HAMILTON - The Pride of Hamilton Aggie Band will be hosting its first-ever car and bike show fundraising event.
The Hamilton High School Band’s Inaugural Car Show and Motorcycle Exhibition will take place rain or shine on Saturday, April 6, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the band’s practice field in front of Hamilton Middle School and will be open to all cars, trucks and motorcycles.
From noon to 1 p.m., a barbecue lunch will be available in the Hamilton High School cafeteria and will cost $8 per person.

HAMILTON -  The Marion County Extension Office will be holding parenting classes once every week throughout the month of April.
The classes will be held on Tuesdays, April 9, 16, 23 and 30, beginning at 1:30 p.m.

These classes will set out to teach parents and guardians how to create a healthy environment and relationship for the children under their care.

HAMILTON  - The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released updated star ratings, and North Mississippi Medical Center (NMMC)-Hamilton received a five-star rating.
The ratings are a composite metric of one to five stars, with five being the best. They intend to convey the overall quality of nearly 4,000 hospitals in the U.S. and are posted to the CMS Hospital Compare site.

MONTGOMERY - Gov. Kay Ivey has awarded more than $260,000 to five agencies in north Alabama to continue efforts against domestic abuse and sexual violence.

TUSCALOOSA- West Alabama Works (WAW) has received a grant of $1,459,335 from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC).
This grant is a part of ARC’s $22.8 million to expand and diversify the economy of coal-impacted communities in nine Appalachian states.
In partnership with the West Alabama Chamber of Commerce, WAW will use the grant to deliver training and employment opportunities to coal-impacted communities such as Bibb, Fayette, Hale, Jefferson, Lamar, Marion, Pickens, Shelby, Tuscaloosa and Walker counties.

HAMILTON - Nights will be brighter in the City of Hamilton.
The Hamilton City Council unanimously voted during its meeting on Monday, March 18, to move forward on a project with Alabama Power which will replace all 661 of its city street lights with LED bulbs.
The city’s power bill, which currently averages roughly $6,900 per month, will increase by $108, or about $1,300 annually, to pay for the lights and installation.

BAKU, Azerbaijan - Ramp pastors Samuel Bentley and Micah Wood, both of Hamilton, were two of 12 U.S. evangelical pastors who traveled to the country of Azerbaijan as guests of its president.
Azerbaijan is a predominately Shi’ite Muslim country on the Caspian Sea, located north of Iran and south of Russia. It is one of the few Muslim nations to maintain cooperational ties with Israel.

HAMILTON - Miss Hamilton Lauren Reaves and the Hamilton Fire Department have partnered together  to provide a special class to train public safety workers on how to communicate with individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

HAMILTON - The 27th Annual Breaking the Cycle of Abuse (BTCOA) conference will be held on Friday, April 5, at Bevill State Community College- Hamilton.
This year’s event will mark the first time that two doctors will give presentations as previous years the conference had featured only one doctor. Dr. Carin Richard Kiser and Dr. David Bernard of the UAB Department of Pediatrics will be speaking at this year’s event.

MONTGOMERY - The Alabama Senate voted 28-6 in approval of the Rebuild Alabama Act, which levies an additional 10-cents per gallon on fuel sales.
The state House of Representatives passed the referendum with a few amendments on Friday, March 8. The Senate voted the tax through on Tuesday, March 12, sending it to Gov. Kay Ivey’s desk, who signed it into law later that afternoon.

HAMILTON -  The Bevill State Community College Diversity Committee invited LaToya Cosby, the director of the Education Opportunity Center at Bevill’s Jasper and Sumiton campuses, to speak about her life experiences and encourage students during an event honoring African-Americans on Thu

HALEYVILLE - An interstate drug operation has been intercepted by local and regional agencies, who seized approximately eight pounds of marijuana in air-tight bags mailed from southern California to the post office in Haleyville.

HAMILTON - Local members of the Republican Party heard from Alabama Poli

HAMILTON -  The Hamilton Fire Department was dispatched by Marion County 9-1-1  to a single-vehicle collision near exit 14 on I-22 at 2 a.m. on Tuesday March 12.
When the fire department arrived, with assistance from the Hamilton Police Department and Marion County Sheriff’s Department, firefighters discovered that the vehicle had collided with the interstate guardrail, tearing the left side of the vehicle open and caused the driver of the vehicle to be ejected from the car.

