Alabadrock

Progress Bank on target to open here Officials for Progress Bank say that they are on target to open their new location in the former Union Planters tower in downtown Decatur. The bank is currently selling stock subscriptions, about half have been sold, in order to open two offices in the Valley and apply for a state charter. Decatur Daily article: Progress Band on target to open I think the reason that I'd never heard of these people before is because they're not a state chartered bank yet.

Well, that's how we should all approach it. We should be supportive of the people that are proposing this, cause, if they don't see anybody being happy with what they're doing, they won't do it. Of course, every project this big and important should be looked at with skepticism, and the people that propose this should understand and do what they can to keep support and take away the skepticism.

Delta II to launch Mars probe A Delta II rocket built at the United Launch Allience plant in Decatur (formerly Boeing), will be used to send the $420 Million Marsian Probe (Phoenix) 171 Million Miles to planet Mars. The probe is set to land on Martian soil in May of 2008. The 772 Pound machine consists of: * An 8 foot robotic arm that will be used for digging for samples in the soil on the planet. * A camera on the robotic arm that will take color pictures of the "Red Planet" * Two analyzers * A stereo imager * A Meterological station The landers location is the arctic plains of Mars. This area is the place that NASA researchers believe holds the most promise for containing ice accumulations. The current Delta II is 130 ft high. Other "twins" of the Delta II sent up other Martian probes such as Odyssetm, the Explorer Rovers, Mars Pathfinder, and Mars Global Surveyor. The launch of the rocket from Cap Canaveral is set to broadcast on NASA TV between 2:30 AM and 6:00 AM CDT. So, just a bit of news about Decatur's miniature space industry. I'm not gonna give the article link cause I pretty much gave everything that it included.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but, I'm kinda glad this happened. Now, many more people know about this problem. Hopefully, since more people know about it, they'll actually be active with their knowledge and press the city and county to work together. I seems to me that someone other than Orlando would have called this out by now, that is, on a national scale.

Starbucks, Chili's to open facilities in Decatur A spokeswoman confirmed on Thursday that Starbuck's would infact be opening a free standing structure for a franchise at the corner of Spring Avenue and the Beltline. A Chili's is also planning to open up a franchise at the corner of Modaus and Fairground Roads, right off the Beltline. Decatur Daily article: Starbucks, Chili's to open in Decatur I knew that the construction going on at the corner of Spring and the Beltline had to a starbuck's but, I had no idea that they would be opening up a Chili's too. This is on top of all the new restaurants we'll be getting at "The Crossings".

Wallace State vying for center Calhoun wants Calhoun's bid for Governor Riley's proposed robotics center in Alabama is now being challenged by Wallace State, who wants to bring the center to Hanceville. Calhoun believes that they are the best choice because of the location. It's pretty much as close you can get to Huntsville withough being in Huntsville. They argue it would be an easy trip for workers in the Rocket City so that they could get vital training close to home. Wallace State says they are the best location because of their strategic location between Huntsville and Birmingham. Calhoun says that property on the north part of the campus could be used for the center. But, Riley says that the property is to small to house the center he wants. However, Calhoun also mentioned that the Lurleen Wallace Developemental Center (now vacant) could be used. It is in a highly accessible location and very easy to find. Also, it'd be easy to acquire the property since it is still owned by the state. Decatur Daily article: Wallace State wants robotics center too

Downtown Redevelopment Authority likely to use parts of '04 study Decatur Redevelopment Authority members will be using parts of the 04' "Envision Decatur" plan to create the updated one. The big topic of this story is probably about the city trying to attract Calhoun's Fine Arts program downtown. The school is starved for space on campus, so, this could easily solve some problems for them and the downtown area. Bringing the program downtown could mean much more business for downtown restaurants and stores. Including more foottraffic, and some more apartments. It could help fullfill the cities want to try and turn the downtown area into what it once was. Gov. Riley has said that it would be hard to justify getting 30 to 40 million dollars when so many other schools need repairs. Decatur Daily article: Decatur Redevelopment "Envision Decatur"

That's very good news. I wish that the universities in the state would expand to provide more and more degrees. Some reasons that students don't graduate in this state is because they don't know what they want to do with their lives and don't see the reason in continuing education because of that. If they see more in state degrees offered, maybe they'll get interested and stay in school.

Be great to see it when it's finished. Downtown is in need of some REdevelopment. Some of the buildings are just horrible. I'm sure that once this project is finished there'll be some more building going on in downtown.

I think Southwest will be Birmingham's biggest airline, or continue to be, I can't remember who holds the spot down there. But, low-cost carriers are something that the citizens like, and will probably want more of. As the city attracts all of these new biotech industries, high tech industries, UAB grows more, and larger corporations locate to the city, I think that new flights will be offered, and Birmingham will be like maybe Nashville. But, I'm not gonna say it's impossible for an airline to remove hub status from Atlanta. It could very well happen. AirTran seems like the more likely one to do so. Traffic through ATL is going to increase, we cannot prevent that, so, eventually, an airline is going to want to get out of the congestion, and it's not gonna be Delta. The more likely situation would be that AirTran created a secondary, or "joint" hub out of Birmingham. As in, they cut the traffic through ATL in half, and put it on BHM. That seems like it MIGHT happen. Birmingham would stand to gain the most from removal of hub status of any airport in the Southeast.

I doubt that any airline with ram up flights in Birmingham unless for some odd reason, they really wanna make competition for Delta. In that case, they MIGHT put a hub in Birmingham, along with other airports near other Delta hubs. But, I don't see that happening anytime soon.

Parks and Recreation board discusses adding LED signs The addition of LED signs in the city started with the construction of a screen at the Point Mallard Aquatic Center in June. Now, the Parks and Recreation board is installing them at Wilson-Morgan Park (on the Beltline) and at Ingalls Boat Harbor (on AL 20/ALT 72). The new screens should be in place by the end of September. The city wanted signs at Ingalls because the boat harbor is hosting 8 tournaments in 2008. The city wants the sign at WM Park because the current sign only displays set info that has to be manually changed. Article: Decatur wants LEDs for parks

Pryor Field Airport officials say renovations should finish soon Officials for the Pryor Field Regional Airport say that the new terminal building that is currently under construction, should be open for business within the next month or two. The terminal is part of the $3.3 Million expansion/renovation plans that have been made over the past few years. Other improvements included a 1,000 ft runway extension. The runway is now long enough to accomodate a Boeing 737 and DC-9. More improvements in the near future include improvements to the main entrance on US 31. This money came after the Decatur City Council apporved a $154,173 FAA grant. PFRA is the busiest general aviation airport in the state, and is jointly owned between Decatur and Athens. Article: Pryor Field expansions/renovations

Me too. I think this design will be more popular than the one where they'd have to close the street down.

Play

^ Wow, that's nice. Now, is that the entire district, or is that just the hotel. Cause if it's just the hotel, Birmingham's gonna have one major party place on its hands.

Sounds pretty good so far. Have you heard anymore about that possible SEC Museum someone was wanting to build? I can't remember if it was for the entertainment district or not.

Tea

Looks pretty interesting. Do you think they'll just use it for marketing or, what?

Good lord! Who's building all of these houses. I'm assuming that they're all separate projects.

capitalism

That's some pretty good news. People just need more options in downtown.