The Fayette County Board of Education accepted several retirements and resignations during its April 16 meeting. Board members Waldon Tucker and John Stowe were not in attendance at the meeting.

Fayette held an Alabama Bicentennial Event on the courthouse lawn on April 27, featuring music by the band C Plus.

Berry celebrated its annual Heritage Festival on April 26-27. The event was well-attended by local residents and visitors.

The City of Fayette and the towns of Glen Allen and Berry recently held clean-up campaigns in their communities.

Bevill State Community College hosted a career fair on Friday, April 26 for high school students in Fayette and Lamar County. The career fair is a partnership between Bevill State, 3M, Northwest Alabama Economic Alliance, the Alabama Career Center and the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service.

Governor Kay Ivey reappointed Fayette resident Don Waldon, former administrator of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, to another four-year term with the waterway authority.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 5406, held its annual awards program on April 16. Each year, the post sponsors the essay contest: “Patriot Pen, the Voice of Democracy” contest, and the “Teacher of the Year” contest. All middle and high school students are encouraged to enter. This year, the winners in the Patriot Pen contest were: Kylee B. Dunn, Emily Huang and Harry Unger IV. Isaac Fowler won the Voice of Democracy award. He prepared and gave a winning speach on our freedoms. The Teacher of the Year award was given to Julie Nabors from Hubbertville School.

The Old Union Cemetery Association will observe its Decoration and Homecoming on Sunday, May 4 as it does annually on the first Sunday of May each year. This year a new sign has been installed at the entrance to the cemetery.

The Fayette Tigers swept North Jackson in the second round of the Alabama High School Athletic Association baseball playoffs and will host Hokes Bluff in the third round on Friday, May 3.

The Berry Lady Wildcats defeated Hubbertville 16-0 on April 13 in the continued NAC Tournament that was previously postponed. The tournament was played at Guin. Brooke Blanton was the winning pitcher for Berry, allowing only two hits and striking out three to capture the win.

The Hubbertville Lady Lions hosted Hackleburg on Tuesday, April 23 and won a thriller by the score of 6-5. Emma Nichols pitched a complete seven-inning game for Hubbertville to record the win.

Dexter Roberts of Fayette made it through the live auditions and is still going strong after defeating two opponents in the battle rounds on this year’s “The Voice.” Roberts, a 2010 graduate of Fayette County High School, earned a four-chair turn during the auditions and picked country music star Blake Shelton as his coach. In the first battle round, Roberts performed a duet with his teammate Dalton Dover of Aragon, Georgia.

A severe thunderstorm hit Fayette County in the late afternoon and early evening hours on Thursday, April 18, and the county suffered damage in numerous locations due to straight-line winds. Fayette County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) Director Russ Taylor said that there were trees reported down throughout much of the county, with some structural damage. He said that a church in northeast Fayette County reported damage and several sheds were demolished during the storm.

The Fayette Community Foundation held its annual reception on April 11 at the Fayette Civic Center to recognize the past year’s grant recipients. William Oswalt, chairman of the Fayette Community Foundation board of directors, presented opening remarks at the beginning of the reception.

A single vehicle accident on Highway 171 approximately four miles south of Fayette resulted in injuries to the occupants of the vehicle. The vehicle left the roadway and traveled several feet before being stopped by a wooded area. Names of the occupants had not been released at press time. Both occupants were transported by ambulance to a medical facility.

Fayette Medical Center held a Community Health Fair on Friday, April 12 to help inform the residents about medical services available in the area and also to offer educational materials and services. In addition to the various agencies and departments located at Fayette Medical Center, other medical providers were on-hand to talk about the services that they offer and to provide information and demonstrations for the public.

Fayette Medical Center Long-Term Care residents hosted an Easter Egg hunt for pre-school children on April 17.

Alabama Pawn & Cash recently held a raffle to give away a Henry Alabama Bicentennial Rifle to benefit the Fayette County Animal Shelter. The raffle raised $3,000 for the shelter and the gun was won by Chris House of Millport.

