Fall Pottery Classes

Create, explore, express, and discover your own inner artist during Fall Pottery Classes. Register now for classes beginning after Labor Day. Space is limited so reserve your spot today. For more information, please call Linda Sanders Lee at The Artist Within- 409 Bank Street- 256-309-8068.

Southland Flywheelers 1st Annual Fall Show and History Expo at the Morgan County Fair

A New show for 09 will be the Southland Flywheeler Fall show, swap meet, and History Expo!Sat. Oct. 3rd Featuring steel wheels!
1st Annual Fall Show and History ExpoFeaturing the 1st Steel Wheel and Crawler Rally
History Expo to include but not limited to:
Blacksmithing, Wood Working, Spinning and Weaving,Corn Shelling, Corn Grinding, Dutch oven cooking,Sugar cane cutting, Sugar cane pressing, Cane syrup makingCotton harvesting, and peanut harvesting
Other activities:
Tractor parade, Tractor Games, Tractor Teeter TotterPlowing Demos, Prony brake, and Hay Bailing Demos
SWAP MEET
Live steam shed with a display table for participants to use for displaying various size steam engines. We are also going to have plowing and harvesting demos, along with corn grinding and cotton picking. There will be something for everyone. All ages will have a blast! Make plans now to be there. Check back for the complete schedule!Matt Calahan 256-527-0988 or Larry Lemmond 256-773-2692
www.southlandflywheelers.org

2009 Morgan County Fair Schedule

Sept. 24 - Thursday
5:30pm- Gates Open
(Carload Night!)
7:00pm - 10:00pm Natchez Trace
($25 for everyone inside the car.)

Sept. 25 - Friday
5:30pm- Gates Open
7:00pm - Wrestling
$ Ride Armbands

Sept. 26 - Saturday
12:00pm- Gates Open
8:00am-10:00am- Lamb Registration
10:30 am- Lamb Show
11:00 am Goat Registration
Goat Show will start 30 minutes after Goat Show
2:00-4:00pm - Studio A dancers
6:30pm - Demolition Derby
7:00pm - 5 O'Clock Charlie
$ Ride Armbands

Sept. 27 - Sunday
2:00pm- Gates Open
Contemporary Christian Band Day
$ Ride Armbands

Sept. 28 - Monday
5:30pm-Gates Open
8:30-10:00pm - Roosevelt Franklin Band$ Ride Armbands

Sept. 29 - Tuesday
5:30pm-Gates Open
Sound of Silence
$ Ride Armbands

Sept. 30 - Wednesday
5:30pm- Gates Open
7:00pm - Wrestling$ Ride Armbands

Oct. 1 - Thursday
Gates open at 5:30pm
$ Ride Armbands

Oct. 2 - Friday
Gates open at 5:30pm
6:30pm - Youth Horse Show
$ Ride Armbands

Oct. 3 - Saturday
8:00 am-12:00pm- Heifer Registration
12:30pm- Heifer Show
1:00 pm- Steer Registration
30 minutes following the finish of the heifer show the Steer show will start.
8:00am - Southland Flywheelers - A New show for 09 will be the Southland Flywheeler Fall show, swap meet, and History Expo! The expo will include crafts such as blacksmithing, spinning, weaving, wood working and much more. We are also going to have plowing and harvesting demos, along with corn grinding and cotton picking. there will be something for everyone. All ages will have a blast!
1:00pm - Miss & Master Morgan County Fair Pageant
7:00pm - Rollin' in the Hay
$ Ride Armbands

Princess Theatre Announces new 2009-2010 Season

The Princess Theatre Center for the Performing Arts announces the 2009-2010 Season, presenting six major touring arts events in the Professional Series, Special Events, a Lecture & Film Series and Decatur’s first NEA BIG READ project. Season tickets are now on sale at the Theatre’s Box Office, providing first choice of tickets and discounts. Single ticket sales begin September 21. The Princess Theatre invites the public to a free Performing Arts Festival and Open House on September 10 from noon until 8:30 p.m. to learn about upcoming events.

The Season begins on October 26 with Montana Repertory’s National Touring production of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alabamian Harper Lee. The play is made possible with The Big Read initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest, a grant from the Southern Arts Federation and sponsorship support from Eyster, Key Attorneys at Law and Morgan County Attorneys. On November 19, fourteen-time Grammy Award winner Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder perform a bluegrass concert. Direct from New York, 100 Years of Broadway is next on January 30. The All-Star Broadway concert features a live band and five dazzling Broadway stars from such hit musicals as Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Chicago and Jekyl and Hyde in a tribute to the Great White Way. The concert is sponsored by the Decatur-Morgan County Physicians and Lite 96.9.

