler Mountain. Hyatt and his family celebrated with dinner at an area Mexican restaurant.

There was joy. “And there were tears,” he said. “More than a few tears.”

Lakeside wedding

A celebration of love, family and fun

Story by Paul South
Submitted photos

In the movies, love stories begin in glitzy spots, like the top of the Empire State Building, or with blind date jitters or online mysteries.

But Hunter and Hallie Hannah Craton’s road to romance began – as it is with many folks – over dinner. In their case, steaming plates of Mexican food – her go-to chicken enchilada with sour cream and fajita quesadilla for him – spiced up the first date.

Seven years later, on Oct. 14, 2023, the two were married at a spot more beautiful than any Manhattan skyscraper, on the banks of Logan Martin Lake and in sight of the iconic Pirate Island. The wedding was celebrated at a family friend’s lakeside home, the rehearsal dinner and reception next door at Hallie’s grandfather’s home.

Trees adorned with lights and the lake teamed with an altar crafted from a gold ring of flowers.

“It was so beautiful, we didn’t have to do too much,” Hallie recalls.

The couple had become engaged almost a year to the day before, on the banks of the lake, a fitting spot for two Pell City kids. From their first date fiesta to the wedding, seven years passed. Their relationship endured being separated by college. Hunter majored in building science at Auburn, Hallie in marketing at Jacksonville State.

Hallie works in sales, while Hunter works for Goodgame Company, both in Pell City.

Again, with a touch of serendipity, they were engaged on the anniversary of their first date.  But Hunter Craton knew that she was his forever love long before the diamond ring.

“Within about a month of the first date, I pretty much knew,” Hunter says. “She’s got a great personality, and that’s pretty much what stood out to me. She was a lot of fun to be around.”

College has extinguished more than one high school flame, but not for these two. For them, love never failed. They weathered separation and a year of wedding prep. “It actually made us stronger,” Hallie says.

And there were differences in personality, Hunter is an admitted introvert, but Hallie “brought me out of my shell,” he says.

Hallie was smitten sooner. She put it this way: “When you know, you know. I fell in love with Hunter almost immediately,” she says. “Hunter is kind to all, funny, dependable and has felt like home from the moment I met him.”

She adds, “I never knew I needed someone like Hunter in my life,” she says. “He calms me.”

And while other couples fall for the trends of the day, Hallie and Hunter were traditional. Hunter, gentleman to the core, asked her parents for her hand.

“He absolutely did,” Hallie’s mother, Jennifer Hannah, says. “He texted us and wanted us to meet him for dinner and said we don’t need Hallie to know about it. We kind of knew what it was.

“They were already making life decisions and financial decisions based on what the other was doing.”

It begs a question: What took them so long?

After high school, Hunter joined the union, then toiled as an ironworker for several months before commuting for a few classes at Auburn, then transferring to campus to complete his degree.

“There was a lot of prep needed financially before we went through all this from the engagement to the wedding,” Hunter says. “We wanted to make sure we were ready for all that.”

They were ready. And while many in this part of the world choose church weddings, others courthouse nuptials, even elopement, the lake was always the place for the future Mr. and Mrs. Craton. It was a family place, a place of memories for generations of Hallie’s family.

“It was the only special place in my heart to me,” she says. “What makes it even more special was not only does my grandfather live there, my cousin lives nearby as well. My aunt lives just across the street. We’ve always been big lake people. I’ve always wanted to get married at the lake.”

Lake at sunset makes ideal backdrop for ceremony

While the actual wedding party was “very formal” – black tie and black formal dresses, the guests were allowed to be casual.

“We didn’t really care what people wore,” Hallie says. “We’re very casual people. When it came to what (guests) wore, we were more semi-formal.”

It was the wedding of Hallie’s dreams.

“I always pictured the black and white theme. We had a square black and white dance floor.

While wedding planning can sometimes deteriorate into a Jerry Springer-style throwdown, Hallie and her Mom had only one “knock down drag out in the days right before the blessed event.

Chairs.

“Back in the day, when I got married, I was not working like Hallie and Hunter. I’d just graduated from college, and I was about to start my first teaching job. So (for Hallie and Hunter’s day), I was ‘Whatever you want. Whatever you want,” except when it came to those chairs. We got in a fight about chairs.”

But the blowout eased pre-wedding nerves.

“It was a small thing. But we were stressed out,” Hallie says. “We needed to have a cry. Planning a wedding is stressful, especially when it’s just you, your Mom and the coordinator for a 300-plus person wedding on the lake.”

The couple, their parents and friends did a lot of the pre-wedding decorating themselves late into several evenings, stringing up white lights in the surrounding trees and other tasks for the wedding. Elegance carried the day.

And it seems with every wedding, something funny happens.

Hallie’s first drop at the reception did the trick.

“I tore my dress,” she says. “It ripped right below my butt, and it was a big hole in my brand new, beautiful dress.”

Humor also came from a little 1980s rock n’ roll.

Dan, Hunter’s  brother-in-law, closed the ceremony reading the lyrics from The Power of Love by Huey Lewis and the News.

“At first we had no idea where he was going,” Jennifer says. “It was sweet. It was funny. It was perfect. (Dan) was there for all of their love story, so it was perfect.”

And of course, there was the father-daughter dance, a month in the making.

“Hallie is a great dancer,” Jennifer says.

And her Dad, Jason Hannah?

“He’s a Dad.”

It was a magical night.

But what advice would they give to others planning their weddings?

The mother of the bride was brief:

“Destination wedding.”