The Fayette Middle School majorettes were recently selected for the 2019-20 school year.

Color Guards for the 2019-20 school year were recently selected at Fayette Middle School.

The annual Berry Heritage Festival is April 26-27, and Berry Mayor Jimmy Madison said that he is hoping this will be one of the best festivals ever. Madison said that the festival was started several years ago as a fun way to bring the citizens of the town together for a time of fellowship and fun. He said that other towns were having festivals, so the citizens of Berry decided to start a new tradition of its own.

The Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts in Florence presents the works of Fayette folk artist Bernard Wright from Wednesday, April 10 through Friday, May 3. A gallery talk is scheduled for Friday, May 3 at 6 p.m. Wright is a student of acclaimed Alabama artist, Jimmy Lee Sudduth and will be teaching a workshop using Sudduth’s methods in painting with mud on Saturday, May 4 at the Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts. The workshop lasts from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. and includes lunch.

The Berry softball team had a very successful week, winning three of the four games that the team played. Berry started off the week on April 15 by defeating Hubbertville 6-1. Brooke Blanton pitched a complete game for the Lady Wildcats, allowing six hits and striking out six batters.

The Fayette softball team had a tough week, losing four of five games including its only two games in the WAC Tournament. Fayette started the week with a 14-1 loss to Cordova. Brandy Johnson pitched a complete seven inning game to suffer the loss.

The Fayette Tigers won a best-of-three series with Oneonta to advance to the second round of the state baseball playoffs. Fayette will host North Jackson on Friday, April 26, beginning at 5 p.m. The Tigers won the deciding third game against Oneonta on Monday by a score of 3-2. No stats for that game were available at press time.

The Hubbertville Lady Lions traveled to Pickens County on Wednesday, April 17 and defeated the Lady Tornadoes by a score of 12-1. Emma Nichols pitched a complete game for Hubbertville, allowing only three hits and one run.

Convicted killer Christopher Price received a last-minute stay of execution on Thursday, April 11, just two hours before he was to have been executed at Holeman Prison near Atmore for the 1991 murder of Bill Lynn. 

The Greek philosopher Plato was quoted as saying, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” A local resident found that saying very applicable and proceeded to invent an implement that will help not only himself, but other farmers and gardeners who own smaller tractors.

The Fayette City Council approved the hiring of an additional police officer at its April 9 meeting. All council members were present with the exception of Councilwoman Linda McCraw. Fayette Police Chief Danny Jenkins said that he had an additional vacancy on his staff due to the resignation of Sargeant Adam Smith. Smith resigned to take a position with the Fayette County Sheriff Office as the jail administrator, effective May 1.

The 13th annual Cattlemen’s Association Rodeo in Fayette was a huge success, with a near-capacity crowd on each night of the event.

The Fayette County Commission voted at its April 8 meeting to use a Homeland Security Grant to purchase 10 radios for the Fayette Sheriff Department and five for the Berry Police Department. All commissioners with the exception of Commissioner John Underwood were present for the meeting.

The Glen Allen Town Council held its regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, April 2 at the Town Hall. All council members were in attendance for the meeting. Addressing an item which had been tabled from the March council meeting, Mayor Allen J. Dunavant asked each councilor to submit a nominee to serve on the Glen Allen Community Club Committee. Following discussion among the council, the following individuals were agreed upon and appointed to serve:  Tracie Hubbert, Virginia Tucker, Candice Shipp, Crissy Youngblood, Shirley Jones and Sue Hubbert.

The Fayette Tigers lost three crucial area games to the Haleyville Lions during the past week.
On Thursday, April 11, Fayette was defeated by the Lions 11-1. The Tigers managed its only run of the game in the sixth inning, while the Lions scored four more runs in the bottom of the inning to cap its victory.

