Huntsville updates

[neilson]

Originally Posted by HSVTiger

and still be in the city, try Huntsville's Monte Sano State Park. Beautiful views
excellent hiking trails and great camp sites. Due to The state parks being used by transplanted hurricane victims availability
may be limited, but with fall on the way the hiking trails are worth the trip.


Check out Alabama's other state parks on this excellent web site.
Alabama has a wide variety of parks
http://www.alapark.com/

I usually go to Green Mountain, it's more secluded and its a county park with no campgrounds. Just great picnic areas, a great walking trail, and one of the best covered bridges i've seen around.

[HSVTiger]

an excellent location as well

[TimCity2000]

green mountain park is nice. not too far from my parents' house.

hsvtiger, how do those airport numbers compare to recent years?

[HSVTiger]

Originally Posted by TimCity2000

green mountain park is nice. not too far from my parents' house.

hsvtiger, how do those airport numbers compare to recent years?

comparison

July 2004, 109,328
July 2005, 116,483

August 2004, 103,789
August 2005, 106,894

Year to Date 2004, 772,583
Year to Date 2005, 862,086

A lot of the increase can be credited to service from Independence Air, additional flights from Us Air and
equipment upgrades.

[HSVTiger]

in southeast Huntsville. This a very beautiful area of the city with
mountains and coves,

By JOHN PECK
Times Staff Writer jpeck@htimes.com
1,123 homes, pools, lakes, walking trails in the proposal

Developers of the McMullen Cove subdivision unveiled plans Wednesday that call for 1,123 homes, walking trails, lakes, a large clubhouse, two Olympic-sized pools and a picnic area.

A city planning subcommittee reviewed Enfinger-Steele Development's layout plans Wednesday morning for the 2,360-acre McMullen Cove. The property is less than a mile from the edge of Hampton Cove, a development of more than 1,400 homes (1,700 when completed).
The developer, state Sen. Jeff Enfinger, D-Huntsville of Enfinger-Steele Development, said lots should begin selling in 60 days. Construction on the first 200-home phase should begin in spring, he said, pending final approval by city planners.

"There's been a lot of interest," Enfinger said after presenting the plans to the city subdivision subcommittee. The city's Planning Commission will review the plans next week.

Plans call for 16 neighborhoods fanning around the head of a scenic valley off Little Cove Road. Homes will be a minimum of 2,500 square feet, with some sections dedicated to homes 5,000 square feet and larger. Prices are expected to range from $250,000 to near $1 million.

Enfinger told the committee about discussions with nearby landowners about granting the city access to their property for a future city greenway. If the owners agree, Enfinger said a continuous greenway could be built along the Flint River to U.S. 72. The connection would be around Salty Bottom Road.

"You'd have a 13-mile hiking, biking, walking trail," he said

[HSVTiger]

Copelands of New orleans has closed its Huntsville location
due to Katrina according to the manager. They can't get food
or access to bank funds they say, and owe back taxes. There was just a review last week in the paper saying how well this restaurant was doing, plus they had just added and revamped their menu.
Hopefully they will reopen but it sounds like a management
issue. The food was very good and made a fair substitute
for the real thing in New Orleans. The store had done a thriving business in Huntsville for 5 years.

[HSVTiger]

Neilsons post mentioning the covered bridge reminded me that
Alabama has an impressive collection of these unique structures.
Many are located in Blount County and there are festivals and tours each year.



Go here for more info
http://www.alabamatv.org/bridges/photos.htm

http://www.800alabama.com/tours-trails/covered-bridge/

[HSVTiger]

From staff and wire reports
Huntsville Times
Sporting News joins hotel to add themed restaurants

Sporting News magazine and Holiday Inn Hotels and Resorts plan to develop sports-themed restaurants at all 91 Holiday Inn Select hotels around the country starting early next year, the companies said.

The Sporting News Grill restaurants will be part of what Holiday Inn calls a "Gen-X" concept for franchisees. Terms of the agreement and costs were not disclosed when the joint venture was announced Tuesday.
Holiday Inn Select has a hotel in downtown Huntsville. Virginia Osborne, a spokeswoman for Holiday Inn, said Select hotels are adding coffee shops, state-of-the-art workout rooms and other amenities to appeal to Gen-X customers, and the Sporting News Grill is part of that rebranding concept

[HSVTiger]

a couple floors to the south Huntsville facility.
Crestwood will add 30 beds and two floors at a cost of $16.9 million. The hospital will add a 24,000-square-foot surgical center in a new third floor and a fourth floor to the east tower.

