Pollution, new homes, murder and disaster highlight 2019

Dec. 31--The top local stories of 2019 range from positive news of commercial and residential growth to tragic tales of murder and natural disaster to increased understanding of problems stemming from industrial waste.

Here are the top dozen stories from the past year as selected by The Decatur Daily staff.

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1. Pollution issues plague city

Even as Decatur leaders seek to present a more positive city image that will attract new residents, ongoing pollution issues came to a head for the River City in 2019.

The presence of toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, in industrial waste from Decatur chemical companies has been an issue for decades. Studies link exposure to PFOA and PFOS, two of the most-researched PFAS, to a wide range of ailments including testicular and kidney cancer, low birth weight and immune-system damage. The "forever chemicals" don't degrade in the environment and can't be removed with conventional treatment methods.

In April, a lawsuit by West Morgan-East Lawrence Water Authority against 3M Co. alleging PFAS from the Decatur plant had contaminated the Tennessee River and its downstream water supply settled for $35 million. The previous year Daikin had settled claims the utility filed against it for $4 million. West Morgan-East Lawrence is using the 3M settlement to build a reverse osmosis treatment plant designed to remove all PFAS from the tap water that serves about 55,000 people.

While Decatur industries no longer use PFOA or PFOS in their manufacturing processes, decades of waste contaminate area landfills and dumps, seeping into groundwater and creeks and entering Wheeler Reservoir, which in 2019 once again was the subject of a state fish-consumption advisory. Contaminated sludge disposed on the riverfront 3M property continues to result in high PFOA and PFOS levels in groundwater and Bakers Creek.

3M in July announced it would evaluate three landfills in Morgan County that had received waste from its Decatur plant, which opened in 1961. Preliminary evaluation of the sites, according to documents filed in November with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, show the presence of PFOA and PFOS in all three: at the Old Moulton Road Landfill, at an old landfill at the site of the Aquadome Recreation Center and the former Brookhaven Middle School, and at a closed landfill off Deer Springs Road in Flint. 3M is in the midst of a more intensive evaluation of all three sites.

Decatur City Schools in November filed a notice of its intent to sue 3M under federal environmental laws in an effort to force it to clean up the Brookhaven property.

Also in 2019, 3M reached settlements with at least two Lawrence County landowners. The company purchased their properties and is in the process of remediating contamination in old dumps buried there.

Even as the city coped with its legacy of chemical waste in 2019, it also struggled to control the release of untreated sewage. Heavy rains in February and this month, combined with miles of outdated sewer pipes, led Decatur Utilities to report 81 sanitary sewer overflows in 2019 that discharged up to 7.94 million gallons of sewage on city streets and in creeks that feed into Wheeler Reservoir. The state Attorney General's Office and ADEM filed suit against DU in May over the sewage discharges, and nonprofit Tennessee Riverkeeper joined the suit in October.

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2. Signs of residential growth

Decatur will finally get much-needed residential growth with the announcements of two new subdivisions.

In June, the Morris family announced plans to build a 55-home subdivision named River Road Manor on 19.4 acres off Old River Road in the Indian Hills area.

City officials moved quickly with an incentive agreement in which the city will spend just under $1 million to run 3,800 feet of sewer line to the property. In return, Morris agreed to annex the property into the city and build at least 40 homes or pay for a portion of the new sewer line.

Right behind the Morris announcement, developer Jeff Parker announced plans to build Black Branch Point, a two-phase, 43-acre subdivision off Point Mallard Drive Southeast.

As 2019 comes to a close, both subdivisions are through the city approval process and waiting on the weather to warm enough for construction. -- 3. Cook Museum opens

The long-anticipated $32.4 million Cook Museum of Natural Science opened June 7 in downtown Decatur.

Led by the Cook family, the 62,000-square-foot museum includes a meteorite that visitors can handle, 250 aquatic animals, 60,000 Italian bees and 19 live reptiles in the 11 exhibit galleries.

Many of the local businesses and restaurants had long anticipated the financial benefits from the tourist attraction, which the museum projected would attract as many as 200,000 visitors to the city per year.

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4. Tornadoes, heavy rain take toll

Rain and tornadoes impacted the Valley in 2019. North Alabama received a record 13.63 inches of rain in February, which the National Weather Service said was 8.7 inches above normal.

President Donald Trump included Morgan and nine other north Alabama counties in a disaster declaration that made local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations eligible for federal aid for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by storms, winds and flooding from Feb. 19 to March 20.

Morgan County EMA Director Eddie Hicks said the county reported $580,000 in storm and flood damage. He said the qualifying amount is $413,000. Limestone and Lawrence counties were not included in the disaster declaration.

On Dec. 16, four tornadoes ripped through portions of north Alabama, with an EF-2 tornado killing a Town Creek couple, Justin Chase Godsey, 35, and Keisha LeAnn Cross Godsey, 34. Their son and three others were injured.

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5. Ambulance ordinance passed

The Decatur City Council finally approved after more than a decade of debate a controversial ordinance in which an ambulance service can be fined and penalized with points for failing to meet standards.

City officials said a new ambulance ordinance was needed because the city was unable to enforce the response time requirements of the old ordinance.

First Response, the city's only ambulance service, and Councilman Charles Kirby fought the ordinance, but it passed in June.

The new ordinance created the Ambulance Regulatory Board, which began meeting Sept. 1. The board had not begun enforcing the new ordinance as the year ends. -- 6. Online sales tax sparks legal fight

Morgan County's three public school systems filed lawsuits when the County Commission refused to distribute online sales tax revenues.

