Author: Don Fletcher

Don Fletcher

Local investors learn about new Opportunity Zones
By DON FLETCHER News Staff Writer Twenty-one local and area realtors, bankers, timber growers and others spent a little more than an hour at Wind Creek Hotel on February 1 learning the basics of the newest governmental economic development tool. Alex Flachsbart, founder of Opportunity Alabama, filled the group in on the possible tax-deferral and tax-savings benefits of the state’s 158 Opportunity Zones. Opportunity Zones, of which each Alabama county…
by Don Fletcher access_time7 years ago
Shots fired at baby’s mama
By DON FLETCHER News Staff Writer An Atmore man was arrested January 29 after he reportedly punctuated an argument with his child’s mother by firing several shots from a handgun at her car as she drove away from the residence they once shared. Atmore Police Chief Chuck Brooks reported that Marcus Flowers, 24, was arrested after officers responded to his residence on Jack Springs Road. A woman who identified herself…
by Don Fletcher access_time7 years ago
McCullough warehouse goes up in flames
By DON FLETCHER News Staff Writer Firefighters have returned daily to tame fiery flare-ups at the site of a January 31 blaze that destroyed a massive seed warehouse at a McCullough cotton gin. Smoke was reported coming from the warehouse, part of Frank Currie Gin Company, around 12:45 p.m. on January 31. The burning cotton seed has continued to combust, long after the major flames were quelled by volunteer firefighters…
by Don Fletcher access_time7 years ago
AFD tackles simultaneous house fires
By DON FLETCHER News Staff Writer Sirens were a constant sound across the city around daylight last Wednesday, January 30, as firefighters from Atmore, Walnut Hill and Poarch battled two structure fires that erupted just minutes apart. Flames danced inside a mobile home as Atmore Fire Department units arrived at the intersection of South Road and Cross Road, about two miles south of downtown, around 5:50 a.m. Just as AFD…
by Don Fletcher access_time7 years ago
Paying their debt
By DON FLETCHER News Staff Writer Back in the days of prison “chain gangs,” inmates who swung sling blades or axes along county and municipal roadsides were said to be paying their debt to society. The days of shackled-together inmate work crews have gone, but many inmates are still paying their societal debt by working outside the razor wire of a state prison compound. Atmore, with a three-facility state prison…
by Don Fletcher access_time7 years ago