Brad Jones, Crestwood's chief executive, said patients coming into Crestwood have increased to the point the hospital needed to expand.

"We're not generally able to accommodate these," Jones said.

The construction will take less than 18 months, he said, and the hospital likely will ask for 30 more beds later.

[HSVTiger]

in Meridianville 10-15 minutes from downtown, Madison County Executive Airport
serves business jets, flight training as well as charter flights.
Also home to Huntsville Hospital's MedFlight helicopters.







5,008 x 100 foot runway with extended taxiway

[HSVTiger]

Originally Posted by HSVTiger

Another possible mega project in the making

TVA, government working for new start

By Ken Bonner
The Daily Sentinel Page 1 of 2 | Next
Single-Page View

Published August 8, 2005

Jackson County officials should know by October 1 if NuStart Energy Development, LLC intends to locate a new generation nuclear facility at TVA’s Bellefonte Nuclear Plant site near Hollywood.

NuStart official Garry Miller said Thursday that the eight company consortium will decide by the end of September if Bellefonte is one of their choices for either a Westinghouse Advance Passive 1000 Reactor or a General Electric Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor. The site near Hollywood is one of six finalists. Other potential sites are located in La,. Md., Miss., N.Y. and S.C.

If built, the reactors would be the first new ones in the United States in 30 years. Currently 23 nuclear facilities are under construction worldwide.

While the state currently cannot legally provide tax abatements, credits and other incentives to utility companies it, along with local officials, is trying to meet an August 15 deadline to complete a package encouraging the consortium to locate a facility at Bellefonte. Governmental entities are working to meet the consortium’s request for proposal, covering concerns such as available infrastructure, education, workforce availability, training and outlining community support for the project.

“My job is to put together a response to your request,” Neal Wade, Director of the Alabama Development Office told NuStart representatives in a meeting Thursday. “This is something we want in this state. We’ll put together an aggressive response.”

State Senator Lowell Barron said he would work diligently to see that the Alabama Legislature passes legislation allowing the state to provide a first rate incentive package to the consortium.

“We’ll step up to the plate big time to support this facility,” he said. “We’ll put the incentives in place, the support in place. There’s no place in the U.S. that’s a better place to do business than North Alabama and Jackson County.”

Eight utility companies comprise the NuStart consortium. They are: Constellation Energy, Duke Energy, EDF International North America, Entergy Nuclear, Exelon Generation, Florida Power and Light Company, Progress Energy and the Southern Company.

TVA participates in the group through in-kind services. GE and Westinghouse are involved as reactor designers and manufacturers.

Tom Kilgore, President and COO of TVA said there are four reasons NuStart should choose Bellefonte to build a nuclear plant. “I call them the four C’s,” he said of commitment, community, construction and connections.

“TVA is committed,” Kilgore stated. He said the community supports the project and that construction would be easier and less costly because of the transmission switchyard and other infrastructure in place at the facility. Finally he called the utility’s direct connection to four members of the consortium a plus.

Made the first cut
WASHINGTON A consortium of utilities has picked two sites in Alabama and Mississippi as possible locations for what could be the first nuclear power plant built in the United States in more than three decades.

The consortium emphasized that no decision had yet been made on whether to seek a license for a new plant from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The group is developing an application for advanced approval of the two sites, which would allow for quicker completion of the project if a go ahead is given.

The group decided the new reactors would be built if a go ahead is given adjacent to the existing Grand Gulf power plant, operated by Entergy near Port Gibson, Mississippi, and at the site of the yet unfinished Bellefonte twin reactors near Scottsboro (Alabama). Bellefonte is owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority.

The announcement was made in Washington by Nustart Energy Development, a consortium of eight utilities and two reactor manufacturers. It is the latest development reflecting the intense interest by the electric power industry to build a new reactor to meet growing electricity needs.

[HSVTiger]

slowly but surely,
Seven of ten floors of the structure have been built, said Mike Skelton of Flintco Construction, the general contractor for the project.

An enclosed, climate-controlled skybridge will connect the hotel to the Von Braun Center South Hall from the second floor, Skelton said. The hotel will have 295 suites, including a presidential suite on the top floor. It will also have meeting rooms, an indoor swimming pool, a day spa and a restaurant, which has yet to be named.

