| Thursday, December 11, 2008 | Opelika, Alabama |
Vol. 1, No. 7 |
City of Opelika considers cable and Internet options for economic growth
By Alex Scarborough-Anderson
Opelika Observer
Water, electric and gas have long been utilities governed by cities, but another may be on the horizon of becoming a municipal entity.
The Internet could soon become an option no longer left solely to private businesses like cable and phone companies. Instead, many local governments like Opelika are looking into making cable and Internet available for their cities.
Mayor Gary Fuller said the city has recently looked into forming its own cable, Internet and phone services for the city.
“We're working on getting fiber to the homes to provide everyone with the ability to get these services,” Fuller said, adding everything is still in the planning stage.
The move by the city to take on the work themselves came after several failed attempts to attract other cable companies to Opelika.
Fuller said businesses like Time Warner and Comcast all turned down the his request because the city is so small.
Charter Communications is currently the only company serving Opelika, creating a monopoly according to Fuller.
Fuller wants the city to lay down fiber for cable, Internet and phone lines, creating a challenge to Charter.
“They can charge whatever they want because there is no competition against Charter,” Fuller said.
In 2005, Lafayette, La. voters approved $125 million in bonds to create Lafayette Utility System Fiber.
The move was made to challenge Cox and BellSouth cable and phone providers.
LUS expects to have their entire city fiber-ready by 2011.
On their website, LUS Fiber says their service will cost 20 percent less than “the standard prices of incumbent providers.”
Another ambitious goal being floated by Fuller is the idea of creating a city-wide wireless Internet.
At Opelika's new low-income housing community, Jordan's Gate, wireless Internet is set to be installed beginning next month for incoming residents.
Aerowire, an Auburn wireless Internet business, is working with the city of Opelika on the Jordan's Gate housing and also has talked about creating more wireless hotspots throughout the city.
Aerowire President Butch Brock said he has been in talks with Fuller and Opelika Public Works about making high-density areas like downtown Opelika WI-FI zones.
Brock hopes to reach an agreement with the city to allow him to use the city's tower on Jeter Avenue as a hub for a WI-FI router.
The router could potentially reach up a three or four miles radius for WI-FI users, Brock said.
“It's really important with as much commerce that is done over the Internet to have high-speed wireless Internet zones available,” Brock said. “We want to provide an alternative to the incumbent provider in Charter for the Opelika people.”
Brock said in the private agreements he has with apartment complexes in Auburn he is able to charge considerably less than Charter Cable. For the same high-speed Internet, Aerowire costs only $20.95 a month.
Cities like San Francisco, Philadelphia, Corpus Christi, Texas and Anaheim, Calif. have all experimented with Wi-Fi networks to provide cheaper high-speed Internet to its residents.
In Corpus Christi, EarthLink agreed in 2007 to take over the city's municipal network, which was used for digital water readings and traffic video, and attempted to transform it into a Wi-Fi system for the entire city that would provide high-speed Internet for only $20 a month.
Less than a year after EarthLink signed the contract with the city of Corpus Christi, they backed out of municipal Wi-Fi.
In fact, EarthLink closed downed its entire EarthLink Municipal Wi-Fi Networks division.
Like EarthLink, many large Internet providers abandoned setting up municipal Wi-Fi after proving too expensive.
Philadelphia, Chicago, Anaheim and other cities have been left to fend for themselves after failed Wi-Fi ventures.
While Internet providers have left Wi-Fi, many municipalities are now looking at picking up the investment themselves.
In Minneapolis, the city teamed up with US Internet to create a municipal Wi-Fi system. It costs the city $1.3 million a year for the service according to US Internet Chief Executive Joe Caldwell, while residents pay $20 a month for the service.
Collinwood continues holiday tradition
By Ann Cipperly
Opelika Observer
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Photo by Ann Cipperly |
| Pictured are Rose Anne Hurd with two children, Jacob Walker and Margaret Anne Gunter |
Over 1,600 flickering candles line winding, sloping streets in the Collinwood neighborhood one night during the Christmas season to symbolize the guiding of the Holy Family on their journey to the manger where Christ was born. The 40 th anniversary of an Opelika tradition, the Collinwood Luminaries, will be held Dec. 18 from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m.
