St. Clair medical community growing

More services on the way for region

Story by Scottie Vickery

Photos by Graham Hadley

and Submitted

Just five months after Northside Medical Associates opened its ACCEL Urgent Care Clinic, Pell City veterinarian Ken McMillan had a potentially lifesaving visit there in April.

He’d had eye surgery for a detached retina in Birmingham the week before and wasn’t feeling well. Since his primary care doctor at Northside was out of the office, McMillan saw Dr. Jeremy Allen, medical director at ACCEL. When McMillan’s lab work was abnormal, Allen ordered a CT scan at the facility’s onsite imaging center. That’s when he discovered the blood clot in McMillan’s lungs.

“We were lucky he was as diligent as he was and had the technology available to do that,” said McMillan, who received treatment and is on the mend. “It could have ended up saving my life.”

The story is one example of how St. Clair County residents are taking advantage of the first-class medical services being offered close to home. All over Pell City, practices are growing, offices are expanding, and technology is being added and utilized at a rapid pace as local health care providers continue to invest in their patients’ well-being.

“We want our patients to be confident that the care they’re getting here is as good or better than anywhere else,” said Dr. Rock Helms, CEO and president of Northside. “I’m proud to say that, in this rural area, we’re providing state-of-the-art care.”

PCIFM expanding

Providing better and more convenient care for their patients is also the driving force behind Pell City Internal and Family Medicine’s expansion, according to Dr. Rick Jotani. The practice, which has a main office in St. Vincent St. Clair’s Physicians Plaza, is building a much larger facility on property adjacent to the site of its satellite office next to Publix on U.S. 231 in Pell City. “This will allow us to consolidate our two locations under one roof, making things more convenient for our patients,” he said. “Every service they need, whether it be labs or imaging, will be there.”

The new office, which should be completed by the end of the year, will be double the size of the two current locations combined, Jotani said. The new facility will allow the practice, which currently offers family and internal medicine, women’s health and wellness, sports medicine, pediatrics and aesthetic procedures, to expand.

ATI Physical Therapy will be part of the new building, and Jotani and his partners, Dr. Barry Collins and Dr. Ilinca Prisacaru, have plans to add more primary care physicians and sub-specialists over time.

“This will give us the space and flexibility to be able to do that,” he said. “Dr. Collins and I started the practice in 2012, and we’ve been very well-received by the community. This is a reflection of that. We’ve continued to grow and get better and will hopefully continue to do that for many years to come.”

Northside setting pace for growth

Northside has been growing since opening its doors in 2001 with four physicians. The practice now has four locations and a staff of more than 150, including 12 doctors and 13 nurse practitioners, Helms said. Patients can receive primary, specialty and emergency care, get lab work and advanced diagnostics, and pick up prescriptions all under one roof.

Over the past year, they’ve added 3D mammography, the urgent care component and have formed an independent lab, expanding the menu of screenings they offer, not only to their own patients but to those with other doctors, as well. “If you see a primary care physician or a specialist somewhere else, you can come here and get labs, and we’ll send them to your doctor,” Helms said. 

Additions like the urgent care and 3D mammography have made a significant impact on patient health, he said. “With the 3D method, you get multiple images that are so much more detailed,” Helms said, adding that the technology is especially helpful for patients with dense breast tissue, a history of cancer or implants. “If you put the images side by side, you can see a tremendous difference. It’s much easier to pick up cancers.”

Urgent Care a new component of primary care

In a new trend in health care, Northside opened an urgent care center on its campus. The ACCEL center is open seven days a week and allows patients to quickly see a physician for things like strep throat, bronchial infections, abdominal pain and sprains.

Patients who see a primary care physician at Northside have the added benefit of knowing the urgent care staff has access to their charts and medical histories.

“It provides a much more seamless transition,” Helms said. “We saw an opportunity to better serve our patients, and it has been well-received. We’ve had patients come and thank us for doing this.”

More growth, more services

Here’s a look at how other providers are striving to meet the growing demand for health care in St. Clair County:

St. Vincent’s St. Clair recently earned a 5-star rating for hospital quality from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The 40-bed facility, which opened in 2011, is the only hospital in the county and one of only five in Alabama to earn the distinction.

The rating is based on 57 different benchmarks in six areas, including patient experience, effectiveness and timeliness of care, and efficient use of medical imaging.

Lisa Nichols, a registered nurse and the hospital’s administrator, said the distinction is the result of the staff’s commitment to providing quality, compassionate care.

“I’m so very proud of the work of our leadership and of our associates to ensure that quality and patient safety remains at the forefront of everything we do,” she said.

You don’t need 20/20 vision to see that the new home for James W. Bedsole Eye Care building, currently under construction on an outparcel site in front of Publix, promises to be state-of-the-art. “We want to be a destination for eye care,” said Bedsole, adding that the building should be finished by year’s end. “It’s going to be unique,” he said.

The new facility will be about twice the size of Bedsole’s current office downtown and is designed to accommodate new technology and an expanded optical gallery. The building will be handicapped accessible and easier for older patients to navigate. In addition, Bedsole will be hiring more staff and will eventually add another doctor to the practice.

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to provide a better experience for our patients,” Bedsole said. “We offer a full scope of services now, but this will give us the ability to deliver those services in a more efficient manner,” he said.

UAB Callahan Eye located a satellite in Physicians Plaza in 2017 next to St. Vincent’s St. Clair, and it continues to thrive as a regional source for ophthalmology and optometry services in its Suite 240 location.

The clinic offers comprehensive adult and pediatric ophthalmology and optometry, plus an in-house optical store featuring a wide selection of designer eyeglasses and sunglasses from brands such as Ray-Ban, Coach, Maui Jim, Tom Ford, Costa del Mar, Burberry and Vera Bradley. Specialty eye services include glaucoma and cataract evaluations and screenings.

