Students attending LBW Community College this fall will pay a little extra for their education.
The Alabama State Board of Education approved a rate increase of $15 per credit hour for the state’s community colleges during a special meeting last week.
That’s an extra $180 per semester for 12 credit hours, which is fulltime, and an extra $225 for 15 credit hours at any two-year college in the state.
“The tuition increase was the only way to continue to provide the programs and services that are absolutely essential for preparing our workforce and rebuilding our economy,” said LBWCC President Dr. Herb Riedel.
The Alabama Community College System has suffered a 25.3 percent decrease in state funding in the past four years, totaling $240 million, he said.
In fiscal year 2007-08, state support represented 47.8 percent of total revenues. This year, that percentage is 32.41, Riedel said.
While state funding is decreasing, student enrollment is up, as well as demand for educational services, as is the need for many colleges to increase class sizes, expand course sections and hire additional adjunct faculty.
However, at LBWCC, class sizes were increased, staffing levels decreased and maintenance and equipment purchases deferred, Riedel said.
Students will now pay $126 per credit hour for tuition and fees, with the possibility of up to an additional $10 per credit hour for a special building fee approved by the BOE.
“The building fee is intended to repay bond indebtedness, but LBWCC does not plan to implement the full building fee at this time,” Riedel said.
College administrators will make a decision on the building fee this week, he said.
Tuition for a full-time student attending the fall and spring semesters will be a minimum of $3,024, depending on the number of credit hours taken.
“Of all new full-time students at LBWCC, 82 percent receive grant or scholarship aid from the federal or state government, the college or private sources,” he said. “Our two college foundations are redoubling their efforts to assist students during these difficult financial times.”
One such student is sophomore De’Airhyus Flowers.
“I’ll still be able to go to school,” he said. “I’m on a Pell grant. You have to pay for your books and then you get back the rest. That just means I won’t get back as much of a refund as I had been getting.”
Rising high school senior Lakeylus Adams, who was at the LBWCC student center, said that cost is a factor when deciding where he’ll go to school next year.
“I’m still trying to decide where to go,” he said. “I would like to go to Alabama, but I may go here.”
Riedel pointed out that despite the fiscal restraints faced by the college, LBWCC continues to develop innovative programs and find ways to advance the college.
“We continue to be very conservative in our budgeting process,” Riedel said. “We are implementing the new honors program this fall. In addition, the Math Emporium, a program for student success in mathematics, will be fully implemented on all campuses this fall. With mostly private funding, we will also begin some campus enhancements on the Andalusia campus.”
Riedel maintained that LBWCC offers “the best value in education.”
“In these difficult economic times, people are looking for value in everything, including education. You cannot find a better value in the education system than LBWCC. Our tuition is still less than half of that for any state four-year institution. In most cases, students can continue living at home while attending school to avoid additional living expenses.”
The endurance training paid off for the Andalusia Stingrays this weekend in Troy.
Forty-three times were faster than the intersquad meet, and 15 times were 5 seconds or less from the state qualifying time, 11-and-up coach Gavin Donaldson said.
“The team did an outstanding job with cutting time off their events,” Donaldson said. “Being able to push the swimmer hard with the weather now cooperating, boasted some fast times.
“The dry land endurance paid off for the team in a big way,” he said.
Nine-and-10-year-old coach Candy Parker said the swim results were what she “expected” them to be.
“Our relay teams were exceptional,” Parker said. “They worked hard. They performed as I expected them to do, which was extremely well.”
Three 11-and-up swimmers — Noah Rider, Chase Fillmer and B.J. Donaldson — swam times faster than the state qualifying time.
Rider swam the 13-14 boys’ 50-yard breastroke in 34.63 seconds; Fillmer swam the 13-14 boys’ 50-yard butterfly in 32.28 seconds; and Donaldson swam the 15-and-up mens’ 50-yard backstroke in 29.44 seconds.
8-and-under coach Andy Shaddix said he knew of one swimmer to knock off a few seconds of his best time.
