PRATTVILLE, Alabama - After a search that lasted less than a week, the Prattville Area Chamber of Commerce found a new leader close to home.

 

Patty Vanderwal was named the Chamber president Thursday, succeeding Richard Ray who resigned last Friday. Vanderwal is a six-year Chamber staff member who has lived in Prattville most of her life.

 

"I grew up in Prattville, so for me it's just a tremendous feeling to be in my community doing something as important as what the chamber does," she said.

 

Ray came out of retirement last year to lead the Chamber. Walter Kennedy, the chairman of the Chamber's board of directors, said Ray had to leave for personal reasons but that "we will always be in his debt."

 

Vanderwal has an accounting background, and Kennedy praised her knowledge and expertise, as well as her dedication. She's the fourth Chamber president in the last six years.

 

on March 14, 2014 

MOBILE, Alabama -- Cuba, with its tourist-dotted beaches and tangled political history, has long sustained trade partnerships with many countries. All accept the United States, the only holdout clinching to a Cold War-era embargo against the island nation. But that old attitude has begun to wear thin.

 

Business leaders, at least some in Alabama, foresee an end to the 50-plus year moratorium on unfettered commercial trade. And they want to be ready when it happens.

 

So was the theme this week during a visit by the Chief of the Cuban Interests Section Jos� Caba�as, as he toured the Mitchell Cancer Institute and the Port of Mobile, receiving presentations on the many reasons to keep the Port City in mind.

 

"In the future we can buy Airbus' from you -- and Kias as well," Caba�as said, half-joking, in a meeting room inside the International Trade Center. But lately, it seems, that could become a reality.

 

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - A planned $34 million expansion of Calhoun Community College's Huntsville campus is barreling towards reality.

 

At its meeting tonight, the Huntsville City Council will consider paying the Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood engineering firm $108,460 to figure out how best to relocate a portion of Wynn Drive near the main entrance to the college.

 

A related item on the council agenda calls for the city to buy 2.7 acres needed to shift the road to the east between Old Madison Pike and Technology Drive.

 

103 Wynn Drive, a limited liability corporation based in Missouri, has offered to sell the land to the city for $256,920. It also intends to sell the State Board of Education 9.91 acres bordering Calhoun Community College for $943,000.

 

Calhoun spokeswoman Janet Kincherlow-Martin said the land on the west side of Wynn Drive is the site of a future 90,000-square-foot classroom building. It is being designed now by Chapman Sisson Architects. 

 

 

TRINITY, Alabama - Gov. Robert Bentley will be in north Alabama on Friday morning for a ceremonial signing of SB 217, a bill that creates the new Alabama Workforce Council.

 

Sponsored by Sen. Paul Bussman, R-Cullman, and Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, the bill establishes a council of governor-appointed business executives and industry leaders who will assist state officials on issues related to workforce development.