Unity and Interim Police Chief Decision at Council Meeting

By Ladon Campbell - DeKalbRamblings.com Staff

The Ider City Council recently met with the idea of a united community being the topic of discussion.  Following several meetings in which members of the Council dealt with opposition within their own ranks and at times opposition targeted toward Mayor Brad Hannah, townspeople and council members are attempting to quiet the storm and work toward a better Ider. 

During the meeting charitable contributions were made in the amount of $1500 to both the boy’s and girl’s Dixie Youth Baseball and Softball organizations for their assistance during the Mule Day Festival held this past Labor Day.  A second donation was made as well to the Wheels of Time, a nonprofit charitable organization assisting in providing life’s necessities to families in the area.  It was also set that following the December 19 Ider Christmas Parade, a Community Dinner would be held at the Overdear Building in Ider as a way to create unity among the city and to help assist the needy as well. 

Ider Head Football Coach, Brent Tinker, and Mike Whitaker addressed the members of the Council and those in attendance regarding the possibility of creating a community fitness center.  It was decided that there is a distinct need of a facility in order to combat the obesity epidemic and create a place with a family atmosphere for citizens to exercise without having to drive to large towns that provide these services.  The Council agreed unanimously to hear more discussion on this possibility and would like a more formalized plan as to best achieve this goal in terms of zoning and tax issues.

The issue of an acting Police Chief came to a vote following the November 18 resignation of Tim O’Dell.  Two candidates for the position were discussed, Barry Munza and Britt Spurlock, both officers on the Ider Police Department.  An executive session of fifteen minutes was held in order to discuss and vote on the officer to be awarded the position.  A 5-0 vote made Britt Spurlock the interim Ider Police Chief for the next six months.  It was decided that Spurlock would be given a six month term in which he would receive the same compensation as his predecessor and would be up for review at the end of the period.  Interim Chief Spurlock thanked the Mayor Hannah, the Council, and those in attendance by saying “I really appreciate this.”

The Council approached the need to make a formal application for a $25,000 grant to pay for the upgrade of the city’s police fleet.  Under new legislation all police vehicles must now have onboard computers equipped for fingerprint scanning, identity issues, and electronic citations.  All cities must be NCIC (National Crime Information Center) compliant by January 1, 2010.  The date of submission for the grant is January 18, 2010.

Other items of business were the repayment of $1580 for the purchase of a shifter pad on the city’s tanker truck and radios being given to the Ider Rescue Squad for emergencies.  The meeting was adjourned with the next scheduled meeting being December 7, 2009.

Verses for Inspiration

Jennifer Robinson-Tijsma - Staff Writer

"The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms."

Deuteronomy 33:20-29 (for study)

Our lives always seem to throw us curve ball after curve ball...then we we think we are back on out feet WHAM!....another curve ball. We always have to remember that there always people worse off. Granted that may not make you feel better, but as least you know that it could be worse. God is always your refuge and can be your strength if you let him.

Praise for DeKalbRamblings.com!

Dear Editor,

Thank you so much for your articles. All articles on the site are great. But I love the ones about cancer, foster care, virus, and etc. that the sisters do. Keep up the good work.

Ann

P.S.-I ALSO LOVE THE CRAFTS AND RECIPES KEEP THEM COMING.

Editor's note: The author is speaking of Nancy Phillips and Jennifer Robinson-Tijsma, who have been very dependable and valiant in providing articles and tidbits of information for DeKalbRamblings.com.  The editor would also like to extend her thanks to the pair as well for a job well done!

Congrats to all the Winners!

Our "New Moon" contests didn't go quite as we had planned earlier.  While negotiations were continuing with Fort Payne Cinemas, staff photographer (and my lovely sister) Michelle Cisco managed to reach a deal with Henagar Drive-In.  The owners of the Drive-In happily jumped in to offer our readers two free passes!  So while I hated to stop conversing with Fort Payne Cinemas on the subject, I couldn't pass up donated passes.  Because of Henagar Drive-In, DeKalbRamblings.com managed to save almost fourty dollars, money that can be used to support our charities and non-profits and money that is desperately needed to pay our writers.  I appreciate Henagar Drive-In for their support and look forward to a mutually beneficial relationship from here on out.

