March 31, 2009

Today it rained incessantly and I spent most of the day in the office except to eat lunch with a friend and to deliver a gift to Jimmy Lyons, CEO of the Port Of Mobile. He had spoken at our Industrial Development Board a month or so ago and we wanted to give him some prints he could enjoy. I was going to show some property to a guy who needs warehouse space, but it was way too wet to walk around buildings this afternoon.

March 30, 2009

At Kiwanis lunch Dennis Brown gave us a biographical tour of Australia where he lived in the 70's. We voted to give the Public Safety Dept., headed up by Mike Reynolds, $250. to help their POP (Protect Our Property) program. After talking with Mayor Pittman, it was decided to have a "ribbon cutting" ceremony at Jazz It Up on April 8,2009 at 10:00 AM. They are a new business in Chicasaw, voted in by the Commercial Development Board. Sherrie Graham, in charge of other for the city, sent over some interesting thoughts on the Chickasaw Theatre and The Mobile School system.

March 27, 2009

A potential business newcomer called me today looking for a 20,000 sq. ft. warehouse to produce metal panels. I spent part of this afternoon looking for such a place and believe I may have found him one. He needs rail service and a right of way through a back property could be just the ticket for a spur.
This evening I acompanied Margaret and Charles Czajkowski to St. Dominicks church
for their lenten Fish Fry.(see pictures of the Czajkowski's and one of Margaret and me).
I dutifully brought home a take-out box for Deb, who also enjoys a tasty Fish Fry.

March 26, 2009

I had some more tickets printed for the North Mobile Gumbo Cook-Off and issued some "complimentary" ones for use by WKSJ radio, who is going to help promote the
event as well as provide one of the judges. Tonight Deb and I attended the Chickasaw
Police "POP" Protect Our Property meeting. Public Safety Director Mike Reynolds gave us the concept of the program and had several of the officers and detectives speak about its merit.
For those of us that had not met: Bert (the narcotics dog), he was on hand to receive his applause. The idea is to record your serial numbers of TV's, Hi-Fi equipment, photos and descriptions of jewelry then submit the list to the department where they would be kept in a confidential file. This would allow the police to track your valuables at a pawn shop or in the possession of a burglar, plus they issue the home owner a sign which warns that all that owners possessions would be trackable, there-fore likely to aid in an arrest when an attempted sale was made. (pictures: head table

and some of the attendees)

March 25, 2009

Chamber of Commerce business and paying my National Audio invoices took up most of my day
and I was delighted when Bay Coast Consulting Partners offered to host the April 16th meeting.
This afternoon I attended a small meeting of concerned supporters of Chickasaw School Of Math and Science held by Michelle Adams, Principal. We discussed the reasons that the Mobile School Board wants to put an end to a hundred year old historical structure with such a good record of one on one advanced curriculum. A public hearing will be held at 6:00 PM April 1, 2009 at the J.C. Davis Auditorium and I urge every person who may view this blog to attend whether you are a resident of Chickasaw or not. (pictured Adam Bourne, Tom Hayward and Michelle Adams.

March 24, 2009

This morning I joined Tony LaPiani at the church to put in a set of small choir monitor speakers in the organ loft and wire them to an amplifier, equalizer and back to the main mixer. We also hung the main choir speaker which fires from the back of the church into the audience. Taking a lunch break, a former councilman took me to eat at Catfish Junction. We returned and finished up, then delivered a commercial board vote to our City Inspector then proceeded to the council meeting. One of the councilmen, Henry Phillips returned after a couple of months of being incapacitated by a broken shoulder. He was grateful to the many people who had visited him in the rehabilitation

home. The meeting ran a quite long because of hurricane disaster bid openings which were

difficult to dicipher.

March 23, 2009

Monday is always lunch at Kiwanis. Todays guest speakers were Tommy McDuffie, our juvenille specialist and one of our detectives who spoke about keeping the kids in line and some of the latest scams being put out on the internet. At 6:00 PM the Board of the Chickasaw Theatre met to discuss the success of "The Foreigner" and the latest squabble with the city about the lease. Tonight, the Commercial Development Board met to vote on a new business: Jazz It Up , a ladies fashion shop opening in Chickasaw. The board welcomed them to the city and wished them great sucess.
(pictured are the three board members who attended the meeting)