[HSVTiger]

of type style of water taxi that will be at Bridge Street, next year

[HSVTiger]

Huntsville along with many other cities, Birmingham, Anniston, Mobile, etc
are all effected by the freeze, but there is some activity.
No way to know but this could be a substantial high rise project.

By JOHN PECK
Times Staff Writer jpeck@htimes.com
Council resolution hopes to help clear way for project

Plans for a new federal courthouse downtown showed some movement last week. But construction still may be far off unless Congress lifts a moratorium on federal building projects.

The City Council passed a resolution Thursday night that set in motion the paperwork for a formal agreement between the city and federal building authorities for a new federal building at Gallatin Street and Lowe Avenue. That's the site of the former Huntsville-Madison County Mental Health Center.

The resolution follows a return visit to the site last month by a representative from the General Services Administration at the invitation of city leaders.

City Planning Director Dallas Fanning said local leaders asked for a meeting with the GSA after repeatedly hearing reports that the site may not meet federal security requirements.

"We kept hearing rumors that the blast zones weren't adequate," Fanning said.

The city bought the vacant mental health building and 5.13-acre site in 2003 for $3.9 million using federal money obtained by Alabama's congressional delegation.

Fanning said the site was bought for a new federal building. The city paid a demolition crew last spring to raze the 1970s-era structure. The vacant lot is now being used for concerts and other outdoor events.

The resolution passed Thursday night indicates the GSA is still considering the site for a courthouse.

City Attorney Peter Joffrion said Friday the GSA recently delivered a draft agreement that says GSA "has already performed studies that confirm the current existing security setback requirements for a U.S. courthouse can be met at the (site) ... based on current existing U.S. Court design requirements."

Attempts to reach the GSA representative, Michael Roper, director of development for the GSA in Atlanta, were unsuccessful. Joffrion said the only concern he's heard is parking. The city doesn't view that as a problem since the city owns most of the adjoining land, he said.

The city initially considered turning the site over to a local federal building authority, which would construct and lease the building for government office space. "We thought that would be more appealing to them instead of having to come up with a chunk of money up front to build it," he said.

[HSVTiger]

is the mural in the old Federal Courthouse painted in 1937



Huntsville: "Tennessee Valley Authority," Xavier Gonzalez, 1937.
The Huntsville mural was the largest and most expensive panel commissioned in Alabama and the only one placed in a federal courthouse rather than a post office. Gonzales received the invitation for the panel based on designs he had submitted for a competition in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1936. He originally proposed a rather odd allegorical panel that the Washington office criticized for both its style and its lack of meaning for the people in Huntsville. Instead of making allegorical allusions it was suggested that Gonzalez place emphasis on the realities of life. Using a realistic style and basing his new theme on the work then being done by TVA in northern Alabama, he redesigned the panel several times. It was ultimately put in place in October of 1937 and described by Gonzales: "Huntsville, Alabama is situated in the lower angle of the Tennessee River and has profited immensely by the benefits derived from the Muscle Shoals Project. Before this undertaking was begun, the country, being unprotected, was at the mercy of floods and calamities. The benefits of electricity were a privilege of the few who could afford the exorbitant price, the soil of the country was being washed away by the floods, and industry and agriculture were underdeveloped due to the uncertainty of land conditions. Since the completion of this project tremendous benefits have been received . . . the control and proper use of water resources; . . . conservation and preservation of land resources; . . . [and] the disposition of surplus electric energy created as a by-product of the irrigation and flood control."

[HSVTiger]

Election year coming up, he is expected to announce a run
for the office..
a few hints in his speech, big things are coming

By MARIAN ACCARDI
Times Business Writer accardi@htimes.com
North Alabama's development projects envy of nation, he says

It was titled a 2005 Alabama Update, but Gov. Bob Riley's address here Tuesday turned into a wrap-up of major economic development projects in North Alabama.

"You're not only winning the game, you're running up the score," said Riley, who called the area an "economic engine" for the state.

"There are few places in the United States of America that would even compare with the growth you're having today," Riley said. The BRAC relocations alone could result in 4,500 to 5,000 new people moving to this area, he said, "and I think that's just the beginning."

The area deserves the projects it's landed, Riley said at the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce's program. "You've fought and you've scraped for everything you wanted."

The only limiting factor will be whether trained workers will be available to fill those different types of jobs, he said. In an effort to make the system more accessible and responsive to job hunters and businesses looking for workers, Riley signed an executive order two years ago to consolidate the state's work force development programs.

"It really is going to be interesting to watch what will happen in North Alabama in the next five, 10, 15 years," Riley said. "Most states would do anything" to be able to boast of just one of the area's recent economic announcements.