In the meantime, we had a blast playing Twilight trivia on our Facebook fan page.  (Still laughing at the answer that Bella dug up her dog in Phoenix to carry with her to Forks.)  Congrats to Brooke F. who managed to win a New Moon poster and a New Moon magazine.  Congrats to Sebrina B. who also won a New Moon poster.  In a fun twist, Maxie G., who won a New Moon calendar after a fierce back and forth guessing game on Facebook, in an act of sweet kindness, decided to give her prize to the runner up of the contest, Amy S.  Amy thanked Maxie for her generosity.  (Amy, I will be shipping your prize this Monday!)  Winners of the Henagar Drive-In passes were Jane B. and Jess L.  Hope you guys enjoyed (or will enjoy) your free movie!

Thanks for such a fun giveaway month!

Remember, if you own a local business (in or around DeKalb County, Alabama), you can get free advertising which includes a ton of free networking by hosting a giveaway on DeKalbRamblings.com!  Contact us at editor@dekalbramblings.com to see how you can participate.

Easy Thanksgiving Decoration

By: Jennifer Robinson-Tijsma and Nancy Phillips - Staff Writers

We have one simple and cheap decorating idea that works great for fall and Thanksgiving!!!!

Get a low heat glue gun.  Have the kids get some colorful fallen leaves out of the yard.  Then glue the leaves on the pumpkin in your design.  Or get sunflower seeds and glue with your own design on your pumpkin.....how simple.  Just be careful; the glue gun is hot and we don't want anyone to get burned!

Changes Coming! It's Time to Give!

Please pardon the construction that is going to start on DeKalbRamblings.com today.  We will be tearing down walls, removing some links, and over all changing a bit of our focus.

The goals of the website seem to have been blurred over the coarse of the last several months that we've been live.  Not a big deal in a basic sense from a reader's perspective but our bottom line is hundreds in the hole.  I should reiterate that we are not a "business" in the true sense of the word.  We are here to provide free information, interesting stories, give creative types an outlet to display their work, and to promote non-profit and charity organizations by offering monthly giveaways on our site.  It is the frustration of having people literally come up to me and ask me to advertise for them for free (such as writing articles on their business) when we are hundreds in the red, which has turned our focus from what it was originally intended.

This is coupled with the fact that our major social network, Facebook, has changed this past month into a less appealing and less networking-able format.  Our page views have dramatically decreased as a result.  Facebook has lost users and we've lost fans.

But we are still here and still ticking!  The new format coming up will help keep everything in perspective, be much easier to manage and navigate, and the writers, even though they work for mere pennies, are great people who understand the concept of giving back and helping others.  And if you're thinking that you have to give away money to help others, that is not the case.  If you're thinking that you have to be extrememly poor to be helped, that is not the case either.  Hopefully, we'll be able to show you how else you can get involved in giving back to the community by doing something you like to do and in turn we will offer programs that can help you.

Thank you for being a valued reader of DeKalbRamblings.com.

No Pay? No Way!

I had a writer literally thumb up her nose at me recently when I asked her if she'd like to take on an assignment for me.  "Three dollars for an article?  Is that really right?" she asked, thinking I meant more along the lines of $30.  Yes, $3 for a feature article, I had told her.  She felt I should be able to pay much more then $3 and declined.

And yes, while I can attest to the fact that many of the articles in our archives are certainly worth more then the $3 I paid for its non-exclusive use (meaning that it can be used and published elsewhere by the author), $3 is still a good price considering the rates that a number of websites pay for content these days.  If you are a content writer, you know that on many sites, it could take you weeks to even reach $3 for five articles.  But I digress.  I do wish to pay more in the future but for right now, we are still struggling, not even close to breaking even on our expenses yet.  Why?  Because we are a new site and there are business owners out there who are weary of giving business to a website, especially a new one.  I understand completely.  And only time will be able to push us into a site that people trust.

But at least I pay something for informational articles.  Why not creative stuff?  The biggest reason is that I simply cannot afford it at this time.  The second reason is that online revenue is least successful in this category then others.  I do work to give people as much exposure as I can, though.  The musicians that have been interviewed by me and featured have had great exposure.  We've had photos submitted that have gotten some great attention.  But that's as far as it has gone.  We've had no one submit their artwork, poetry, or short stories.  It was one of the biggest reasons I had for starting the website to begin with; to give creative sorts a place for to showcase their work.  So far, I've had a lot of people say, "I would but... no one wants to see it."  How will you know unless you try?

I can't promise that everything sent to me will be published.  But I do look at and read everything that is sent to me.  I would really like to adhere to the DeKalb County only policy but will probably have to expand that very soon given the fact that submissions are very scarce.

Now is the time to submit your work, no matter your age.  You can submit your work by following the guidelines here.