Fortunate Son

Duff Morrison’s life a story of blessings, hard work and “The Bear”

Story by Paul South

Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.

Three words course through Duff Morrison’s 80 years: “lucky, fortunate, blessed.”

 Chat with him, and clearly, he has been. A member of legendary Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant’s first Alabama team and first national championship team, Morrison excelled in engineering and business, working for some of American business’ best-known companies.

In his 50s, despite a body battered by his years as a multi-sport prep and college athlete, the Memphis native and St. Clair County resident was an internationally competitive racquetball player. Shoot, Duff Morrison was even a championship duck caller in Tennessee.

You name it, it seems, and Duff Morrison, the adopted son of Leonard Duff Morrison, one of the South’s most successful painting contractors, and a homemaker Mom, Bernice Turner Morrison, has done it – and done it well.

And no matter what he did, even today, the voices of his father, and of his “second Daddy” Bryant, echo in Morrison’s head and heart.

“My Daddy and Coach Bryant told me the same thing. ‘I don’t care what you do. But whatever you do, do it the best you can every time.’ That was the teaching that I grew up in.”

Three words course through Duff Morrison’s 80 years: “lucky, fortunate, blessed.”

 Chat with him, and clearly, he has been. A member of legendary Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant’s first Alabama team and first national championship team, Morrison excelled in engineering and business, working for some of American business’ best-known companies.

In his 50s, despite a body battered by his years as a multi-sport prep and college athlete, the Memphis native and St. Clair County resident was an internationally competitive racquetball player. Shoot, Duff Morrison was even a championship duck caller in Tennessee.

You name it, it seems, and Duff Morrison, the adopted son of Leonard Duff Morrison, one of the South’s most successful painting contractors, and a homemaker Mom, Bernice Turner Morrison, has done it – and done it well.

And no matter what he did, even today, the voices of his father, and of his “second Daddy” Bryant, echo in Morrison’s head and heart.

“My Daddy and Coach Bryant told me the same thing. ‘I don’t care what you do. But whatever you do, do it the best you can every time.’ That was the teaching that I grew up in.”

Morrison followed the teaching to the letter, graduating from Treadwell High in Memphis at 16. He attracted the attention of college and pro scouts. The New York Yankees, New York baseball Giants and St. Louis Cardinals tried to hook Morrison with the lure of what then were considered big-money contracts. But Morrison – who neighbor kids called Duff Lujack after the Notre Dame great, Johnny Lujack – went to Alabama not only to play baseball and football, but to do more.

“I wanted to be an engineer,” Morrison says plainly.

A Drive to Excel

There’s a backstory here worth telling, a story Morrison didn’t hear until he was 38. His biological father was a Memphis police officer, and his birth mother was a Native American woman. The couple put the baby up for adoption.

Some folks may have been shaken by the news but not Morrison.

“There’s never been a luckier little boy than me,” he says.

Indeed, his father, who would employ more than 100 in a painting firm with clients from the Carolinas to Louisiana and his mother made sure their boy had a comfortable life. But he also learned the value of work and faith.

“On Saturdays, if I didn’t have a ball game, I was up and in the car by six in the morning going to work. I was baptized when I was 10, and my folks had me in church every Sunday.”

Things didn’t change at Alabama. Morrison was recruited to the Capstone by Coach J.B. “Ears” Whitworth, a good man, Morrison recalls, who never won at Alabama.

In 1958, a new coach with a new way of doing things, arrived in Tuscaloosa from Texas A&M. Alabama football would be forever transformed.

Marlin “Scooter” Dyess, an Alabama star who was also part of the same 1956 signing class as Morrison, recalls the impact of Bryant’s arrival. Dyess is now a Montgomery businessman.

“When he came in, it was like going from darkness into the light,” Dyess says. “When he came there, he pretty well established an attitude. As he told us one time, ‘I don’t want to ever hear about a past coaching regime. The problem with this program is sitting right here in this room. Those that stay will be part of rebuilding.’ He was absolutely right. He demanded respect and he got respect.”

Morrison recalls one of his first practices in the Bryant era. In the days before the NCAA restricted the number of players, some 300 were on the practice field for Alabama.

“Twenty-five boys quit that day,” Morrison recalls. “I went from 179 pounds to 163 that day. Coach Bryant tried to work you to death.”

“We thought he (Bryant) was crazy, trying to run everybody off,” Dyess said. “When we played LSU mine and Duff’s junior year, we only had 33 players because we had so many to quit. But he stuck to his plan, and it worked.”

Comparing Alabama’s fourth-quarter conditioning, Morrison described Alabama’s opponents by panting like a St. Bernard in a steam room.

“Every time that we played a ball game and got in the fourth quarter, the other team would be panting real hard. And we haven’t started to break a sweat. We were in better shape than anybody we ever played against. Coach Bryant worked your butt off.”

Like Dyess, Morrison never forgot that first meeting with Bryant, more than 60 years on.

 “The very first meeting with Coach Bryant, he says, ‘Every time that ball moves on the football field, you do everything you can legally to help your team to win. Two, you go to every class and study as hard as you can because you’re not going to play football for the rest of your life. And number three, I don’t want any cheating in school, I don’t want any breaking rules or laws. If you can’t stand up to these things, get the hell out of here now.’

 Keep in mind, the Crimson Tide’s previous three seasons were a collective nightmare, with a combined four wins from 1956-58, including a 40-0 loss to archrival Auburn in 1957.

But 1958 offered a glimpse of the glory to come for the Crimson Tide. Bryant’s first team beat 19th-ranked Mississippi State, defeated Georgia Tech and tied a ranked Vanderbilt team. Alabama almost upset Heisman winner Billy Cannon and LSU at Ladd Stadium in Mobile. In that game, a bleacher collapsed, injuring several fans.

Morrison had a big defensive play against the Bayou Bengals. Some remember it as an interception, others as a fumble plucked out of the air.