County Commission Chairman Ray Long said the new local law, sponsored by state Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, was unconstitutional. County commissioners complained that the law passed in May was unfair and could have a devastating impact on the county budget.

Since Oct. 1, when the law went into effect and the lawsuit was filed, $361,370.31 in online sales taxes have been held in a bank, awaiting a court ruling as to proper distribution.

The case is ongoing and will roll over into 2020.

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7. Officials indicted

Legal turmoil surrounded two sheriffs and a judge during 2019.

Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely, who is serving his ninth term, was arrested in August on a 13-count ethics and theft indictment. He pleaded not guilty in September, and claimed the ethics law he is charged with violating is unconstitutional.

Limestone County District Judge Douglas Lee Patterson was arrested Dec. 12 after being indicted on felony charges of first-degree financial exploitation of the elderly, third-degree theft of property and use of official position or office for personal gain.

Patterson is accused of taking more than $47,000 each from a juvenile court services fund and the conservatorship account of an incapacitated senior, state Attorney General Steve Marshall said.

While the Blakely and Patterson cases remain unresolved, former Morgan County Sheriff Ana Franklin finally wrapped up her legal issues in November.

On Oct. 17, U.S. Magistrate Judge Herman Johnson Jr. sentenced Franklin to two years of probation and 300 hours of community service after she pleaded guilty to willful failure to file an income tax return, a misdemeanor. He imposed no financial penalty and ruled no restitution was due.

The sentence came more than four years after Franklin said she withdrew $160,000 from an account funded with money designated for feeding jail inmates.

Franklin achieved partial success in November in getting her probation terms modified to allow her to possess a gun. Her attorney argued that numerous intruders on her property have placed her at risk.

A judge in September dismissed a lawsuit filed by Franklin against her former jail warden. Two related lawsuits filed against Franklin, by the former warden and a Falkville blogger, settled this year for an undisclosed amount.

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8. Verdicts reached in murder cases

The cases of three murder defendants dominated Morgan County Circuit Court criminal dockets in 2019.

Cedric Cowan, the last of four defendants who terrorized Decatur during several violence-filled days in 2015, was quickly found guilty of capital murder by a Morgan County jury on Nov. 21.

The jury deliberated for about three hours before finding him guilty of three counts of capital murder, five counts of first-degree robbery and one count of shooting into an occupied building in a May 2015 Decatur crime rampage that included two fatal shootings.

Cowan's sentencing is scheduled for February.

Co-defendant, Amani Goodwin testified that brothers Cedric Cowan, who had a .22-caliber rifle, and Joseph Cowan, with a .380-caliber handgun, both shot Antonio Hernandez-Lopez. Goodwin said Joseph Cowan shot victim Joshua Davis in the head.

Goodwin entered a guilty plea last year to two counts of felony murder and three counts of first-degree robbery. Circuit Judge Jennifer Howell handed down a life sentence with the possibility of parole for each felony murder count and 20 years for each robbery count.

Days before his trial was scheduled to start in September, Joseph Cowan, 25, entered a guilty plea. Howell sentenced Joseph Cowan to life in prison without the possibility of parole for each of three capital murder counts.

Another defendant, Cortez Mitchell, received two life sentences and four 20-year sentences for 2018 convictions on two counts of felony murder and four counts of first-degree robbery.

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9. 14-year-old allegedly kills family

On Sept. 4, an Elkmont 14-year-old confessed to shooting and killing five family members in a late-night shooting spree, the Limestone County Sheriff's Office said.

"This is devastating," Elkmont Mayor Tracy Compton said later. "There were less than 500 people in the last census that lived in Elkmont, and five of those are not with us anymore."

The victims, according to Limestone County sheriff's spokesman Stephen Young, were John Sisk, 38, the shooter's father; his stepmother Mary Sisk, 35; his 6-year-old brother; his 6-month-old brother; and his 5-year-old sister.

His case remains pending in juvenile court.

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10. Downtown Dawgs owner pleads guilty

Scott Doyle Dutton, a former owner of Downtown Dawgs eatery, pleaded guilty in August to murder and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Dutton shot and killed Joshua McLemore, 27, on June 21, 2016, at Dutton's home on Eighth Street Southwest in Decatur. McLemore was married and had a 3-year-old son at the time of his death. Decatur police said Dutton and McLemore had been in an ongoing argument over a woman.

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11. Aldi buys Calvary Assembly building

Calvary Assembly of God sold its Beltline Road Southwest property for $2.5 million in February to Aldi grocery store.

The property had been on the market for more than a decade after the church moved to Alabama 20 in Limestone County.

As the year ends, the old church building remains. City code enforcement cited the building that continues to deteriorate. An Aldi official said the company plans to demolish the church soon and begin construction on a new store midway through 2020.

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12. Fire damages Moulton square

An April 22 fire destroyed four Moulton businesses on the town's historic square. Moulton became the Lawrence County seat in 1820.

Hundreds of residents came to the square as a nighttime fire destroyed Court Street Grill and turned Tucker's Accessory Tire and Auto into a pile of rubble. A third business -- Deja vu Salon -- was in a building constructed in the 1930s and it was deemed a total loss. The Willow Tree store was condemned a few days later.

The Lawrence County History and Preservation Society said the square could lose its position on the National Register of Historic Landmarks if a few more businesses are lost.

-- bayne.hughes@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2432. Twitter @DD_BayneHughes.

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