The Weekend of Women will feature key signature events, including:

• Light the Fountain, set for Thursday, March 10 at 6:30 at Harrison Plaza. Ande Jones, UNA graduate and former UNA volleyball, tennis, and softball coach, will pull the switch to light the fountain. The rain date for this event is March 15.
• UNA graduate and singer/songwriter Rachel Wammack in concert, with special guests, Friday, March 11, at 7 p.m. at Norton Auditorium. Tickets for the show can be found here.
• School of the Arts Showcase from 5:30-7 p.m. at UNA on Sixth in downtown Tuscumbia. Tickets for the showcase can be purchased here.

The Chick-fil-A Florence Race will take place on Saturday, April 2, 2022.

Chick-fil-A will host a 10K, 5K and 1 Mile Fun Run. This race is part of the Chick-fil-A North Alabama Race Series, where we join 4 other Chick-fil-A franchises from Athens, Madison and Huntsville, AL in raising money for various charities. This year, 100% of the proceeds from our race in Florence will be donated to Shoals Scholar Dollars.

Mayor Betterton presented a proclamation to Alabama Parent Advisory Council and Kayla Etie of Congressional District 4.The Alabama Parent Advisory Council (PAC) advises the Alabama Department of Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention about funding community-based programs that help support and strengthen families.

The PAC assists in:

• Fostering parent leadership development
• Advocating on behalf of parents and other caregivers to promote improvements in prevention programming
• Modeling the value of partnerships between parents and staff

Commemorative Fund Donations were made in memory of

Bobby Wiginton from the Keith Wiginton family

John Thomas Archer from Sheila A Archer

Kenny Neese from Shirley Neese

The 2022 Arbor Day tree will be planted on the Walnut Street or Wood Avenue. To make a donation to the commemorative tree fund or to purchase a Memorial Grove paver contact Preston Hillis at hillisp@bellsouth.net or Keven Jangaard at kjangaard@hj-arch.com or click the link below.

Get ready Florence; your new favorite soap & skincare store is coming to town! Buff City Soap is opening a local Soap Makery this April at 396 Cox Creek Parkway next to Target. Follow along to learn all about our plant-based products! Check out future offerings at buffcitysoap.com

The inimitable Gladys (“Glad”) Shepard, who chaired the Department of Theatre for so many years at what is now the University of North Alabama, decided in the early 1970’s that it would be a grand learning experience for her students if she could arrange each summer to bring a Hollywood celebrity to the campus so her students could perform on stage along with a seasoned screen and stage actor. So, she set about to make it happen. From one summer to the next, she worked tirelessly to make the (sometimes, very complex) arrangements through Hollywood agents to secure an actor or actress; to take care of the myriad details regarding travel, local hotels and meals for the actor/actress; to negotiate the choice of the play to be staged, etc. Somehow, she was able to work her magic! The first actor to arrive that initial summer was Van Johnson, followed in subsequent summers by such professionals as Gale Storm, Mercedes McCambridge, Lyle Talbot, Peggy Cass and Sal Mineo, to name a few. The University – both staff and students – welcomed these celebrities, as did citizens in the community. It proved to be exactly the experience that Glad Shepard had hoped it would be for her fortunate theatre students. And the citizens of Florence responded by filling Norton Auditorium for the high-quality performances that they had come to expect from the Theatre Department at the University.

--Billy Warren, City Historian

The Mayor and Council members will hold the next council meeting on

Tuesday, March 1, 2022

4:00 p.m. Work Session

5:00 p.m. Council Meeting

City Auditorium

103 South Pine Street