Published: October 09, 2008 06:33 pm         

This Week in History

By Melanie Patterson

The North Jefferson News



The following events were reported in The North Jefferson News during this week in 2003, 1998, 1988 and 1978.



Five years ago

• Jefferson State Community College administrators are on a fast track to create a satellite campus in Warrior. Joe Morris, vice president of JSCC, confirmed Tuesday that a process was under way to begin teaching classes at the former Warrior High School.

• Gardendale’s Carrie Moore heard those famous words, “You’re the next contestant on The Price is Right,” recently. She came home with a new silver Ford Focus that she won playing a game called “That’s Too High,” on the show.

• Warrior Police Department officers have been credited with perhaps the largest illegal drug seizure in Alabama’s history. Officers confiscated approximately 57,300 pills known as ecstasy or MDMA, worth about $1.5 million.



10 years ago

• The Fultondale Police Department is looking for the person or persons responsible for the shooting deaths of two Fultondale residents. Ricky Lamastus, 40, and his wife Joyce, 46, were found shot to death on Sunday inside their trailer at the Hundred Oaks Mobile Home Park.

• Construction workers are taking advantage of good weather as the Outback Steak House takes shape in Fultondale, as well as Ruby Tuesday’s on Fieldstown in Gardendale. Ground for both restaurants in August.

• Among the many new additions coming to Gardendale, a new U.S. Post Office is in the works. A new post office that is planned will be larger and will be more convenient than the current one at the Village Green Shopping Center.



20 years ago

• A report from the Alabama State Fire Marshall’s office points out an inadequate water supply for effective firefighting at Fultondale’s Stony Brook apartment complex with 168 apartment units. The report stated that there were no fire hydrants to serve the apartments.

• State Rep. Jack Biddle III of Gardendale was recently honored by the Alabama Council for Community Mental Health and by the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama for his efforts in getting a $100 million mental health bond issue approved in the special session that just ended.



30 years ago

• More than 20 merchants in the city of Warrior have petitioned the city council to abolish a recently revised license fee code and realign the pamphlet in a “fairer” manner. The new code fails to set a limit on gross business receipts.

• Warrior officially hires Jimmy L. Lakey as the new police chief, with his salary set at $12,771.20. Councilman Jimmy Jett said the new police chief’s two children would qualify for free lunches at school at that rate of pay, after councilman Buck Sharritt said the figure might be high.

• The city of Morris may face court action to determine if it is liable for vandalism that occurred to a 1973 Ranger pickup truck while the owner was in jail. The truck was stolen, stripped and burned while a Warrior man spent the night in jail on charges of reckless driving while intoxicated.