"You're on a roll but, over the next couple of years, folks, you ain't seen nothing yet."

Riley answered a variety of questions from the audience:

On the status of the proposed southern bypass, called Patriot Parkway, that would cross Redstone Arsenal: "We want to make this a priority, we will make this a priority."

On a state lottery: "I don't support it."

On Alabama Constitution reform: "The only way to do it is one article at a time." To think a group could be assembled to come up with a comprehensive plan to rewrite the Constitution "is being somewhat naive."

On improving education: "We spend 75 cents of every $1 in Alabama on education. ɠWe're going to have to prioritize." Riley believes the state has shown low rankings over the years because "we've never taken money and put into the programs that move those scores." He praised the Alabama Reading Initiative, which provides teachers in a school with specialized training on how to improve reading skills.

[HSVTiger]

will put pressure on already maxed out schools in those areas.

On Tuesday, Huntsville approved a subdivision of 1,104 new homes off Little Cove Road. The site will be known as McMullen Cove, billed as a neighborhood of mini-mansions priced from $250,000 to several million dollars in east Huntsville.
McMullen Cove comes on top of another 2,000 single-family lots the city has already approved in the east Huntsville since 2003.

Meanwhile, in west Huntsville, the city has approved another 8,000 new homes and apartment units since 2001.

[HSVTiger]

Originally Posted by HSVTiger

Copelands of New orleans has closed its Huntsville location
due to Katrina according to the manager. They can't get food
or access to bank funds they say, and owe back taxes. There was just a review last week in the paper saying how well this restaurant was doing, plus they had just added and revamped their menu.
Hopefully they will reopen but it sounds like a management
issue. The food was very good and made a fair substitute
for the real thing in New Orleans. The store had done a thriving business in Huntsville for 5 years.

Interesting follow up to this story, something just doesn't seem right but we will see. I have heard good and bad reviews on this
restaurant , management was the problem it seems but the food
is good. With Bonefish Grill down the street they may need to look at a different location, Bridge Street maybe. Didn't Mobile's
location close early in the summer? Wonder if it was a similar
situation.

By MIKE KAYLOR
Times Nightlife Columnist mkaylor@htimes.com
Timing added to the confusion. Hurricane Katrina crashed into the Louisiana coast about the time Copeland's of New Orleans became caught in a swirl of legal entanglements in Huntsville.

Now this premier restaurant imported from the Big Easy in 2000 is closed.

Padlocks bar the front entrance of the elegant white stucco building at the corner of Airport Road and Memorial Parkway. They were fastened to the doors by the Madison County Sheriff's Department two weeks ago as a result of unpaid state taxes dating back to 2003.
Two signs on the glass doors are optimistic. They read: "Due to a supply inconvenience from New Orleans, we are temporarily closed. We very much apologize for any inconvenience. We plan to reopen soon!"

That is possible. A spokeswoman with the Department of Revenue in Montgomery says the padlock order can be removed if taxes are paid. Hurricane Katrina only added to a wound opened Sept. 11, 2001, when many restaurants suffered. Owners of the Copeland's franchise would not immediately return calls, but insiders say an interested buyer is looking at the property.

This is certainly a great place to put a restaurant. But it may not return as Copeland's.

[HSVTiger]

My unscientific ranking of the local tv talent as far as producing
a good product.

#1. WAFF 48, NBC, consistent, concise, and to the point. Excellent
weather, they don't take themselves too seriously.
Need to drop "heart of the valley" tag line for every report.
#2 WAAY 31, ABC, Very involved with community, non profits,
Good weather, Erin and Sharon are excellent.
#3 WZDX 54, FOX, no news program yet, just reruns of the usual
Fraiser, Seinfeld etc.
#4 WHNT 19, CBS, The most over hyped self serving station in
3 states. However the weather department is top notch,
probably one of the best in the south. This the only thing
that keeps them above water. Steve Johnson is an excellent
reporter.
#5 WZTV 11, Ind, Small but entertaining locally produced station,
Jamie Cooper and Gloria. Good family shows.

Simply a fun ranking and really changes on a daily basis depending on events taking place.

[HSVTiger]

North Alabama Bird Trail now open. A beautiful web site with
all the info to see our feathered friends.
The North Alabama Birding Trail opening today provides signs, guides and information to help visitors find 50 bird-watching spots in 11 counties.

http://www.northalabamabirdingtrail.com/