I hope you enjoyed my ghost story for Halloween. I couldn’t resist sharing one last story with you as I have over the past 10 years.
I have chosen this time to retire, and I wanted to tell you how much I have appreciated your loyal readership. I always tried to be especially attuned to what was happening in the future so you could make the most of what the city has to offer.
I couldn’t have done this without some great people helping me. John Brackin is a wonderful writer who has contributed many stories over the years. While we’re in the writer’s bullpen, my heartfelt thanks to David Frings for writing great nature columns and for helping me get started doing the newsletter 20 years ago when he was Mayor. He was a great Mayor and is always a great friend.
I’m also grateful to Cam Ward and April Weaver for providing great columns on what’s going on at the state level and the processes involved. Thank you so much for your help.
Graphic artist Dawn South has been with us since we were a color publication, and she has always done a superb job. You know, she is also a fabulous traditional artist with many canvasses for sale, and she also does custom art.
For years photographer Eric Starling took our pictures, and he is the man who took the pictures of the flaming pumpkins for me. Since Eric moved to Auburn, Jeremy Raines has been helping me during events, and he does a great job and is obviously a very hard worker.
I want to thank the city of Alabaster for choosing me to do the newsletter 20 years ago. It has been an honor and privilege to do it. Every month, I would send out a reminder memo to all city departments to send me their upcoming events so we could help them get the word out.
At the Albert L. Scott Library, Frances Smith and Carol Smith would send the upcoming Library events. Sharon Allen would always get the info to me even when she was deep into working with a variety of challenges in keeping the Parks and Rec programs sailing along smoothly.
The Beautification Board has also been untiring in their contributions to keep the city beautiful and coordinating the house of the month as well as the Christmas Tour of Lights. Thanks so much to Marie Jordan, Randi Dicus, Nita Furlong and Loretta Barber for your help.
Although she is not listed in the credits, I also want to thank my lovely wife Nan, who has edited the newsletter with a fine tooth comb and made sure we had the best grammar, spelling and punctuation.
And as they say, last but most certainly not least are our wonderful advertisers. Most have been with us for years, and I have always tried to create a magazine they could be proud to be a part of. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart as there could have been no newsletter without your support.
Finally, what will Ted do in the future? Well I’m going to enjoy some down time with family and friends. Looking toward the future, I like telling stories and taking pictures. And I think I want to do more of that. Thanks so much and farewell.
Editor - Ted Vodde
tedvodde@gmail.com
205-620-5505