Grammy winner and Grand Ole Opry regular Marty Stuart appears next on the Princess stage on February 19. In a career that has spanned from playing with Johnny Cash to serving as president of the Country Music Foundation, Marty and His Fabulous Superlatives will share their music that celebrates American roots music. One of jazz’s hottest young performers is Russian-born vocalist Sophie Milman. The winner of Canada’s Juno Award for Best Vocal Jazz Album in 2008, Ms. Milman performs on March 13, adding the Princess to her list of venues that include the Blue Note, Hollywood Bowl and the Kennedy Center. The concert is sponsored by the Decatur Women’s Chamber of Commerce. The season ends on a comedy note when the “funniest man in America,” James Gregory, is scheduled on March 26. This modern day Mark Twain brings his down home, southern comedy experience back to Decatur, made possible by The Decatur Daily and The Rocket.

Special events include area jazz bands in the Annual Big Band Bash XVII on April 1. The Lecture and Film Series includes a line up of cultural lectures/films begins on October 1 with a lecture on Harper Lee, followed by a film screening of the 1962 classic “To Kill a Mockingbird” on October 8and the featured author of the Calhoun College Writers’ Conference. Special programming during the 2009-2010 Season features October 2009 as “Mockingbird Month.” More than 40 programs are scheduled that feature films, lectures, book discussions and workshops about the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” during BIG READ DECATUR and it kicks off with a brown bag lunch event on October 1 followed by a free evening lecture “How a Lady from Monroeville Taught the World About Tolerance” by distinguished historian Wayne Flynt.

The Princess Theatre Season is made possible by grants from the Alabama State Council on the Arts, Southern Arts Federation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Reserved season tickets are now available at the Princess Theatre box office. For more information, call 256-340-1778 or visit the Princess Web site at:
www.princesstheatre.org

Labor Day Concert starring Dorothy Cole in tribute to Tina Turner

The Decatur Parks and Recreation Department is giving you one last time to be “rollin’ on the river!” in a special Labor Day concert beginning at 6:00 PM that will star Dorothy Cole in tribute to Tina Turner. Dorothy’s appearance at an earlier concert was cancelled due to rain, so the weather “Better be good to me” in the September 7 concert that will begin at 6:00 PM at Rhodes Ferry Park. For updated schedule information, please call 341-4818 or visit http://www.decaturparks.com/. In case of inclement weather, cancellation decisions will be made after 4:00 PM.

Vocalist Dorothy Cole will pay tribute to the legendary TINA TURNER in a high octane performance that will get the audience moving! Ms. Cole’s tribute to Turner is so realistic that she has actually stood in for her three times, twice in her hometown of Nutbush, Tennessee and once in DoverKent, England, appearing on the same program as Rod Stewart. Her vocal skills have earned Ms. Cole studio experience in her own right, and she has opened for artists such as the Platters and the Coasters. She has recently performed at Key West, Florida. A popular performer at conventions, festivals, reunions, receptions and private parties, Ms. Cole, like the legendary Turner, is “Simply the Best!”
For more information on Dorothy Cole, please visit http://www.dorothycole.net/. This concert will be the final concert in the 2009 season, with the 2010 Paul Stroud Concerts by the River series scheduled to resume on May 3, 2010.

Concert-goers are invited to bring their picnic baskets, lawn chairs or a blanket and enjoy an evening of free entertainment on the banks of the beautiful Tennessee River. For more information, please call 341-4818.

Decatur to take Stock

Decatur to take Stock in spring
Soulstock Christian music concert moving from Athens State to Decatur; addition of event to give city some 75,000 guests during month of May
By Catherine Godbey, Staff Writer, The Decatur Daily

Young people celebrate at the annual Soulstock festival at Athens State University in 2008. The free one-day Christian music concert, which draws about 20,000 youths annually, will move to Point Mallard Park in Decatur next May.