Along the drive, homes are decorated for Christmas, and a wreath is spotlighted on each door. At the end of the path, a live nativity scene resonates the message of Christmas. Youth from the First United Methodist Church of Opelika participate each year in the nativity. This year the nativity scene will include a donkey and four sheep.
In honor of this milestone anniversary, the Christmas ornament available at Southern Crossing features a scene of the Collinwood Luminaries.
While this is the 40 th year the entire neighborhood participated in luminaries, a holiday tradition originating more than 400 years ago in Mexico, the first effort included only a few houses on East Collinwood. In 1966, Mrs. J.R. Fuller of the Twilight Garden Club suggested the idea to the club after seeing luminaries in Europe.
The following year with 15 families in the neighborhood at the time, the residents undertook the project. The late Aileen Samford and Lucy Salter were instrumental in organizing the event. Mrs. Salter received information on the details of luminaries from friends in St. Simons Island, Ga.
During the first few years, the residents of East Collinwood used an assortment of bags and candles. After West Collinwood Circle and Collinwood Street were added to the subdivision, the event became more organized. Paper bags and candles were ordered in order to be consistent throughout the pathway.
Aileen Samford's daughter-in-law, Nell Samford, is co-chairman this year along with Rose Anne Hurd.
“We invite the community to bring friends to drive through as many times as they would like,” Samford said.
“The neighborhood has always seen the luminaries as its gift to the community,” said Martha Hill, a Collinwood resident who has participated from the beginning when the first candles were lit.
“It makes Christmas special for children,” Hill said, whose children grew up looking forward to the annual family event. Hill, who served as chairman several times over the years feels the event keeps the neighborhood close.
In 1984, Hill, along with another neighbor, visited Southern Living magazine with information and pictures of the luminaries. Southern Living sent writers and photographers to cover the event and neighborhood party, which was held at Jacob Walker's house. The following year, the event and recipes from the party were featured in the Christmas issue.
“We still have a party every year for the neighbors to celebrate Christmas,” Samford said.
The preparation of setting up the candles involves the entire family. Yards are raked and neatly groomed. Children in the neighborhood assist older residents.
A few days before the event, sand is delivered to several locations around the neighborhood. Three to four inches of sand is placed into a plastic bag, then into a paper bag, with the top folded down two inches to add rigidity.
City sanitation and power employees assist in getting ready for the event. City crews clean streets, and the power company turns streetlights off. Both chairmen say the neighborhood could not present the luminaries without the city's help.
“They clean the streets at the last minute,” Samford added.
The day of the luminaries, bags are placed 20 inches from the curb and spaced evenly for uniformity.
Luminaries begin at 5 p.m. at the corner of 10 th and Collinwood streets. A program with information is given at the entrance. Motorists turn off headlights as they slowly drive one way through the neighborhood, which is transformed into a Christmas wonderland. As Mrs. Aileen Samford was known to say, “It's a good spirit of Christmas.”Literacy Coalition changes a life
By Elizabeth Roberts
Opelika Observer
Participating in her church's Bible reading is the motivation for Estella Perryman to drive from Lafayette, Ala. every Thursday to meet with Mary Millman to work on her reading skills.
“I knew that there was a hole in me that needed filling,” Perryman said. “I am glad that Ms. Mary is my tutor. I know that she is the one for me and that God led her to me.”
Two years have passed since the pair started working together, which Millman says she can hardly believe. In the next year Perryman should be able to finish the final book of the “Laubach Way to Reading” program.
Millman makes sure Perryman stays motivated and encouraged by doing Bible reading at the beginning of each lesson.
“She is close to perfection when it comes to having her work done,” Millman said. “Our relationship is a happy one and it's largely because we both realize that the steps are going to be small, but we both stay motivated.”
This is just one example of the tutor and learner relationships that develop through the Lee County Literacy Coalition. The Coalition is not restricted to reading and writing, while it is the primary focus. There are math sessions as well as practice for GED classes and study sessions for the graduation exam.