“Billy Cannon went around the right end and cut back,” Morrison remembers. “I hit that son of a gun so hard, that the ball flew up in the air, and I caught it at the 45 and ran back to the LSU 4.”

Dyess remembered the play as an interception that Morrison plucked from the air after it bounced off his helmet.

“We kidded Duff, that’d we had never seen anyone intercept a ball with his helmet. But it was a big play in the game. Duff is a great guy.”

Alabama would lose to the eventual national champs. But Dyess saw a change in the Tide that day.

“It was amazing,” Dyess recalls. “That’s what Coach Bryant turned around. We didn’t know we were no good. He made you feel like you were just as good as the team you were up against. In your mind, you sincerely believed that.”

And in 1959, Alabama, thanks in part to a sterling defensive effort by Morrison, the Tide upset Georgia Tech, 9-7. The previous Saturday, the Ramblin’ Wreck had upset nationally ranked Notre Dame in South Bend. Alabama was on the rise. Bryant called the ’59 squad his “turnaround team” that ended the season nationally ranked. The Tech game was pivotal.

“I had nine tackles in the first quarter,” Morrison remembers. “Coach Bryant gave me the game ball. But somebody stole it from my dorm room after the game.”

Dyess says Morrison was an important part of the 1959 squad, playing both offense and defense.

“Duff was probably our best defensive back in the secondary. He was a guy who was a real leader. Nobody outworked him. Coach Bryant would take hard work over ability any day. Duff was an important cog in our ’58 and ’59 teams.

In an injury-plagued career, including a broken back in 1961, Morrison missed most of the national championship campaign in 1961. But Bryant never forgot the kid from Memphis.

“After we beat Georgia Tech in 1961, he gave me a game ball,” Morrison remembers. “He knew mine had been stolen. I still have the ball on my shelf.”

Bryant is never far away from Morrison. A treasured photo of the two, taken weeks before the legendary coach’s death in 1983, is prized. Morrison keeps extra copies of the photo to give to friends and fans who love to hear his stories.

But Bryant had an impact off the field as well. Morrison, juggling two sports as well as a demanding engineering course load, was having trouble in a course in the midst of baseball season. Worried, he called Bryant at home and explained his problem.

“He had a tutor in my room in 30 minutes,” Morrison recalls. “Hey, he cared about the ballplayers. He didn’t cheat. He wanted you to learn how to win and pay the price to win and do it the right way.”

He adds: “He felt like his job was to teach you to do the right thing in all aspects of life, not just on the football field.”

Morrison still holds the boys of Bryant’s first teams in his heart. Like Morrison, many went on to success in business, others in medicine and the law. While many have passed away, they are not forgotten.

“Those guys were about as good men as I’ve ever seen. It’s like you win World War II or something like that, and these were the members of your company. They went through all the battles and everything. I feel honored to have been with those boys.”

Dyess agrees. “There were some good people in that crowd, there really were.”

Of Morrison, one of his closest friends at Alabama, Dyess describes him as “one of those hard-working guys who was important to the team. He was a great teammate and friend.”

Off the Field

Morrison’s life after Alabama had its beginning in his last semester, when an advisor asked what he wanted to do after graduation.

“I want to be an engineer,” he says. “And I want to be the boss.”

The advisor directed him to Alabama’s School of Commerce. But engineering was always part of his professional life. In his first job, as a management trainee for American Brake Shoe, Co., he ascended to become a supervising engineer in less than a year.

 He designed electronics plants for Emerson and poultry plants for Pillsbury. He was the top vacuum packaging salesman in the world for W.R. Grace for two years running and worked closely with companies like the Winn Dixie grocery chain and Bryan Foods.

“It was a grand life,” he says. “Two years in a row, that’s pretty good.”

He excelled in selling insurance, working for firms like Equitable Life. He also ran restaurants, like the Birmingham area mall locations of Sbarro’s Italian eateries.

While working full time during the day, he was a racquetball teaching pro at night. He helped design duck calls. And he supported and helped rear his family.

“I’ve had some real good jobs,” he says. “I got a good education and when you know the skills of engineering and management and you’re fair with people, and you do people right, they want to do good for you.”

If there is a dark cloud that lingers over Morrison’s blessed life, it’s the death of his son, Tim.  Like his Dad, Tim Morrison played for Alabama, but was killed in a tragic auto accident in 2012. He was 44.

Duff Morrison calls his son’s passing, “the only bad thing” in his life. He holds fast to the belief that he will see his boy again.

“At least he didn’t suffer,” Morrison says.

Now at 80, Duff Morrison tries to stay busy, helping neighbors, building birdhouses, telling stories of Bryant and Alabama to anyone who will listen. He wrestles with aches and pains related to athletics and doesn’t go to games like he used to; stadium seats are too painful.

 But he’s always quick to remind how fortunate his life has been. Many folks his age, he’s quick to remind, are in a wheelchair or shut in. As he looks back on life, gratitude flows. He looks forward to the day he will see his son again.

“God has played an important part in my life. I don’t take credit for any of this. I was blessed. Most people haven’t had the blessings I’ve had.”

As he would like to say, his years have been a grand time. He hopes he will be remembered for his dedication to doing a job well.

“I enjoyed it. I liked to work hard. My Daddy taught me a long time ago to do the job, do it right and work as hard as you can. If you’re going to go through life (halfway) doing stuff, why bother?”

Bridal Special

From New York to an island paradise, the sky
is the limit when you are willing to travel

Story by Linda Long
Submitted photos

Planning on attending a wedding anytime soon? Then, you might want to don some traveling duds and pack a suitcase. Destination weddings are a hot item these days, according to Joanie Mardis owner of Seasons of Adventure Travel in Moody.

