City Will Regain Deed To Old Hospital Building
One of the saddest days in Piedmont's history came more than 20 years ago. It was late fall, and at the end of the second shift, Piedmont hospital closed its doors forever. Monday evening, however, the City Council learned it would regain ownership of the old hospital building next month.
Jerry Culbertson, president of Preferred Health Care, told the group the bond issue had been satisfied, and his company was currently working on preparing the final documents to transfer the building back to the city.
It was late fall 1991 when the hospital closed. Culbertson's company had taken over operation of the nursing home, and the city had floated a $1.3-million bond issue to try and save the hospital. The efforts were to no avail, and Preferred Health Care found itself operating a 31-bed facility in a 34-year-old building. The company was also looking at the $1.3-million debt.
In Culbertson's remarks to the council, he said he and his company were proud of the progress that had been made. While the nursing home has been moved to the modern Piedmont Health Care Center building on Ala. Hwy. 9, he said the building has remained of use to the city.
It currently houses the Piedmont Food Bank, Vera Steward Seniors Center, Shine N Stars and a doctor's office. The seniors' center and food bank pay no rent, but Shine N Stars and the doctor's office paid more than $31,000 last year.
According to Culbertson, the building maintenance and repairs were almost equal to the rent payments. "The building's in good shape," he told the council. "Even the elevator works."
The company president predicted growth at the present nursing home. He explained that the money spent on bond payments could not be directed at expansions of the Piedmont Health Care Facility. While he was optimistic of a forthcoming project, he said the company had not decided which option to accept. Culbertson mentioned assisted living facilities, expanding the existing nursing home or building doctors' offices as possibilities.
In closing remarks, he cautioned that some areas of the building would soon need repairs.
The predicted increased maintenance has been a concern for Mayor Charlie Fagan for many weeks. During recent budget planning, Fagan cautioned the council to appropriate some funds for insurance and maintenance of the building.
The hospital was built in 1957, and operated successfully until the 1980s. A shortage of doctors and inadequate Medicare and Medicaid payments were given as the main reason for the decline of the facility.
In a last-ditch effort, the James W. Bennett administration floated the bonds, but the infusion of the money did little to forestall the closing of the facility.
City Clerk Bill Fann asked Culbertson if the rent for Shine N Stars had been adjusted. Culbertson replied that the rent had been lowered to help keep the facility in operation, and that the population of the children's home was still low. He said the rent had not been raised.
Turning to other business, Jeff Formby, director of the Park and Recreation Board, said the Homemakers and Community Leaders Group had volunteered to plant a large flower bed at Eubanks Welcome Center. The only cost to the city would be removing a 24x29 section of sod near the center's entrance, then dig holes for "balled plants." The plans and planting would be performed by the group. The council unanimously agreed to support the project.
Councilman Ed Hanson nominated Corey Pike and Jennifer Young for membership on the Park and Recreation Board. They were appointed by acclamation.
The only other business conducted by the council was approving payment of $74,481.36 in municipal bills. Of that amount, $26,236.67 was paid to the U.S. Department of Energy for electric power.

New Nutrition Program Taught At Elementary School
Jacksonville State University nursing program graduate students are teaching local elementary school students the latest developments in nutrition. As part of their degree requirements, they are introducing Building On Nutrition and Exercise in Schools or BONES.
The program was developed in response to the growing concern over obesity in children, according to a prepared release from Jax State. A study by Action for Healthy Kids of Alabama reports that since 1990, obesity rates have doubled among children and tripled among teens. Overweight children, the organization adds, have an estimated 70-80 percent chance of becoming obese adults.
The organization also notes that only 33.3 percent of Alabama's students attend physical education class daily. Local students are in that minority.
Once a week during October, students will spend their physical education time participating in the BONES program. In cooperation with school faculty and parents, the graduate students teach students the importance of making healthy food choices and participating in physical activities.
Nursing students provide a variety of classroom and physical educational activities. The nursing students said the goal of their classes is to help eliminate poor eating habits usually established during childhood. The program combines physical activities with nutritional education to promote a healthy lifestyle, they said.
Tammy Morrow and Patsy Craig are part of the team from JSU working with the students in grades K-4.
With children sitting at her feet, Morrow explains the new food guide pyramid and the five major food groups. She allows them to participate by placing food samples in the correct category on her chart.
Across the tennis court, Craig sits beside her make shift garden and discusses with her group why vegetables are an important part of the diet. She also introduces some students to collard greens and acorn squash for the first time.
Before they rotate to the relay race, she makes sure they knew the number of daily recommended servings of vegetables.
