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Showing posts from April, 2019

Census 2020, Good Thing or Scary Thing?

Demonstrators rally outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday to protest a proposal to add a citizenship question in the 2020 Census Mandel Ngan / AFP - Getty Images   https://www.foxnews.com/politics/supreme-court-citizenship-question-to-census Our country experienced a milestone date in April, as we kicked off the one year out mark from the 2020 Census. It's hard to believe the last Census was taken in 2010. To say it, doesn't sound that long ago, but consider where you were nine years ago, how old you were, what you were doing. More importantly, consider technology and how different it looks today. Even nine years ago, the evolution of social media hadn't come full circle to the point it has today. Smartphones, Tablets, and iPads were just becoming known to the majority of society, but most weren't yet household "givens" at that time, as they were just beginning to gain notoriety. I know, that's hard to imagine today!  So, now consider what canvas

Come Grow With the Albertville Chamber of Commerce

If you live in Albertville, are an Albertville business owner, or a potential industry looking to locate here, odds are, you've noticed what an outstanding job the Albertville Chamber of Commerce has been doing lately to help promote your cause and cultivate local shopping habits. Many people think the chamber is a deparment of the city, and, understandably so, as it's absolutely imperative that the two us work together to build a better business and overall sense of community, period, for Albertville. We are, however, two completely separate entities. They are a 501c(6) nonprofit agency that relies solely on memberships, sponsors, and grants as means of funding. For many years, the chamber has simply "gotten by' and done the best they could with what they had. Ribbon Cutting, Southern Rustic Designs About six months ago, a new President was hired, Mr. Stan Witherow, to take over and try to grow the Albertville Chamber, and growth , is exactly what it's ex

Farm to Fork on Main

Albertville Farmers Market's fourth annual Farm to Table Dinner has officially been set for Thursday, September 5th, 2019, on Main Street! Tickets will go on sale mid summer, at Albertville Farmers Market, and online at cityofalbertville.com, via EventBrite. Stay tuned to the Farmers Market's social channels for an "on sale date" announcement! Pay close attention, as most years tickets are gone before most folks even hear they're on sale, and seating is limited to 150 people.  AHS ProStart Culinary Students  Farm to Table Dinner Setting If you've attended before, you know, the menu is ALWAYS a suprise and it gets better and better every single year! Featured chefs in the past have been Crystal McKone of Old Town Stock House and Jessica Hanners of Homecoming Cafe and Catering. Both previous chefs are known for their farm to fork menu concept, sourcing all of their ingredients locally, and helping cultivate sustainable farming in our community. The

A "Ground Breaking" Project, Welcome Sand Mountain Park & Amphitheater to Albertville

Sand Mountain Park, Baseball Complex, Championship Field Something "BIG" is coming, something rather unprecedented for Marshall County, AL, much less, Albertville. Something of the magnitude of approximatley 133 acres, buildings of near 300,000 square feet, and more; but, we'll get back to that in a minute. For years, as a municipality, we've struggled to gain the attention we deserve from retailers and developers who have notoriously built just outside of our city limits, often times, in Guntersville, to draw from the lake, or previously, in Boaz, to be near the now decrepit Tanger Outlets. Albertville is three times the size of our neighboring cities ranging 26 square miles, with a population of nearly 30,000. When Wal-Mart, Belk, Lowe's, Staple's, Chik Fil A, Cracker Barrel, Publix, and a vast array of other retailers decided to locate outside of our city limits to the North and South of us, our friends in Boaz and Guntersville began "eating

Ten Years of Great Tunes and Counting... MSMF 2019 is Coming to Albertville in August!

Wow. Has it really been ten years? Even before I worked for the City of Albertville and coordinated Main Street Music Festival, I attended this event, loyally, for nine years. As in, I haven't missed one since it debuted in 2009! That's just part of living in Albertville, and luckily for us, now, part of living in Marshall County and the Southeast. MSMF is the largest free music festival in the Southern United States including in its activities a weekend of music from national recording artists, food, vendors, a vast variety of entertainment, including local talent, and all around family fun. This year, it celebrates its tenth year and comes to you August 2nd and 3rd! Bret Michaels Band, MSMF 2017  In 2016, we were named a Top Twenty Event to Attend by the Southeast Tourism Society, an exciting and prestigious designation that helped the festival gain attention from outside of our region and growing its audience size by large percentages. Last year's festival, featur

Race to Remember 5k, Helping Those Cope who are Facing End of Life Issues

Shepherd's Cove Hospice, Albertville, AL Founded in 2007, shepherdscovehospice.org This Saturday, April 27th, 2019, marks the 14th Annual Race to Remember 5K, in Albertville, benefitting Shepherd's Cove Hospice. Shepherd's Cove began as a small, grassroots, all volunteer  nonprofit hospice agency in the early 1980's, roomed in what is now a closet at the Guntersville Recreation Center (shepherdscovehospice.org). Since then, after becoming a Medicare certified agency, and a United Way of Marshall County partner agency, Shepherd's Cove has grown to become a powerhouse is hospice care being recognized across Northeast Alabama for its exceptional, unmatched in and outpatient care of those facing end of life issues, and their families. What's even more remarkable is that SCH continues to be the only independent nonprofit hospice agency in North Alabama, meaning they operate solely on donor funding, memorials, and fundraisers, yet they've never turned an indi

Buy Fresh, Buy Local

May 2nd is the day, "Opening Day", that is, for Downtown Albertville Farmers Market and we can't wait! Our market runs every Thursday, 3-6 p.m., May through October, rain or shine; and when we say "rain or shine", we mean business. The market is all about our growers as we couldn't do what we do without them. We work hard to ensure we are reliable and open for them as much as possible, barring a severe weather event, so that they always have a place to sell their local produce, meat, eggs, honey, and, well, you name it! Albertville Farmers Market is a state certified farmers market operating under the umbrella of the City of Albertville and the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries' State Farmers Market Authority. To describe this designation in layman's terms, we are the "real deal" when it comes to the farmers market niche. To sell at our market, your farm and product must be from Marshall County, or a county that physically to

Siren or Smartphone? Receiving Severe Weather Alerts in 2019

Well, unfortunately, it's upon us; tornado season in Alabama has already struck with vengeance and we're just getting started. Albertville is no stranger to tornadoes. In 1908, a tornado that's posthumously been rated an EF5, struck the heart of the city in downtown, leaving it destroyed, killing 30 people, and injuring 150 (encyclopediaofalabama.org). 101 years later, to the date, an EF3 tornado ravished areas of the city, again, picking up homes in one neighborhood of Albertville and leaving them in the middle of the street; many other homes and businesses were completely destroyed. Thankfully, there were no deaths caused by that storm. Just a few years later, the deadly tornadic outbreak that wreaked havoc across the southeast and central US, and took the lives of 64 people in Tuscaloosa, AL, drastically affected Albertville and the Lake Guntersville area, just seven miles north of us. Downtown Albertville Tornado Damage April 24, 1908 http://www.encyclopediaofalabama