From Half Moon Bay, Calif., to Tucson, Ariz., adventurous couples are hitting the road for hot places to get hitched. Among the top 10 in the U.S., says Mardis is, “anywhere in Florida – from San Destin to the Keys. “The closest to us for a wonderful wedding is San Destin with beautiful green waters and sugar white sand beaches.”

Other can’t miss destinations include Cape Cod, Napa Valley, Newport, New York City, Aspen and even as far north as the state of Maine. “And, of course, Las Vegas, where almost anything goes,” says Mardis. “Although, I can honestly say, I’ve never booked the Elvis Presley Wedding Chapel for anybody,” she laughed.

According to Mardis, the Caribbean is also a popular place to go where an all-inclusive resort is a favorite choice. At some venues, the wedding package is actually free of charge. The most familiar is Sandals Resort with options in Jamaica, Antigua, Saint Lucia, Bahamas, Grenada and Barbados.

“They have a basic wedding package that includes the ceremony (on the beach, in a garden, in a gazebo, day or night),” said Mardis. Add a bouquet and boutonnière of orchids, reception, decor and wedding cake, all in a standard color scheme of fuchsia and yellow, and you’ve got all you need.”

Mardis says the bride and groom can customize these weddings with different styles, ideas, colors, flowers and decor. The couple can have a larger, more elaborate reception for as many guests as they choose to bring. The more guests to stay at the resort with them, the more perks the couple gets, such as a welcome celebration, spa themes bridal party and a room category upgrade.

Another great resort for the free wedding offer, according to Mardis, is the Couples Resort in Jamaica. “A couple can choose from three locations for a dream wedding, free for the bride, groom and four guests staying in the resort for three days or more. These weddings can be customized for only the bride and groom, called the Runaway Bride Package for $350 all the way up to a Private Island wedding for up to 40 guests for $4,750.

Another popular wedding destination – a ship – from a private yacht to a cruise ship.  According to Mardis, cruise ship weddings take place, usually, before the ship sails. The wedding party boards the ship as soon as the ship is ready for passengers. A venue is already set up. The ceremony and reception take place. Then, those not sailing depart the ship before sailing time, and the bride and groom go on a honeymoon cruise.

But why are brides and grooms choosing destination weddings instead of traditional church wedding at home among family and friends?  There could be any number of reasons, says Mardis.

“It might be a second marriage for the bride and groom, or the couple may have families in different places. Instead of one family traveling, everyone travels. You get a great family vacation along with the wedding. Many times, the family only stays about 3 days (before, day of and day after the ceremony), then the bride and groom remain for several days for the honeymoon. Sometimes the bride and groom do not necessarily want a huge wedding, so they only invite a few people to join them in the destination of their choice. Or maybe, it’s just the thing to do these days.”

Mardis has one bit of caution, however, for couples planning a wedding outside the country. Requirements can vary from location to location. As Mardis explained, “Some places require you to be on the island for a select number of days before you can apply for your marriage license, anywhere from one to seven days. Some islands charge you fees to get married or to obtain your license, which can be up to $450 or maybe less than $100 depending on the island you choose.”

Couples also will have to have proof of ID, divorce decrees or a spouse’s death certificate if previously married, or parental consent, if under age

For more of Discover St. Clair’s special wedding coverage, read the full magazine in print or online at ISSUU

BEI Lighting and Warning

Retired policeman turns on “blue light” for business

Story by Jackie Romine Walburn
Photos by Graham Hadley

Retired police officer Ed Brasher has found his ideal after-retirement avocation.

Brasher – a former police chief and regional drug task force officer – combined an innate mechanical ability and career-honed knowledge about emergency equipment with a passion for the adrenaline boost of fast, cool vehicles to create a growing electronics, lighting and warning equipment and installation business in Odenville.

BEI Lighting and Warning (BEILW), previously Brasher Electronics, outfits police, fire and emergency vehicles with lights and security features, produces graphics and detailing for business and public vehicles and, most recently, is marketing its own line of LED lighting and sirens.

Today, the business Brasher and son Trey started in 2003 in the family’s two-car garage is the largest supplier of emergency equipment in Alabama with 5,000 square feet of custom work space and three employees.

And, as they expand the business with a new line of lighting and sirens and a growing list of services and clients, the father and son are continuing a family tradition of owning a business – begun by Ed Brasher’s businessman father.

Law enforcement career

After a very short tenure training as a butcher apprentice (too cold and messy, he recalls), Brasher began his three-decade career in law enforcement as a policeman in the small St. Clair town of Whites Chapel, a community that’s now part of the town of Moody. Next, he moved to the Odenville police department and served as police chief for Odenville from 1987 to 1990.

Joining the Pell City police force in 1990, Brasher served as night shift patrolman, then sergeant. He spent the mid-90s as part of the 30th Judicial Circuit’s Drug Task Force. Eventually promoted to captain then assistant police chief with Pell City Police, Brasher officially retired in 2014.

While a police officer, Brasher continued to drive trucks for his father’s business. “Some days I’d park the patrol car at the end of a shift and get in the 18-wheeler for a long haul, then return to start over again,” says Brasher, who noted that many police officers and firefighters supplement their incomes with additional work. “You do what you have to do when you are raising a family.”

Family tradition

Born in Birmingham, Brasher moved with his family to California and spent his childhood on the west coast where his father operated one of his businesses. Returning to Alabama with his family when he was 16, Brasher attended Hueytown High School for six months, then settled in at St. Clair High School, where he would meet his future wife on his first day.

“I sat down behind her in homeroom. I saw this beautiful girl and fell in love,” he says of his wife of 38 years, Kathy Foreman Brasher. “I told my best friend then that I was going to marry Kathy one day.”

And, he did marry Kathy Foreman, who it turns out shares Brasher’s mechanical bend and “adrenaline junkie” passion. They raised two sons, Trey, 33, and Shannon, 30.

Before becoming a police officer and as a sideline income since, Brasher drove long haul trucks for his father’s business, including delivering natural gas in 18-wheel rigs.

