Newsletter
Mayor Andy Betterton
December 16, 2021
Thank you to the Salvation Army, Women's Auxiliary, Volunteers, & the Community For Your Generous Support This Year!
Over 900 Angels were adopted this year. These volunteers and sponsors are certainly doing Santa's work. Thank you for your dedication and generosity.
Sponsor A Florence-Lauderdale Animal Services Fur Baby This Year!
Congratulations, Council President Dick Jordan & Phillip Comer, for being inducted into the Shoals Home Builders Association
College Street Bridge Corridor Study Public Involvement Meeting
Monday evening, the room was packed with stakeholders to learn and contribute to the College Street Bridge Corridor Study. "Thank you to everyone that was able to attend; it was a great meeting! We appreciate the input regarding the presentation! Let's all work together for one common goal," Council Member Kaytrina P. Simmons, District 1.
For more information or to make comments, email collegestreetbridge@nacolg.org
2022 Shoals Mountain Bike Team Interest Meeting
The Northwest Alabama Youth Mountain Bike Team is entering its 5th season with the Alabama Interscholastic Cycling Association to get more kids on bikes and develop strong minds, bodies, and characters. They are recruiting 6th-12th grade athletes for this upcoming season, and the next interest meeting will be at the Spinning Spoke Cycle Hub (221 N Seminary Street in downtown Florence) on Thursday, December 16, at 6:00 pm. Their first practice will be at 2:00 pm at the Joe Wheeler State Park boat ramp parking lot. Bikes and helmets are available for those who don't have one, thanks to the ShoalsMTB-MSNHA Bike Fleet. Check out www.alabamamtb.org and www.shoalsmtb.org for more info.
For questions or volunteer, email nwalabamanicateam@Gmail.com.
Christmas Fellowship Lunch & Diaper Giveaway By Council Member Kaytrina Simmons Was A Huge Success!
Thank you, Recrissha Doxie, for hosting the 2021 Black Business Expo in the City of Florence! We are ready for 2022!
Check Out The Shoals Economic Development Authority Video Promoting The Shoals!
There's the South and then, there's The Shoals. What's it like to live here you ask? Well, let us show you. You don't want to miss the newest video highlighting some of the great things about living in The Shoals. For any additional information you can visit, ShoalsEDA.com.
The Bus Was Stuffed!
Below is the Florence Purchasing Department (Ben Maharrey, Leanne Kidd, Emily Daugherty & Steve Eason) with donations collected. The second picture features Hunter Jackson on the stuffed bus!
COTTON MARKET IN DOWNTOWN FLORENCE
It’s late autumn in the midst of the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Farmers in Lauderdale County have toiled in their cotton fields: tilling the soil, planting the seeds, nurturing the tiny plans when they emerge from the ground, fertilizing carefully at intervals, chopping away (by hand) the excess plants at just the right time, praying for the proper amount of rain (not too little nor too much), picking the mature cotton by hand (with the help of family members and perhaps a few outside the family), baling the pickings, hauling the bales to the barn to get them out of the changing weather and, finally, loading the bales into wagons to go to the cotton market on the Courthouse Square in downtown Florence. (The Courthouse pictured in the background of the attached photograph was located on the southwest corner of Court and Tennessee Streets where the City-County Government building sits today.) At the open market, cotton brokers would already be gathered in anticipation of purchasing untold numbers of bales at the most advantageous prices, while the farmers’ wishes were likewise for the very best price they could get. The outcome of the market could mean a nice profit or a total bust for hardworking farmers who, almost invariably, would start the cycle all over again the next spring.
--Billy Warren, City Historian
NEXT COUNCIL MEETING
The Mayor and Council members will hold the next council meeting on
Tuesday, December 21, 2021
4:00 p.m. Work Session
5:00 p.m. Council Meeting
City Auditorium
103 South Pine Street
A little laugh...
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Email: abetterton@florenceal.org
Website: florenceal.org
Location: 110 West College Street, Florence, AL, USA
Phone: (256)760-6400