Recent rains should have area gardens brimming with vegetables and produce, and those and others wishing to sell their wares at the Andalusia Powerplant Marketplace are invited to an upcoming orientation meeting.
“We’re asking that anyone who wants to sell their produce and vendors come out Tues., May 29,” said Marketplace manager Neal Dansby. “It’s kind of an opportunity to acclimate them to this year’s market. We’re hoping to increase participation, so we thought this meeting would be a good idea. We’re also hoping to encourage everyone to buy fresh and support your local growers.”
Dansby said it will be held at 7 p.m. and supper will be provided.
Call Sonja Godwin at 334-428-2102 to register no later than May 25. There is no cost to sell produce or to be a vendor.
“Just like always, we plan to open the Marketplace on the Wednesday after Memorial Day, which falls on May 30, and we’ll go until Labor Day,” Dansby said.
It is open from 7 a.m. until noon on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
The Powerplant Market Place gives area farmers an outlet to sell their homegrown healthy choices like fresh snap beans, red potatoes, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes and other vegetables and fruits. There is no charge to vendors.
The market place is located at 256 Central Street, across from the Three Notch Museum. For additional information, contact Dansby at 334-804-7480.
Just in time for hurricane season, LBW Community College in Andalusia is hosting a free weather radio programming event today, May 17, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.
“We consider this an important and potentially life-saving community service,” said Renée LeMaire, LBWCC public information officer and marketing director.”
Meteorologists from Montgomery’s WSFA-TV will program weather radios at LBWCC’s Andalusia campus for residents in and around Covington County, she said.
Weather radios will be available onsite for purchase if one is not currently owned, she said. For more information, call (334) 881-2320.
The low budget, 35-minute short film that brought “Brooklyn to Brooklyn” has turned into a more than two-hour feature film and could bring acclaim to the area, officials said Monday.
Director Michael Infante and his girlfriend and fellow film student, Jessica Thoubboron, brought their film, “Only Fear of Death” to Covington County in early March, where they filmed portions.
Though Infante and his crew didn’t want to pinpoint the various locations throughout the county, he did mention areas of Red Level, Florala and Brooklyn.
The film tells the story of how the encroaching Civil War forces and supernatural agencies disrupt the lives of a slaveholder and his family. The film follows the hesitant master, his dissatisfied wife, his prophetic brother and his conflicted young slave as fear, disloyalty and alienation tear them apart.
Infante was among the filmmakers to have work screened in the “23 on 23,” the 23rd annual Dusty Film & Animation Festival, which is under way at the School of Visual Arts Theatre in New York City through tomorrow.
The festival showcases more than 100 films from graduating students at SVA.
“There are no war scenes in the movie,” Infante said. “Instead, it’s a drama about the interaction between members of a slave-holding family. It’s a modern look at the social dynamics among everyone, about humanity and how people are forced into a situation they don’t want to be in.”
Infante this week told a New Jersey media outlet that he learned more about Southerners’ perspective of the conflict and ultimately, “how our respective educations have provided us with completely different narratives.”
After graduating from SVA, Infante plans to show “Only Fear of Death” to as many different audiences as possible — and this summer will begin to submit the film “to a myriad of important international, national and regional film festivals, including Berlin, Rotterdam, Sundance and South by Southwest.”
The Alabama Trust for Historic Preservation last night recognized the City of Andalusia with its 2012 Preservation of Small Towns Award.
The award was presented at the group’s Birmingham conference “Lighting the Way for Preservation: Saving Historic Icons.”
City clerk John Thompson accepted the award on behalf of Mayor Earl Johnson, who was committed to attending the LBW graduation when the Alabama Trust extended its invitation.
Birmingham landscape architect Dale Fritz of Dale Fritz and Associates, Inc., nominated the city for the award.
“Andalusia has been very visionary in their approach of preserving and adaptively reusing historic buildings,” he said. “Serving as the cornerstone of an era of restoration and progress in Andalusia and Covington County, is city hall, formerly Three Notch Elementary School.
“After a two-year restoration project, the doors of Three Notch Elementary opened as City Hall and showcased a new vision for the community that included preservation and more saved buildings,” he said. “This city has demonstrated that the preservation of historic places does make life better.”
Thompson said it was an honor for him to represent the city.
“These are really cool people who are doing interesting things all over the state,” he said. “It’s exciting that they recognize and honored what we’re doing in Andalusia.
” The preservation, in particular of East Three Notch and Church Street Schools and Springdale provide many benefits to all the citizens of Andalusia,” Thompson said.
The Alabama Trust for Historic Preservation is a grassroots advocacy organization committed to preserving Alabama’s historic assets, which includes neighborhoods, sites, and structures, in order to address the key issues of economic development sustainable communities and the preservation and conservation of Alabama’s cultural assets.
The group holds a lyceum each summer, and plans to visit Florence this year.
The group has expressed an interest in holding its lyceum in Andalusia next summer.
Organizers were pleased with Saturday’s Three Notch Market arts and crafts festival and Little Big Town concert.
Now in its third year, the arts and crafts festival was bigger than ever. Amy Dugger, a spokesperson for the Andalusia Junior Woman’s Club, which sponsors the event, said Saturday was a great day.
“Our vendors grew from only 50 last year to more than 80 this year,” Dugger said. “We hope that it gets bigger and bigger. Our vendors were happy and the crowd was good. It was all for the community.”
The AJWC focuses its fundraising efforts on causes that positively affect students. This year, she said, they are adding a $1,000 scholarship to an AHS student who exemplifies the club’s belief in volunteerism.
Andalusia Mayor Earl Johnson was singing the club’s praises Monday afternoon.
“I am so proud of the Andalusia Junior Woman’s Club and their spouses, as well as literally half of our city employees, for putting all of that together and making it happen,” he said. “There was a great turnout, and I don’t think it could have gone any better.”
The city sponsored the Little Big Town concert, and the mayor estimated the crowd between 1,200 and 1,500.
“It was outstanding for what was the first real concert put on and promoted to any extent in that venue,” he said. “I would rather have 1,200 to 1,500 people and have all of them happy – as they were, than to have had 5,000 show and not be able to accommodate them. Hopefully, we will continue to grow this event.”