While Brasher worked as a police officer and sometimes truck driver, Kathy worked for the St. Clair sheriff’s department as a 911 dispatcher for 10 years and today manages the county’s pistol permit program.

Fast cars, motorcycles and an airplane

Always an “adrenaline junkie,” Brasher first flirted with speed and daring as a drag racer in California as a teen. He’s since had fast cars – a favorite being a 1969 AMX hot rod – and motorcycles, enjoying both the rides and the tinkering with engines and anything mechanical.

When their sons were young, Ed and Kathy Brasher loaded the boys up on their his-and-her big motorcycles and traveled on vacations to the west coast and Canada. Trey recalls these trips with fondness and admits to inheriting the mechanical adventure spirit from his parents.

 Brasher recalls with Trey, who is co-owner of BEILW and the company’s graphic expert, the time his parents had a 350 Chevy V-8 engine up on blocks in the living room, rebuilding it.

Since then, there have been other fast cars, a Piper 235 airplane that he and Trey are both licensed to fly and a new Gold Wing motorcycle, purchased as Brasher’s retirement present to himself.

Try this

The catalyst for what became BEILW was a friend who was selling police equipment but didn’t install the equipment. “He knew I had a background in electronics and asked if I was interested in the installation side of the business,” Brasher says. The friend knew the products would sell better if installation was part of the deal.

One day, Brasher came home to find a Crown Victoria in the driveway with equipment in the seat and a note, “Try this.”

Brasher and Trey installed the equipment on the Crown Vic. Then there were two or three more police cars in the driveway. They soon set up shop in the family garage.

Four years later, in 2007, they built the lobby and first workspace at the current location on Oakley Avenue in Odenville. In 2015, a graphic workspace was added. Then, in 2017, the company added its giant warehouse addition designed to accommodate fire trucks and ladder trucks, even 18-wheelers, with a 12- by 16-foot door. Upstairs is a break room and Brasher’s office. There’s also a parts room. The most recent workspace addition is a converted garage outfitted for painting and powder coating equipment.

Lights, sirens, graphics

Brasher’s company serves a specialty market, installing lights, sirens and other equipment on police, fire and emergency vehicles. The services and products include prisoner partitions, equipment consoles, radar, gun racks, laptop connections and push bumpers for police vehicles. They add towing bars and safety lifts on wreckers. The company creates graphics for the exteriors of emergency vehicles and for Realtors and others businesses. The graphics side of the business also produces signs and banners for the general public as well.

As each job on a vehicle begins, the business digitally records the VIN number and image of each vehicle they work on, before and after. This video databank helps with quality control, warranties and being able to reproduce exactly what the customer wants again.

In addition, video security cameras – and screens in Brasher’s office – work 24/7 patrolling the areas around the business to protect the expensive equipment and the customer’s vehicles.

Smart start

Another service offered by the company is installation, testing and removal of “Smart Start” ignition interlock systems in vehicles as part of court-ordered alcohol monitoring of drivers convicted of driving under the influence. The company is one of the state’s certified installers of the system that analyzes the driver’s breath and locks up if alcohol is detected. The Smart Start program is operated by Alabama’s Department of Forensic Sciences.

LED lights a game changer

LED lights that last longer and shine brighter have changed the world of emergency lighting, Brasher says. “They are compact and more reliable and use less power.”

The company’s new line of lighting and siren products, called BEILW and for sale online at BEILW.com, include products designed by Brasher and son with installation and use in mind. “They are more installer friendly, more functional and more aesthetically pleasing,” Brasher says. The line includes siren speakers, beacon lights, light bars and dash lights.

Emergency lighting on vehicles is color coded. Red is for firefighting vehicles; blue is for police, and amber is for emergency vehicles. “It’s always been against the law to have colored lights on civilian vehicles. The type of lights might change, but the color code is consistent, at least regionally. But, it’s the opposite “up north,” Brasher says, with fire being blue and police red.

Investing back in the business

When Brasher still worked with the police department as the company ramped up, he made sure he met all ethics requirements to not do business with police department he’d work for, and he made sure to funnel company proceeds back into the young business. Today, he says, the company is debt free as it continues to grow and add services. Before he retired and went to work there full time, “we invested everything back into the business,” he says, noting there were many what seemed like “43-hour days and 23-day weeks.”

But now the retired police officer tries to hold his work days to five-day weeks, leaving him time for adrenaline-inducing fast cars, motorcycles and airplane rides.

Doris Munkus

Organizer extraordinaire puts skills,
compassion to work for good causes

Story by Elaine Hobson Miller
Photos by Michael Callahan
Submitted Photos

Doris Munkus likes to organize. When she’s not organizing line dancers, senior citizens and fundraisers, she turns to her own household.

“I color-code everything,” she confesses, not the least bit sheepishly. “I have five grandchildren, and I color-code their towels, their bedding, their chairs, even their toothbrushes and drink cups. They can’t change them, either. I don’t have to buy name tags at Christmas, I just wrap their gifts in their colors.”

Freud might call her anal about organizing, but folks around Pell City call her genius. Over the past six years, her organizational skills have helped raise more than $150,000 for various charities and first responders in her community. Her main claim to fame is Dancing With Our Stars. This annual competition mimics television’s Dancing With The Stars, pairing experienced dancers with local bankers, professionals, business owners, elected and school officials, firefighters, police officers and others.

But Doris’ organizational skills go back much further than the 2014 debut of DWOS, however. “I organized a float to represent Dallas County for former Gov. Guy Hunt’s inauguration parade,” says Doris, who taught art in that county’s school system when she lived in Selma. “I staged an Invention Convention for the school children, too. I like to organize big things.”

