New councilman on planning commission

HARTSELLE — Hartselle Councilman Ken Doss, who defeated Franklin D. Turney in an October runoff, was selected this week to serve on the city's planning commission.

Doss, 63, has served on the planning commission, board of zoning adjustment, personnel board and Hartselle Area Chamber of Commerce in the past.

Doss will replace Bill Smelser, who stepped down from the commission when he was elected council president last month.

LUCY BERRY

Decatur leaf collection making second round

Decatur public works crews are making their second pass around the city collecting leaves.

After finishing up in the Hickory Hills section, work will be in the Burningtree neighborhood next week, public works coordinator Julia Chenault said. Residents are urged to pile leaves behind the curb and out of the street. Sticks and debris should be removed from piles, because they can clog leaf machines. To allow for quicker and more efficient pickup, vehicles parked on the street should be relocated. Crews will continue moving across the city clockwise.

TIFFENY OWENS

Mooresville and Eva post office hours shortening

Retail window hours for the Eva and Mooresville post offices will be reduced in an attempt by the U.S. Postal Service to cut costs. Eva will reduce to six hours each day and Mooresville will reduce to two hours.

U.S. Postal Service representatives said operating hours and date of changes have not been set.

Saturday retail window service will not be reduced and delivery receptacles will not change.

The Eva Post Office is at 4456 U.S. 55 East. The Mooresville Post Office is at 24995 Lauderdale St. in Limestone County.

BEN MONTGOMERY

Austin students holding memorial for friends

Austin High students will hold a memorial service for Nick Sawyer and Bailey Robinson at 7:30 tonight.

The service will be at the home of Karen and Jessie Sawyer, Nick Sawyer's parents, at 1137 London Place S.W.

Sawyer and Robinson died a year ago in a two-vehicle head-on collision on Modaus Road.

Sawyer was 17 and on the school's football team. Robinson, 15, was in the band.

BEN MONTGOMERY

NARCOG meets in executive session

The North-central Alabama Regional Council of Governments board convened Friday in a special-called meeting but met only long enough to go into executive session.

Stanley Yarbrough, a Cullman County commissioner and the board's new chairman, called his first meeting to order.

Lona Johns, who was named the agency's executive director April 30 for a term that was to last only six months, gave Yarbrough the agenda. She said the executive committee needed to go behind closed doors to discuss "a part-time, temporary employee."

The committee went into executive session at 12:46 p.m. The board reconvened at 1:19 p.m. and adjourned the meeting.

Yarbrough, Johns and the other three members would not discuss details.

RONNIE THOMAS