Anyone can become a tutor. Tutors are trained and provided with the essential materials like the Laubach Way to Reading” method the Coalition uses. The Coalition has also just received new computers with phonics software that will be ready for use in the fall.
Learners do not have to apply and are not asked personal questions. There are no background or family history checks for wanting to learn to read. Learners are assigned one tutor who works exclusively with them and helps them with their individual needs.
“Everyone that comes to the Coalition is a little different,” said Debby Jahera, director of the Coalition. “There is no certain person that comes to the Coalition. It could be anyone.”
Some learners have diplomas, but realize they need to improve skills or need help with things in the work force. Some never graduated or aged out of high school. Older people come in who have dropped out of school early in life and want to learn more.
“I think that the reason some people never learn to read is that they don't have reading materials around them,” Jahera said. “They just don't think about it, and not having that is normal to them.”
Millman is making sure this doesn't happen to Perryman. She brings in books like the “Illustrated Classic's Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Fin” for Perryman to continue to practice reading.
According to the 2008 CIA World Factbook, adult literacy is defined as those people of the age 15 and above who can read and write. The United States' total population's literacy rate is at 99 percent (www.cia.gov).
From 1996 to 2006 the graduation rate in Alabama rose 6.1 percent, according to
the Digest of Education Statistics (www.nces.ed.gov).
While those statistics are promising, there will always be people who fall through the cracks of the education system, Jahera said.
“I'm not trying to say anything negative about the education system,” Jahera said. “Some people fall through the cracks naturally and some fall through because they think they know more than their teachers. Those are the people who end up coming back to us.”
Perryman was a rudimentary reader and had completed the eighth grade when she started working with Millman at the Coalition. Rudimentary readers can pick out small blocks of words like headlines, but are not able to read large groups of print.
“Now I can even write checks, make out money orders and read letters,” Perryman said. “With the way things are today I wanted to be able to do more things for myself.”
Reading can be challenging for Perryman as the last book in the “Laubach Way to Reading” is more advanced and structured. A network of support that Millman creates in doing duet style reading helps Perryman with her Bible reading. When she doesn't recognize a word, Millman will fill it in for her and at the end of the session they will go back and work through the word together.
“Sometimes I feel like I should know more than I do because we have been doing this for so long,” Perryman said. “She supports me and encourages me to keep going when I get frustrated or want to quit.”
Like Jahera said, this is the magic of the Lee County Literacy Coalition. Two people who want to work and support each other can make a difference.
Millman and Perryman are not the only pair who have benefited from the relationship they found through the Coalition. Sue Brown, who will have been working with the Coalition for one year in July, enjoys her bond with her learner.
“My learner and I go for two hours a week because the time goes by so fast,” Brown said. “It's just a joy to hear him read aloud. I know it's helping because he wouldn't be back every week, and it keeps me coming back.”
Her learner can't drive because of seizures and also has trouble with his memory, but after working with Brown he can now read as well as write in cursive. Brown bought a LETA bus pass with 15 rides so he can get to the Coalition easier. This is how the Coalition can work in a positive way for both the learner and the tutor.
“It's a big world and maybe I can open the door a little more with volunteering at the Coalition,” Brown said.
The Coalition is made of real people who want to help. While Millman's background is in teaching, Brown worked in insurance for 34 years. There is no specific person who can volunteer at the Coalition. All a tutor needs is one required hour per week and the want to help someone better their life.
Since its beginning in 1989 the Coalition has worked with hundreds of students and tutors. Working with the Coalition offers an alternate approach to learning that some may find better than the adult-education classroom. Community churches and social organizations work with the Coalition to reach into the community.
“I just thought it was time for me to do something different,” Brown said. “I wanted to help people besides my family by helping someone to read.”
Anyone can become a friend of literacy. That is the slogan Jahera likes to use to describe the Coalition and the work that it does.
“Working with the Coalition is the most satisfying thing,” Millman said. “When I think of what Estella could do when she started and what she can do now, it's amazing to watch her read and know that she is understanding.”