In 2001 former Pell City Councilwoman and fellow church member Betty Turner picked up on Doris’ organizational abilities and asked her to start an exercise class at their church, Cropwell Baptist. “I couldn’t then because my mom lived with me and I was taking care of her,” Doris recounts. “She died in 2002, so in 2003 I started that class. It was free and open to anyone.”

 After seven or eight years, the exercising hour got a little too long. Doris had taught line dancing as activities director at the Pell City Senior Citizen Center in the late 1990s, so she suggested adding that to the mix. Everyone involved agreed.

“We did a half hour of exercise, half hour of line dancing for several years, then we dropped the exercise portion and just did line dancing,” Doris explains. In 2009, the classmoved to Celebrations, and Doris added a$4 charge per class to cover the expenses of renting Celebrations, buying the music, the signage, the DVD player and other incidentals. The rolls show 50 people, but the average attendance is about 30.

While the class was still at Cropwell, the late Kathy Patterson was on the board of the St. Clair County Relay for Life and asked whether Doris’ line dancers might want to raise money for cancer research. “That first year we raised $2,000, and dancing wasn’t even involved,” Doris says. True to form, shestarted thinking bigger, and the class held sock hops the next year. People responded well, so Melinda Williams, the American Cancer Society representative for St. Clair and several other counties, suggested the dancers hold a Dancing With Our Stars as another fundraiser.

“Our first was February 14, 2014,” Doris says. “February seems to be best month, but we have done it in March and April. In February of this year, we raised $23,111 and those numbers are still climbing because we’re selling DVDs from the show.”

Deserved rave reviews

Tim Kurzejeski is a battalion chief and one of four members of the Pell City Fire Department who line-danced to the 1977 Bee Gees hit, Stayin’ Alive, at the first DWOS – in full protective gear. He has nothing but praise for Doris and the DWOS event.

“Thefire department here in Pell City has had a dance team at Dancing With Our Stars every year since that first year,” Kurzejeski says. “Doris is great. She’s very energetic, she just tries to do the best and most she can to give back to the community. She’s very easy to work with, and it’s actually fun.”

Dancing With Our Stars no longer raises funds for Relay for Life. Instead, the money goes to a different organization each year. In 2016 it benefitted Children’s Hospital of Alabama, in 2017, it was the Pell City Fire Department, in 2018 the Pell City Police Department, and this year, it was for the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department. Next year, DWOS will raise money for the St. Clair County Children’s Advocacy Center. “The dancers and people who buy tickets respond well to local charities,” Doris says. “People call us and ask us to raise money for their charity, and we put them on a list. We check them out, and the entire committee must agree on them. We’ll never do it for an individual, though.”

She has a committee of eight line dancers who do much of the planning for the event. “We already have the menu for next year,” she says. “Vickie Potter, who’s in charge of the food, already has next year’s food court and theme. It will be a hobo theme in 2020.”

Other committee members include Donna McAlister, photo and technical coordinator; Kathie Dunn; Kathy Hunter; Lavelle Willingham, treasurer; Martha Hill; Paulette Israel and Sue Nickens, Silent Auction coordinators. Jeremy Gossett has been emcee, and Jamison Taylor has been the disc jockey for the event since its inception. Griffin Harris is the tech guru who sets up the text line the audience uses to vote for favorites. “It’s all run by volunteers,” Doris says.

Recruiting dancers was hard the first year, but it’s much easier now. In fact, people often call Doris asking to participate. “It’s amazing how much talent we have in this area,” she says. This year, 600 people paid $25 each to eat dinner and watch the show at Celebrations, where all but one DWOS has been held. Next year, it will move to the CEPA building, on the gym side, which holds 2,000 people. “There’s more parking space there, too,” Doris says.

St. Clair County Sheriff Billy J.Murray readily admits that Doris is one of two people he just can’t say “no” to. (The other is his wife.) “Doris has a tremendous work ethic, and she’s very organized,” he says. “There’s always a lot of stuff that comes up that someone has to handle in preparing for the show, and she steps up to the role of managing the chaos.”

Although dancing is out of his comfort zone, he has already signed up for next year because Doris makes it so much fun. “I know how to be sheriff, but I don’t know how to dance,” Murray says. “We (the sheriff’s department) had nearly 30 people helping in some capacity this year, dancing, building props, helping with costumes and makeup. I wouldn’t hesitate to partner with Doris and her line dancers again.”

Joanna Murphree, the executive assistant to the administrator of St. Vincent’s St. Clair, has worked with Doris on DWOS for the past three years, and she, too, has high praise for this wonder woman. “The hospital has had a team in the group division, the Dance Fevers team,” she says. “Doris’s organizational skills are phenomenal. She’s pleasant to work with, too, and very thorough.”

Destination: Worthy cause

When she’s not working on DWOS, Dorisorganizes short, one day or overnight trips for the St. Clair County Baptist Association as a volunteer, as well as cruises and one- and two-week bus trips under the banner of her Pell City Cruisers. This sideline began in 1998, when she worked at the senior center. She charters the buses, plans the itineraries and the meals, books the hotels, the whole shebang. “I did one 14-day bus trip where we flew into Las Vegas and toured 12-14 national parks in nine states,” she says. She has done tours to Canada, Colorado, Montana, Utah, the Ark in Kentucky and the Panama Canal Zone. She makes photo books of each trip, just like she does with each DWOS event. “All of these trips and cruises are open to anyone of any age or denomination,” she says.

In addition, she and the Pell City Line Dancers perform at community events, such as the Halloween Festival at Old Baker’s Farm in Shelby County, Homestead Hollow in Springville and the Pell City Block Party. They dance monthly at the Colonel Robert L. Howard State Veterans Home in Pell City, at the Village at Cook Springs, and at Danbury in Inverness in Shelby County.

When she isn’t traveling or organizing something, she helps her husband, Victor, who is retired from National Cement in Ragland, with Munk’s Renovations. They remodel apartments, refurbish the cabinets they remove and resell them. The couple has been married for 22 years, and yes, she organizes his life, too. But he doesn’t mind at all.