The Center for Disease Control estimates that 80 percent of children do not eat the recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables each day,
The relay race gives the children a few minutes to exert some of their boundless energy before returning to their classrooms. Everyone is rewarded with a sticker at the completion of the race and comes away a winner.

Strictly Personal
On A Special Night In October...
This week, I would like to share a very special moment with you. It happened last Friday evening about four blocks from where I lived for most of my young life.
Before beginning, let me give you a brief history lesson. My house was on Peachtree Street in Gadsden. That's about four blocks from Gadsden High School and Murphree Stadium. In the summer months, the gym at Murphree Stadium was open, and my friends and I would spend hours shooting baskets, climbing ropes or, on some occasions, bouncing on the trampoline.
Murphree was built by CCC labor sometime in the 1930s. It was there I saw my first football game. The band room was under the stands on the eastern side of the stadium, and when I heard those drums echoing in the exitway, I was hooked. The flags, majorettes, Tigerettes and drum major seemed unimportant. The drummers caught my attention.
The first parade I marched in was when our junior high band was asked to march in a Gadsden High homecoming parade. The first time I marched on a field was at Murphree Stadium. It was halftime at a junior high game.
It was in that bandroom beneath the bleachers that I first experienced something relatively few have been able to feel. I had marched in the Gadsden High drum line for a year, and there was a vacancy for a drum major. As a part of the try-out, each candidate had to conduct the band from the director's podium. I knew all the directing patterns along with a few moves to make conducting look more complicated than it was. After all, I had already been in a band for four years. All a drum major does is start the band at the proper tempo. Occasionally, he or she determines how long the last note of a song is held, but usually the well-rehearsed band only needs to be started. The rest is nearly automatic to them.
I don't know what I was expecting when I stepped on the podium, but when I gave the downbeat and the 200-member band hit that first note, I almost froze. The beauty and power I had created with the drop of a hand were awesome. All the horns and percussion followed every direction for volume and tempo, every gesture for cues and it was all in perfect harmony. I have never forgotten that moment.
I got the job and led the band for two years. I have conducted larger and smaller groups in band rooms and on fields. Heck, once when the Piedmont drum major was sick, I filled in at a halftime performance on the football field behind FEW.
When you are in a group with many of the same people through junior high and high school, the friendships are strong. One other of the strong memories was the last time I conducted the alma mater as a senior. There was more than one tear on the cheeks for the seniors.
About that time, one of my life-long friends had expressed an interest in becoming a drum major. He was a few years younger than I, and I taught him whistle, then to play drums, and finally gave him the benefit of my experience as drum major. I'll get to him later.
A member of that band that played the last alma mater as a member of the GHS class of '61 was bass drummer Mike Daugherty. If you remember, I wrote a column a few years back about the large bass drum that was retired in the concert season of 1960. It was saved from the trash pile by a Tigerette named Debbie Newsome. Y'all probably know her as Debbie (Mrs. Jerry) Goss. She ran out of room and gave the drum to me. In 2001 I was cleaning the drum and thinking of Mike. He had passed away a year or so before. In cleaning the instrument, I found his initials and the dates he played the instrument. They were carved in the wooden rim of the drum.
In the summer of 2001, I gave the drum back to the GHS band, and it has remained on display in the band room.
Last Friday marked the last Gadsden High football game to be played in Murphree Stadium. It was homecoming, and quite a few of the alumni were on hand. Some of the old band members were asked to participate in a pre-game show. Since it was homecoming, the band did its usual halftime show before the game. It was the last show to be performed in that stadium.
The band alumni joined the Tiger Band on the field. The old white drum with Mike's initials led the band as it entered the stadium. It was placed on the sidelines during the performance.
Deleath Reaves, a former band director, was asked to conduct the National Anthem. The present drum major conducted Tiger Rag, but I had the honor of sharing the podium with the kid I taught to whistle. We conducted the last playing of our alma mater at the last Gadsden High football game at Murphree stadium. Before mounting the podium, I touched the old drum, and I could almost feel Mike's present. By the way, my buddy and fellow conductor has a day-job. Some people call him, "Your honor." His name is Steve Means, Gadsden's mayor. I don't think I have ever heard that familiar song played more beautifully. I should also add that when I gave the downbeat for that first note, the thrill and exhilaration was there, just like the first time.
Gadsden, Emma Sansom and Litchfield high schools will no longer exist after this school year. They will be combined into one huge high school. There will no longer be the Tigers, Rebels and Eagles. A rich chapter in Gadsden's history will come to a close. I had some mixed emotions about my high school being closed forever, but I can deal with it now. Friday night, I was privileged to be a part of the closing moments of the great Gadsden High tradition.