HAMILTON - The City of Hamilton has spent the last dollar from its 2014 bond account.
Hamilton Mayor Bob Page told the Journal Record that the city officially closed its bond account after paying out its remaining balance to Dymac Contracting for work its work on the E.T. Sims Jr. Neighborhood Facilities Building.
Hamilton City Clerk Angela Owen said that the remaining balance in the account was paid out on Feb. 19 for the rec center renovation.

WINFIELD - The Winfield Middle School robotics team put on a demonstration during the Winfield City Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, March 12, in the board room at the school.

GLEN ALLEN -  The Glen Allen Town Council voted on Tuesday, March 5, to move forward with artist Missy Miles of Organic Vessels Studio and Art Gallery of Hamilton to paint a mural on the side of the Glen Allen Volunteer Fire Department building.

HALEYVILLE - Mid-South Newspapers Publisher Horace Moore is the new president of the Alabama Press Association Board of Directors.
Moore assumed the top leadership position of the state press association on Saturday, Feb. 9.

HAMILTON - The three-mill fire protection tax has completed its first full year of collections.
Marion County Firefighters Association President Jeff Williams provided the Journal Record with Fiscal Year 2018 statements of Marion County’s 12 municipal and community fire departments.
Altogether, the three-mill tax produced $756,460.08 for the period and provided $63,038.34 each to the Craft, Bear Creek, Brilliant, Byrd, Guin, Hackleburg, Hamilton, Pea Ridge, Shiloh, Shottsville, Twin and Winfield fire departments.

HAMILTON - The Hamilton High School (HHS) Engineering Club is breaking career technical norms.
According to HHS engineering teacher James Beasley, the local engineer club has about 70-percent female participation.
Beasley and three engineering club members—Bailey Sherman, Kira Clark and club president Kaylee Gann—gave a special presentation to the Marion County Board of Education at its meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 12, in accordance with Career Technical Education Month in February.

BRILLIANT - When the Brilliant Lady Tigers’ volleyball team advanced to Class 1A’s Final Four in October 2015, James Dickinson knew there was one more story to tell.

HAMILTON - Hamilton councilman Gene Sanderson has suggested the city begin discussing temporary tax options to fund road repairs.
Sanderson introduced the topic at the Hamilton City Council’s meeting on Monday, March 4, after regular business had concluded.
“We need to start doing something about paving some of these streets,” Sanderson said. “We’ve got a lot of people who are not satisfied with the streets in Hamilton.”

HAMILTON - The Hamilton Senior Center will have a brand new 15-passenger van to provide services to local seniors.
The Hamilton City Council voted unanimously to purchase a new 2019 15-passenger van at its Tuesday, Feb. 19, meeting.
Hamilton Mayor Bob Page said between three to four months will be necessary for the van to be obtained.

 WINFIELD - The Winfield City High School drama students are presenting their annual spring production at The Pastime Theatre this week. The students will present the romantic comedy Tom Jones with public performances on Thursday, March 14, at 7 p.m., and on Sunday, March 17, at 2 p.m.   
The production was adapted by David Rogers from the novel written by Henry Fielding, published in 1749. The book is generally considered one of the first novels in the English language.

HAMILTON - Following the accidental discharge of a weapon in the Marion County Courthouse in Hamilton on Feb. 22, Chris Hargrove and Tracy Peoples, vice presidents at Muscle Shoals-based Dynamic Security Inc., who have provided security to the courthouse since 2016, visited the Marion County Commission to discuss solutions and preventative measures after the incident. 
In attendance were county commissioners Bobby Burleson and Dale Holt, sheriff Kevin Williams, 25th Judicial Circuit Judge Daryl Burt and Marion County Commission Attorney Scott Hunt.

HAMILTON -  Marion County’s unemployment rate ticked up slightly from 3.8 percent in November 2018 to 4.1 percent in December. Though slightly up, the number marks the end of a downward trend that began in January 2018 when the rate was at 7.6 percent.
In December, 510 people in the county were unemployed, up from the 482 in November. In December 2017, 448 people in the county were unemployed.