“She’s a wonderful lady, she’s sweet, lovable, real thoughtful,” he gushes. Victor says she organizes his closet, too. “I have a section for work shirts, for dress shirts, for shoes, socks, pants and underwear,” he says. “She has tags, so I’ll know where everything’s supposed to go. She doesn’t like for me to leave my shoes or clothes lying around, and she’ll come behind me and pick them up. I’ve been living with her for almost 23 years, and I guess neither of us is going to change.”

Editor’s Note: For a video or DVD of still pictures of the 2019 Dancing With Our Stars, call Doris at 205-473-4063. They are $10 each.

You may also call her for more information about her trips.

Line dancing classes meet at 9 a.m. on Wednesdays and Fridays, with beginner classes following at 10 a.m. on the same days. Payment is on the honor system, with a box set out to collect the $4 per person charge. l

Guardians of the River

Coosa Riverkeeper and lake associations work to protect treasured waterways

Story by Paul South

Submitted photos

Even in the bleak midwinter, in a season of heavy rain and rising water, Gene Phifer, Linda Ruethemann and Frank Chitwood can almost set clocks by the nature’s magic on the Coosa River.

For Phifer, president of the Neely Henry Lake Association, the White American Pelican returns to entertain each winter, nesting near Phifer’s Neely Henry Lake home. For Ruethemann, a board member and past president of the Logan Martin Lake Protection Association, small black ducks – Ruethemann calls her feathered neighbors “diving ducks” – plunge for food under the Army khaki green water in the mornings, delighting a human audience.

And for Frank Chitwood, the Staff Riverkeeper and founder of the environmental watchdog group Coosa Riverkeeper, anytime is a good time on the river. But the special times are when the sun rises or sets, painting an ever-changing pallet, the moon is full and glowing, or in those seasons when colors, not crowds, clamor for attention.

The lake associations and the Coosa Riverkeeper are united in a singular mission – to protect the Coosa River system that runs through Alabama, downstream from the river’s headwaters at the confluence of the Etowah and Oostanaula rivers near Rome, Ga. The heart of the mission – to protect the quality and quantity of the waters of Coosa and its six lakes and by extension, the overall environment and economy.

Phifer calls Neely Henry, the Coosa and its sister lakes, “a treasure.” The three organizations are carrying on a love affair with the water.

“It’s really a treasure to have something like this, Phifer said. “There’s no other way to put it. We’re so fortunate. We have a river system that flows through the center of Gadsden and then on downstream. With a river like this with all the recreational and all the aesthetic and environmental benefits of it, goodness, it’s a treasure to have this. You don’t see this when you go across the United States.

 Native peoples called the Coosa home long before Hernando DeSoto became the first European to see the river in the 16th century. Neely Henry and Logan Martin were man-made bodies of water, the result of Alabama Power’s construction of hydroelectric dams in the 1960s. While these days, the river and lakes are in better health, there was a time in the not-so-distant past when Logan Martin, Neely Henry and its parent river were a dumping ground for all manner of human refuse from beer cans to busted refrigerators.

“The river system years ago was a biological eyesore as far as the way the water was being treated at that time. Something needed to be done,” Phifer said. “Things weren’t being done the way they should have been done by residents and the communities. Renew Our Rivers moved to the cities and counties, and a groundswell of law enforcement, schools, businesses and the media got involved, too. Etowah, St. Clair and Calhoun all got involved.”

The result was Renew Our Rivers. Started in 1998 on Neely Henry and quickly spreading to other Alabama waterways. On Neely Henry alone, some 500 tons to debris has been cleaned out of the river. On Logan Martin, the first year saw tons of debris pulled from the lake. The amount has decreased over the years, thanks to increased awareness throughout the water system.

Team work

Keeping the Coosa River system clean is only part of the story. For example, an all-volunteer army of trained Logan Martin residents take to the river monthly to test the waters. The effort springs from an Auburn University initiative called Alabama Water Watch.

 Since 1996, the water tests have been carried on come rain or sun, sleet or snow. Ruethemann is a trainer for the testing effort, which looks for warning signs in the water. “You don’t have to be a chemist to be a tester,” she says. “If you can follow a recipe, you can do this.”

Testers don’t worry much about weekly reports but search for trends in quality.

“When I’m out testing and someone sees me, they say, ‘Is the water good?’ And I can tell you what the numbers are today. But what you’re really looking for are the trends,” she says. “Is the water quality getting better? Is it getting worse? Do you suddenly see changes in certain areas of water quality that we need to take notice of and say, ‘Something’s changed here, what is that?’ Then you start going upstream to where the issue started.”

Like the associations, Coosa Riverkeeper is focused on water quantity and quality. Chitwood, founder of Coosa Riverkeeper and the retiring staff riverkeeper for the organization, patrols the waters in a quest to safeguard the river. He founded Coosa Riverkeeper in 2010 after volunteering for other Riverkeeper organizations around the country.

Like the Neely Henry and Logan Martin citizen groups, Coosa Riverkeeper is an advocate for the river system. While unlike the other organizations, Riverkeeper has a small paid staff, the goals of the groups are the same.

“What we do is patrol the river, educate the public and advocate on behalf of the river. Citizen-based, nonprofit,” Chitwood said. “We do a lot of the work that people expect the government does, but they don’t. In a sense, we are a watchdog organization. We do things like monitor water quality to make sure it’s safe to swim and to fish. We respond to citizen complaints. We go and speak to school groups or civic groups about the river and its importance. We monitor pollution sources and seek to reduce those sources of pollution.”

The public perception of the organization among river residents has changed since its early days.