March 21, 2009

My friend Charles and I drove to Fairhope today for the Arts and Craft Festival and to visit the train show they always have. We met quite a few members of SWARM (South West Alabama Railroad Modelers) and had a good time. Stopped at a wine and cheese distributors shop and replenished my supply then bought some bakegoods from a very nice lady at a rehabilitation center (where we were parked) next to the trainshow. Lunch at Oyster House on the Causeway brought our Balwin County trip to an end. (pictures: right, Pres. of SWARM and me); left, (Charles listening to train whistle)

March 19, 2009

Chamber Of Commerce Board meeting at 10:30AM followed by lunch and guest speakers, Mike Sweet, sponsor; then Sam from Alabama Gulf Sewer Supply, Nedra Bloom from the Civic Theatre and finally our main speaker: Charlie Smoke with the Mobile Arts Council who presented one of the 5-minute "Scramble Films" Tonight we went to the Municipal Dinner at the J.C. Davis Auditorium held for Chickasaw and
neighboring city employees. The speaker this evening was Bill Johnson who spoke about how the Stimulus Package would affect Alabama and with particular concern, the Southwest corner. (picture of Mike Sweet at Chamber lunch, left and our table at auditorium tonight, right)

March 18, 2009

Picked up the tickets for the upcoming North Mobile Gumbo Cook-Off and the window decals for Chamber Of Commerce Members for 2009. Dropped by the courthouse to get my mail and spent some time with the Mayor and Safety Director.
We discussed the Mobile County school situatuation and our options and what can be done about Prichard having to close their Police Department. Temporarily, Mobile and Chickasaw can help with patrols, but eventually the city (Prichard) will have to straighten out their financial problems or be annexed by Mobile. Tonight I will solder some cables for the Chamber meeting projector input tomorrow.

March 17, 2009

Happy St. Patricks Day! I stopped by the Courthouse to pick up the application from Carnes on the new business wanting to open at 256 S. Craft Highway. The Commercial Board will have to approve it before the city issues a permit. The applicant is considering a ladies fashion shoppe named "Jazz It Up" (see picture on right) I then stopped by the St. Thomas Church to deliver some raceway and conduit for their wall plug-in plates. This evening I may partake of a green beer and toast that when you go: "May you land safe and snug in heaven five minutes before the devil knows you're gone"

March 16, 2009

This kitten has the same frustrated expression on his face that most of the Kiwanis Club did after hearing Ken Meggison from the school board this afternoon. Ken, our scheduled speaker, did a little dance around the announced eventual closing of Chickasaw and Clark Schools of Math and Science. Denying that Shaw School (the proposed recipient of the two Chickasaw schools student body) is a dump, he said the
school (Shaw) was in a nice area of Mobile (Right!) Ken was certainly right about one thing. . . he suggested that we all attend the hearings about the schools. . . we'll be there, Mr. Meggison!

March 15, 2009

Our mission this Sunday was to accept the kind hand of fellowship offered by the First Baptist Church and listen to a fine message from Dr Henry Creel, followed by a lavish lunch of chicken, turkey, ham, beef and scores of delicious side dishes.
After eating a sampling of desserts, it was time to once again thank God for the many blessings bestowed upon Deborah and myself by retiring to this benevolent and
caring city.

March 14, 2009

Packed up the 2' X6' module I had landscaped for the train club and delivered it to our president, Herb Kern. Then I made it back in time for the Chickasaw Development Corporations "open house" for their (3) new homes located on Jackson Street. All three are very well built and feature faux granite countertops, walk-in closets and bath off the master. With a price of $110 K, they shouldn't have any trouble moving them. (see picture of second home with our Mayor, Councilman Bourne and Ed Baxter talking over the state of the city). Tonight I had boxoffice duty at the Civic Theatre where The Foreigner is playing its final weekend.

March 12, 2009

Tonight we met in the cafeteria of Chickasaw Math & Science School where we listened to Michelle Adams, Principal and the president of the PTA. Both made a
calm, albeit passioned plea to sign petitions and attend any hearings to be held concerning the fate of this 100 year old institution. There was a power-point presentation and an opportunity to ask questions or give opinions. Exofficio
Mayor Jim Trout, Councilman Adam Bourne and Councilman Ross Naze offered sage advise and joined in the rally to keep the school in its present capacity as an elementary learning center. Deborah and I spoke positively about the facility before she had to adjourn to her North Mobile Garden Club meeting.