“I know one of our swimmers (Aidan Vines) dropped 12 seconds on the freestyle,” Shaddix said. “We’ve never had, to my knowledge, any of the 8-and-under swimmers get any state qualifying or anything close to state qualifying times.
“The improvement from one race to the next has been some what phenomenal,” he said.
The following is a list of the top baseline time winner from each swimming event:
• Boys and girls 8-and-under 100-yard individual medley (IM): Alex Browning — 2 minutes, 16.97 seconds, Ashli Parker — 2:24.44;
• Boys and girls 9-10 100-yard IM: Stuart Baker — 1:36.15, Emma Younce — 1:44.66;
• Girls 11-12 100-yard IM: Cali Fillmer — 1:24.37;
• Boys and girls 13-14 100-yard IM: Chase Fillmer — 1:15.75, Judy Johnson — 1:26.88;
• Boys 15-18 100-yard IM: Zach Parker — 1:17.22;
• Boys and girls 8-and-under 25-yard breaststroke: Adian Vines — 32 seconds, Ava Bailey — 27.69;
• Boys and girls 9-10 50-yard breaststroke: West Parker — 50.47, Emma Younce — 55.85;
• Boys and girls 11-12 50-yard breaststroke: Ben Parker — 43.31, Mary Beth Baker — 46.06;
• Boys and girls 13-14 50-yard breaststroke: Noah Rider — 34.63, Mary Johnson — 45.22;
• Boys and girls 15-18 50-yard breaststroke: B.J. Donaldson — 32.28;
• Boys and girls 8-and-under 25-yard freestyle: Aidan Vines — 19.66, Ava Bailey — 24.00;
• Boys and girls 9-10 50-yard freestyle: Eufaula’s Brady Stokes — 33.44, Emma Younce — 38.57;
• Boys and girls 11-12 50-yard freestyle: Brandon Hudson — 33.91, Loni Blatz — 36.78;
• Boys and girls 13-14 50-yard freestyle: Noah Rider — 28.07, Judy Johnson — 33.97;
• Boys and girls 15-18 50-yard freestyle: B.J. Donaldson — 25.56, Troy’s Emily Dent — 29.44;
• Boys and girls 8-and-under 100-yard medley relay: Alex Birk, Alex Browning, Aidan Vines and Matthew Beasley — 1:54.75, Ava Bailey, Ashli Parker, Anna Taylor and Evie Younce — 1:54.63;
• Girls 9-10 200-yard medley relay: Laura Blatz, Ashlyn Nall, Sheridan Wright and Emma Younce — 3:39.62;
• Boys and girls 11-12 200-yard medley relay: Wyatt Taylor, Ben Parker, Brandon Hudson and Josh Hudson — 3:03.91, Loni Blatz, Mary Beth Baker, Cali Fillmer and Callen Woodard — 2:42.22;
• Boys and girls 13-14 200-yard medley relay: Jeremy Boyd, Noah Rider and Chase Fillmer — 2:28.25, Mary Johnson, Elisabeth Christensen, Judy Johnson and Kaden Arnold — 2:55.32;
• Boys 15-18 200-yard medley relay: B.J. Donaldson, Zach Parker, Michael Hudson and Devan Ellis — 2:18.19;
• Girls 9-10 50-yard butterfly: Sheridan Wright — 1:05.07;
• Boys and girls 11-12 50-yard butterfly: Brandon Hudson — 46.69, Cali Fillmer — 36.00;
• Boys and girls 13-14 50-yard butterfly: Chase Fillmer — 32.28, Judy Johnson — 40.69;
• Boys 15-18 50-yard butterfly: Michael Hudson — 32.44;
• Boys and girls 8-and-under 25-yard backstroke: Matthew Beasley — 26.50, Anna Taylor — 28.91;
• Girls 9-10 50-yard backstroke: Emma Younce — 48.29;
• Girls 11-12 50-yard backstroke: Cali Fillmer — 40.31;
• Boys and girls 13-14 50-yard backstroke: Noah Rider — 34.25, Mary Johnson — 43.90;
• Boys and girls 15-18 50-yard backstroke: B.J. Donaldson — 29.44, Eufaula’s Emily Munn — 33.16;
• Boys and girls 8-and-under 50-yard freestyle: Alex Browning — 51.00, Ava Bailey — 52.84;
• Boys and girls 11-12 100-yard freestyle: Brandon Hudson — 1:21.68, Mary Beth Baker — 1:17.16;
• Boys 13-14 100-yard freestyle: Jeremy Boyd — 1:15.53;
• Boys 15-18 100-yard freestyle: Michael Hudson — 1:01.09;
• Boys and girls 8-and-under 100-yard freestyle relay: Aidan Vines, Addison Mount, Alex Birk and Alex Browning — 1:35.24, Evie Younce, Ashli Parker, Anna Taylor and Ava Bailey — 1:46.78;