Hubbertville had a dramatic finish to its game with Marion County, grabbing a 4-3 victory thanks to a three-run, walk-off home run in the bottom of the seventh inning by the Lions’ Gage Alexander.

Berry defeated Hubbertville and Hackleburg in the NAC Softball Tournament and lost to Marion County before the games were postponed to a later date due to rain. Berry opened the tournament by defeating Hubbertville 6-0.

The Berry baseball team played Hubbertville on April 1 and defeated the Lions 12-4. Tyler Smith pitched 6 2/3 innings to earn the victory. Tyler Smith allowed only two earned runs and struck out 13 batters. Isaiah Kizzire pitched the final 1/3 inning of the game for the Wildcats.

The Lady Tigers defeated Curry on April 6 by a score of 4-0. Brandy Johnson earned the shutout win for Fayette, allowing only three hits to record the victory.

The Hubbertville Lady Lions played Pickens County on April 11 and won by a score od 16-5. Emma Nichols pitched a complete game to earn the victory for Hubbertville. Haylee Pollard had two hits, one RBI, and scored four runs for Hubbertville. Allie Voss and Chelsea Porter each had two hits, scored two runs and had two RBIs.

Bevill State Community College hosted league-leading Snead State on Thursday and split the two game set, winning the first game and losing the second one. The Bears won the first game 4-3 as Walker Nolen hit a walk-off home run in the eighth inning to give Bevill the victory.

Mike Lutzenkirchen, executive director of the Lutzie 43 Foundation, spoke to the students at Berry High School on April 4 about making sound decisions in their lives, especially when driving or riding in a motor vehicle as a passenger.

The Fayette Cattlemen’s Association will host its 13th annual Professional Cowboy Association (PCA) sanctioned rodeo on Friday, April 12 and Saturday, April 13 at the Fayette Multi-Purpose Complex. The rodeos will begin each night at 7:30 p.m.

Lindy Hindman, a senior at Fayette County High School, was presented the Fayette Garden Club’s 2019 “Outstandin Community Service Award” during the Fayette Chamber of Commerce’s “First Tuesday” luncheon on April 2.

The Berry Town Council held its regularly scheduled monthly meeting at the Berry Town Hall on April 1. Councilman Troyce Townsel and Councilman Chris Rice were absent from the meeting with all other council members being present.

Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) is a career and technical student organization that functions as an integral part of the Family and Consumer Sciences education curriculum and operates within the school system.  It provides opportunities for active student participation at local, state, and national levels. 

Fayette Middle School has an unusual situation in the halls of the school this year. Although they are not identical, there are nine sets of twins from grades five - eight: one set in the fifth grade, two sets in the sixth grade, four sets in the seventh grade and two sets of twins in the eighth grade. The FMS yearbook is doing a feature page on this rare group of twins, highlighting each set of twins.

The Fayette Tigers baseball team swept Cordova last week to head into the area championships on a winning streak. Fayette defeated the Blue Devils 3-1 in a pitchers’ duel at home on Tuesday, April 4. Cordova scored first in the top of the fourth inning, but that would be the only score that Cordova would notch in the game.

Hubbertville baseball started out the week by falling to Berry by a score of 12-4. Gage Key started the game for Hubbertville, pitching five innings and allowing only one hit and one run. Key struck out six batters. Ethan Nichols and Brodie Porter pitched in relief for Hubbertville.

The Sipsey Arts Alliance (SAA), a nonprofit organization, was formed in 2014 and is dedicated to the purpose of promoting the arts in both the community and in the local schools. Volunteer artists/members of the group present art classes in the Fayette County schools without any cost to the schools or the students.

Hubbertville’s softball team traveled to Brilliant on April 1 and defeated the Lady Tigers 16-9. Dixie Moye was the winning pitcher in relief for Hubbertville.

The Bevill State Bears had its easiest win since the revival of the program in 2018, traveling to Tuscaloosa and defeating Stillman College 25-1. Davis Vails pitched three perfect innings for the Bears to earn the victory.