March 11, 2009

Many of you have heard the news about the school board closing the Chickasaw School Of Math and Science. It has been weighing on me for the last week or so since our Consulting Company is one of their many benefactors. Deborah had already written a "letter to the editor" at the Mobile Press, but when I was told today that the principal of Clark Middle school and the school board along with the new superintendent had come up with this idea for personal as well as financial reasons, I couldn't stand by without expressing my view to the board. Whether this rumor is true or not, I fired off an email to our board member, Ken Meggisson and told him we would bring every power to bear (what little power I might have) to bring citizens to public hearings and sign petitions to alert all of Mobile what an insane decision this would be. Chickasaw School is a jewel in the crown of Mobile County schools and most of the City is quite upset. Five minutes had not passed before I received a call from Reverend Levon Manzie, one of the board, telling me he agreed with the citizens of Chickasaw. I am going to be attending the emergency meeting tomorrow evening arranged by Principal Michelle Adams to help her worthy cause.

March 10, 2009

My counterpart in Saraland, Mandy Trout, (President of their Chamber Of Commerce) was kind to invite me to lunch where the guest speaker was Thomas Woelker, V.P. of ThyssenKrupp Steel LLC. a 4.2 billion dollar company building in Calvert, AL. about five miles away from the Ciba Geigy Plant my father built in 1952.

He was an interesting speaker, sharing with us the progress that has already been made with their large site and the berths now being constructed to unload the many barges coming in and out daily. The company will hire as many as 3700 employees

by 2011.

March 9, 2009

Today at Kiwanis lunch we heard from Noco Howell of the Silver Haired Legislature who is looking for a replacement in her duties. We hope she continues to serve since she has done a remarkable job. There was discussion about raising money to support public meetings regarding the threat of Mobile County to close our Math & Science Schools and combine then at Shaw School in West Mobile. My household was taken over by furious cake baking by Deborah for the Womens Club scholarship fund raising project. (see Deb's proud work) Tonight the Historic Society met to elect new officers and hear from a termite exterminator executive about our propensity toward those adorable creatures in our sill plates and joists My wife was elected Vice President AND we learned who to call when the 'mites swarm.

March 8, 2009

I belong to a train club and volunteered to landscape a 24" X 60" module that will be used in the upcoming Train Show in Fairhope March 20-22. So when I came home from church, I spent a couple of hours working on the project. Lots of paint and glue and sand and gravel. When I started to get hungry, I bought a sandwich on Springhill Ave. and visited the Frisco 1527 Steam Engine down the street. Just to keep it all in the train context, I ate my sandwich at the locomotive. For me, a good way to start the week.

March 6, 2009

Friday was spent going to lunch with a couple of my friends, making up some balanced line cables for the new church sound system and winding down the evening by going to our Knights of Columbus Fish Fry. Some mighty good eatin' and the attendance was far better than they had anticipated. It was a wise person who thought to buy that extra couple of ten pound boxes of fish.

March 5, 2009

Last evening I attended Parish Council where we discussed having a Sadar Supper before Good Friday. It is normally a very sparse meal containing one bitter item.

This afternoon, Ervin Dailey brought over a water color he had commissioned a local artist to paint of the Chickasaw Caboose. We had lunch together at Dreamland and discussed the Noth Mobile Gumbo-CookOff being held by our Chamber Of Commerce on May 9, 2009. I snapped a picture of Ervin for JoAnn Mc Knight at the Mobile Press Register to be used in her article. Ervin and I came up with a cure for

for all the strife and bad politics in the world while we ate. (water color of caboose)

March 3, 2009

Although most of the microphone wires have not been run, we did get a chance to hook up the mixer and amplifier to test the speaker. It sounds excellent, but I got so caught up in the installation, I missed the Garden Club meeting. At 7:00 PM we had
a Commercial Development Board meeting, where we discussed the need to carefully
follow our strategic plan on what type of businesses move into the city. Guests at the meeting were Adam Bourne, Gerald Easley, Sher Graham, Deborah Hayward and Ross Naze.

March 2, 2009

Arriving at St. Thomas Church at 9:00 AM we took measurements of the EV speaker, then went to pick up the 25' high Genie Lift in order to attach the speaker to a roofing
truss. Several trips were necessary to pick up white paint, a 3/8" thick "flying" plate and assorted bolts. I took a one hour Kiwanis lunch break to hear Dr. Ervin Dailey report on his annual trip to Kiwanis Alabama located in Prattville. We spent the better part of the afternoon hanging the central EV speaker and soldering "speak-on" connectors to the cable attached to its back. At 6:00 PM I had to be at the Chickasaw Civic Theatre for a board meeting where a motion was made to appoint a negotiating committee to meet with the Mayor. Everyone involved will be so happy when this Theatre lease matter is completed.