• Boys and girls 9-10 200-yard freestyle relay: Troy’s Kendal Savoie, Charlie Rawls, Cole Coppage and Nathan Taylor — 2:55.56, Petyon Helms, Kassidy Mears, Ashlyn Nall and Emma Younce — 3:17.00;
• Boys and girls 11-12 200-yard freestyle relay: Ben Parker, Wyatt Taylor, Josh Hudson and Brandon Hudson — 2:26.78, Merikal McCaskill, Bella Whisonant, Katrine Christensen and Alyssa Arnold — 3:05.28;
• Boys and girls 13-14 200-yard freestyle relay: Jeremy Boyd, Chase Fillmer and Noah Rider — 2:10.56, Elisabeth Christensen, Kaden Arnold, Mary Johnson and Judy Johnson — 2:32.50;
• Boys 15-18 200-yard freestyle relay: Zach Parker, Devan Ellis, B.J. Donaldson and Michael Hudson — 2:03.52.
The Stingrays’ next meet is Sat., June 25 in Eufaula.
Andalusia’s water system has returned to normal after the city called for customers to voluntarily restrain their use of water outdoors for three days.
“It appears our system is back to normal,” Mayor Earl Johnson said. “We appreciate the efforts of everyone who cooperated with us.”
Meanwhile, Opp Mayor H.D. Edgar said his city’s water supply is holding up nicely despite the dry weather.
“I just got an email from our superintendent and he just checked on our well,” Edgar said. “And they are in good shape.”
At the present time, Edgar said it doesn’t look necessary for the City of Opp to ask residents to refrain from outside watering.
This weekend’s scattered rainfall did little to alleviate the potential for fires or drought conditions in Covington County, said Mike Older with the Alabama Forestry Commission.
Weather reports show Andalusia and Opp received nearly an inch of rain between Friday and Sunday, while Florala received only a 0.12 inches. The heaviest rainfall came Sunday with nearly a half an inch reported.
“The northern part of the county, like up near Rose Hill and Straughn, didn’t get any,” Older said. Older is the work unit forester for Covington, Coffee and Geneva counties. “What little showers we did get in the county may have reduced the possibility of a fire in that specific area, but countywide, it made no difference in our situation.”
Older said firefighters worked another fire caused by lightning Sunday. He said three acres were burned before it was contained. It was the fourth fire over the last five days. Two previous fires burned at least 123 acres in the county. One was caused by a spark from a flat tire, and the other, lightning.
“We’re still under a burn ban, and we’re still looking at things very seriously,” he said. “What rain we’re getting is very scattered. We’re thankful for it, but, like I said, it’s not enough to change our situation.”
Throughout the remainder of the week, there is a 20 percent chance of afternoon showers and thunderstorms, with highs in the upper 90s.
Older reminded residents about the burn ban in place.
He said violators of that ban can be fined between $250-$500 and could face up to six months in jail.
“If you see someone who is not obeying the burn ban, call your local law enforcement,” he said.
Municipal residents should call the local police department, and county residents, the Covington County Sheriff’s Office.
Trying to decide what to have for lunch?
The LBW Community College’s SkillsUSA program is hosting a summer cookout with all the trimmings today from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. in the MacArthur Campus Student Center in Opp.
The cookout includes hamburgers, hot dogs, baked beans, potato salad, chips, homemade ice cream and desserts.
Each plate is $7, and to-go plates are available.