“When we first started, not many people knew what the Coosa River was,” Chitwood said. “They thought of it as individual lakes. So, we talked to people on Logan Martin about the Coosa and they’d say, “We don’t know where that is, and we’d say, it’s right here.” That has changed a lot. They are more aware of the connectivity between systems and between the lakes and how we’re impacted by what people upstream of us are doing. That’s one big change.”

The other is changing the general perception that the Coosa is unsafe for swimming because it does have such a polluted history, especially on Logan Martin because of the PCB issue. What we did was start a program called Swim Guide, where we do water quality testing all over the river every week in the summer. We post that information free so people can see if it’s safe or not to swim that week in their location, instead of just speculation and hearsay. That has been really huge. A lot of people have been reassured about the safety of swimming in the river. But a lot more people are assured about the safety of the water.”

And Coosa Riverkeeper isn’t shy about using the legal system to protect the waterway.

While the lake associations closely monitor water issues and advocate and educate on behalf of the river system to schools, civic groups and government agencies, Coosa Riverkeeper will put its legal muscle behind its efforts.

“That’s why I’m really proud of our group because we’re standing up and doing something about it. And we’re making progress. It just takes people to stand up against industry and the government that are insanely powerful in Alabama and say that’s not really how we want things to happen in Alabama,” he noted.

“There are people out there that they know what they’re doing is not right. And they know that what they’re doing has an impact. But if they don’t get fined for it and they’re not going to spend however much money it is to do the right thing, there’s no consequence. It takes more than one approach to really address all these issues. That’s what sets our group apart. We’re willing to go toe-to-toe with industry, and we’re willing to call in the lawyers and file a lawsuit. There aren’t a lot of groups willing to do that. I think that we have to be willing to do that. If we don’t, we’re never going to change the status quo.”

Perhaps the dominant issue – one that would impact the three-legged stool of the lake associations’ mission to protect water quality, quantity and property values – are the so-called “Water Wars” among Alabama. Georgia and Florida.

In an effort to get more water for a thirsty, growing Metropolitan Atlanta area, Georgia wants to dam the waters that flow into the Coosa, which is downriver from the confluence of the Etowah and Oostanaula. Its impact reaches far beyond the Coosa, to the Tallapoosa and the Alabama Rivers. The Alabama is a navigable waterway, critical for barge traffic to the Port of Mobile.

Choking the flow of water to the Coosa, however, would damage a fragile ecosystem and parch the local economy. If you want an idea of how brittle the Coosa and its lakes are, consider indigenous beavers in the wake of February flooding. While it’s the opposite effect compared to lower water levels, the lesson here is environmental impact.

“Any change in the water level is going to affect the environment,” Ruethemann says. “While it’s the opposite of that, in the flood, beavers were wandering in people’s yards, and they were scared, not sure where to go.”

All of the Coosa advocacy groups are closely monitoring the mountain of litigation related to the water wars, Phifer said.

“We can’t continue to lose a lot of water without damaging us downstream in dry season. When nutrient levels in the water get too high, you have the potential for the nutrients to cause rapid algae growth and when the algae die, it sucks oxygen from the river system, damaging quality of life for the river. When you have dissolved oxygen, it becomes a pollution problem.”

In the years ahead, if the waters of the Cahaba – from which Birmingham derives much of its water – begins to run dry – there is concern that a parched Magic City might turn to the Coosa for water, putting the Coosa in the crossfire of two fronts in the water wars.

“That’s not just a battle for Alabama, Florida and Georgia, but there’s going to be a battle between Birmingham and the Coosa,” Chitwood says. “It’s only going to be so long before Birmingham comes for the Coosa. They’ve talked about it before.”

“When I train people in these (water testing) classes, I tell them, water in not a limitless quality,” Ruethemann says. “You can’t make new water. People say, ‘Why don’t you go to the Birmingham Water Works and get more water? Well, where do you think they get that water?”

One of her water testing students took a biblical view, she says. “Yup, that’s the same water that floated Noah’s boat.”

Ruethemann adds, “As it gets more limited and as we have more people, and we start growing more in urban areas like Atlanta and in the outskirts of Birmingham, people are going to be fighting for that limited amount of water.”

Other development-related issues, like sediment runoff from construction sites, sewerage and stormwater runoff concern the Coosa River organizations of Weiss, Neely Henry, Logan Martin, Lay, Jordan and Mitchell that make up what Ruethemann calls, “The Coalition.”

But another point of advocacy for Coosa Riverkeeper and the Neely Henry and Logan Martin groups is the development of a statewide comprehensive water management plan. Currently, Alabama is the only state in the Southeast without a water management blueprint.

“In my opinion, (if) we get to a courtroom, it’s hard for us to say (water) is of utmost importance when we don’t have a plan together. I think that plays against us tremendously.”

What happens to the Coosa if Alabama loses the water fight?

“We always think the worst. I think human nature is (to think) that everything will fall apart. I don’t know. There are many places on this lake that if the water stayed at 460 (feet), that a lot of people would not have waterfront property at all. You’d still see the diving ducks and the pelicans, but in these narrow sloughs, a lot of people would not have waterfront at all.”

Water quality and quantity should be on the minds of folks along the Coosa and across Alabama, as neighboring Georgia builds more reservoirs at the headwaters of the river.

“I would bet you if you talk to 90 percent of the people in this state, they don’t even think about water, Ruethemann says. “They turn on the faucet, and it’s there. They go to the beach or lake or river of their choice, and it’s there. We have a lot of water in Alabama – today.”

Should they think about it?

“Oh yeah,” she says. “At some point in time, it’s going to become an issue.”

 Meanwhile the groups collaborate, educate and advocate for the river system, pushing for clean, ample water, effective policies and responsible development. The reason is simple. “Anyone who spends time on our waterways in Alabama is going to appreciate them,” Chitwood says. “You’re not going to go kayaking on Big Canoe Creek and say, ‘Who really cares about that creek? ‘You’re going to say ‘Wow, that’s something worth protecting.”