What do softball players, Christian music fans and hot air balloon pilots have in common?
All will arrive en masse next May and all represent revenue sources.
From May 20 to 30, Decatur parks will host more than 75,000 people at the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics softball championship, the Alabama Jubilee and Soulstock, the newest addition to the city’s roster.
Soulstock organizers announced the relocation after 11 years at Athens State University’s Beasley Field.
“We were thoroughly pleased with Athens and the university but we had a problem,” said Philip Presley, organizer of the free one-day Christian music festival. “The ministry has been so blessed we have just run out of space.”
The solution — move to Point Mallard Park. And Decatur Parks and Recreation officials rejoiced.
“There will be a lot of youth groups coming in by bus loads, literally, to participate,” said Julianne Lowman, marketing director for Parks and Recreation.
“Bus loads,” translates to approximately 20,000 people. Traveling from South Alabama and surrounding states, some will frequent the city’s hotels, restaurants and gas stations.
In 2008, Soulstock’s popularity gained the attention of the Alabama Mountain Lakes and Tourism Association, which bestowed upon the event the Lasting Impression Award. The award recognizes an attraction, event, person or organization that improves the overall image of North Alabama tourism.
But when Presley decided in 1997 to create the event, awards, recognition and money did not motivate him.
“It started behind the church I was pastor at,” Presley said. “We wanted to do a youth rally, invite other local churches and show unity between the different churches and denominations.”
The original Soulstock, held at Valley Church in Athens, attracted 175 participants, 19,800 fewer than the 2008 event. Presley attributed the event’s success to God and the support of Soulstock’s 12- to 15-member core team.
Relying on donations from local churches, individuals and businesses, the event recruits high-profile artists, attracting thousands of teenagers and young adults. Operating with a budget of $50,000, organizers expect the 2010 Soulstock to outpace previous events, due partially to the additional space at Point Mallard.
“The Spirit of America fields offer us the possibility of crowds of 20,000, 30,000 and 40,000 people and the possibility for more success and growth,” Presley said.
Lowman said the park fits the festival’s current and future needs.
“The great thing is our infrastructure for our big events, Jubilee and Spirit of America, is already in place,” Lowman said.
Organizers scheduled the music festival for May 22, the same time the echo of aluminum bats will fill Wilson Morgan Park, transforming Decatur into a tourist Mecca.
The NAIA softball championship will begin the onslaught of visitors May 20, as the city hosts the athletic association’s 32 elite teams. The 2009 six-day tournament generated an economic impact of $1.1 million and filled 1,965 hotel rooms, said Decatur-Morgan County Convention and Visitors Bureau President Tami Reist.
After the softball teams and Christian music fans depart, hot air balloon enthusiasts will stream into the city for the 33rd annual Alabama Jubilee Hot Air Balloon Classic on May 29 and 30.
The last four years, the two-day event averaged an economic impact of $258,300 and filled 900 hotel rooms.
While more congested roads and longer waits at restaurants will face local residents during these 11 days in May, city businesses will benefit.
“We’re making sure the hotels remain full,” Lowman said.

Jack Allen getting its press box, but not men's tourney

By Catherine Godbey, Staff Writer, The Decatur Daily

On the verge of securing a major soccer tournament, a city department and hospitality organization played their trump card.
If Decatur built a press box at the Jack Allen Complex, the city could host the 2010 and 2011 NAIA men’s soccer championships, officials from Parks and Recreation and the Decatur-Morgan County Convention and Visitors Bureau informed the City Council in July.
Jack Allen received the funding for the press box, but not the tournament.
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics eliminated Decatur as a potential host of the 2010 and 2011 men’s championships, said Convention and Visitors Bureau President Tami Reist.
Although the NAIA did not tap Jack Allen, the addition of a press box allows the city to pursue other tournaments by providing an area for television, radio and Internet coverage typically required by high-profile competitions, Reist said.
The hosting opportunities span from lacrosse and Alabama High School Athletic Association soccer to future NAIA championships.
“We want to show our teams and student athletes that we want first-class facilities, and based on what I’ve seen, Jack Allen is first class, except it doesn’t have a press box,” said Scott McClure, NAIA’s manager for championship sports.
“Internally we were thrilled when we heard a press box was going up at the complex.”
When representatives visited the soccer complex three years ago, McClure said, the NAIA immediately ruled out Jack Allen as a host site for soccer tournaments due to the lack of a press box.
But in January, the athletic association awarded the 2009, 2010 and 2011 women’s championships to Jack Allen.
Parks and Recreation Director Jeff Dunlap said he anticipates contractors will complete construction of the press box before the NAIA women’s teams battle for the title in November.
“Hopefully, we can get it in before November, and if we do, that will save us that expense of having to pay for a temporary press box,” Dunlap said.
The city will finance the $150,000 press box through funds generated by the hotel room occupancy tax, a $2 rate charged per hotel room per night.
Since opening in 2006, Jack Allen has attracted international, collegiate and youth soccer tournaments to the city.
In the past three years, tournaments played at Jack Allen had a $4.3 million economic impact. The complex, featuring 11 soccer fields, cost $4.5 million to construct.
Reist expects the women’s tournament taking place Nov. 30 to Dec. 5 to generate an economic impact of more than $300,000. The possibility of Decatur hosting both the women’s and men’s championships exists, but the NAIA may require more improvements.
“There is potential of bringing both the men’s and women’s championships to the same site. Our hope is we’d have two equal facilities,” McClure said.
“Two equal facilities,” translates to two championship fields, both featuring press boxes.