Hunter wasn’t much involved in the planning, save the two weeks prior to the big night. Then he was hard at it, stringing lights that hung like low stars on the lakeside.

“That was my time to shine.”

What advice would he give to friends and perhaps a future son?

“Get ready to work.”

As for Hallie, she says, “Don’t sweat the small stuff.

“There’s no need to worry about the small stuff, because the small stuff that I worried so much about for my wedding, I barely even recognized the day of. There’s a balance when you’re having a wedding,” Hallie says. “As long as you maintain that everything will be OK.”

The Depot

New community center in Springville on track to fulfill vision, needs

Story by Carol Pappas
Submitted photos

Serving an entire community is a pretty tall order but when visionaries saw an opportunity to build a community center in Springville, it seems no detail of service was omitted.

The 38,000 square foot facility just off of U.S. 11 houses a church, a school, a fitness center, a health and wellness center, indoor playground, a massive common area, a chef’s operation and a coffee shop. And that’s just the first phase.

Mike Ennis, pastor of Faith Community Fellowship Church, Springville campus, says the center’s “whole goal is to serve the community.”

When the project began, Ennis explained, “We felt like rather than building a church, we’d rather build a community center – something the entire community could use, something that would hopefully improve both the economics and health of our community and provide athletic opportunities.”

It has not wavered from its original vision. At the time, Ennis described it as a center “not just for young people and not just people who are a part of our church, we really wanted to build something that would serve the community at large. That’s been the driving factor behind it from the beginning.”

To accomplish that, the church partnered with a nonprofit property management group, Surgance Inc. They wanted to create something fresh and alive with activity that would be used every day and geared toward bolstering the economy and health. “Every tenant is focused on that mission,” says Ennis.

Hayden Hornsby is the facility coordinator, and his ever-present smile as he outlines the tenant roster hints at the success story all around him.

Kind Kups

Kind Kups serves great coffee drinks and is a hub of activity and a gathering spot

Kind Kups is an anchor with wide-open space in an inviting atmosphere that has become a central gathering place for meetings, conversations, Bible studies and of course, a cup of specialty coffee and dessert.

Bring your laptop, bring a friend, meet new people – all are welcome at Kind Kups.

The Depot is actually the second location for owners Kevin and April Browning, who live in Cleveland, Alabama. It began from their leadership in their church’s small group and grew into a community outreach.

Its mission is to “provide a life-giving atmosphere for community building and fellowship. To encourage our customers through acts of service and words of kindness. To impact our community by empowering self-worth and inspiring kindness, ultimately motivating them to give back.”

Springville Christian Academy

An infant through 8th grade school has a significant presence. It has grown so much that enrollment is expected to be 160 in the fall, and officials are considering adding 9th grade.

While it occupies part of the building, the school is actually separate and secure. The school keeps class sizes small so that each student feels like they have one-on-one learning opportunities. The fully staffed faculty headed by Tyra Jordan provides students with an education based on academic excellence and biblical values.

It features state-of-the-art classrooms, library, sports opportunities, music, art, Spanish and weekly chapel.

“SCA is honored to have Lacy Trull bring hot lunches into the school each day, something that most schools of this size do not have the opportunity to have,” Hornsby said.

Euvista

Euvista is a health and wellness center, offering weight loss and nutrition coaching, prescription weight loss medications, hormone testing, low-tox lifestyle coaching, Long Haul COVID treatment, bioidentical hormone replacement therapy and lipo/B12 injections.

The center focuses on the root of weight management, offering programs for nutrition, mindset and overall body transformation.

This is Euvista’s second location. The first was in Cullman. The Springville location is already busy with bookings for appointments weeks in advance.

Performfit Studios

A gym and physical fitness center, Performfit offers a fully equipped workout studio with classes available. It also offers speed and agility training.

President Chris Lynch holds a master’s degree in Occupational Therapy and is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist.

Chef Margaret’s

Chef Margaret Vincent, also known as “The Chef Next Door,” offers Delicious Delivery services. She prepares gourmet, homemade meals once a week and delivers to clients on Wednesdays.

She also caters bridal and baby showers, in-home parties and open houses – events traditionally thought of as too small for a caterer. She creates charcuterie grazing boards and tables, holds cooking classes and demonstrations and does food styling for publicity shoots.

She also sells Chef Margaret’s No-Mento Cheese, described as “hand-crafted, chef-made, perfectly-southern, totally addicting creamy goodness.”

Faith Community Fellowship Church

While the church was the catalyst for the center, it, too, is a tenant like the others. The growing congregation is now 350 and growing.

Grand Central and Rental Spaces

Grand Central is as the name implies – a bustle of activity

The centerpiece of the building is an expansive lobby area with high ceilings and plenty of room for all kinds of events.

Aptly named Grand Central, the entire area is a bustle of activity – the comings and goings of all the services found there in addition to the activities it provides space for. You might quote the old cliché, and say it’s a bit like Grand Central Station, and you’d be right.

The auditorium is available for rental, and it has exceeded its annual goal already. Hornsby pointed out that the auditorium hosted a theater group with a 55-member cast, a political reception and a variety of other parties and events.

An indoor playground is tucked into space at the front of the building just off Grand Central, and it is being done in a railroad motif. The windows will have locomotive faces peering out – a welcoming attraction for children.

A community Easter Egg hunt with a live band drew 1,200 people. Depot Days and Sip and Shop provide brick and mortar-type opportunities for local artisans to set up booths and sell their wares.

It’s all a part of the effort to serve all aspects of the community. Ennis motions all around him, adding, “There’s nowhere else in this end of the county that provides all this. We love this community!”