POWERGRAMS

31 gave him a small free ad and he was soon contacted by oil company executives who used helicopters to fly workers back and forth to oil rigs. Brauer's invention took off after the Navy awarded him a $140,000 contract and followed up with a second substantial order. In a few short years, Brauer Aerospace had outgrown the original 60-by-80- foot building and was getting orders for military copters from more than 90 countries. "I've added on six times, I think," he says walking through the center of the factory, which is next door to the Alabama Power Crew Headquarters. "We've grown quite a bit through the years." Brauer, 58, and his 20-30 local employees now retrofit all of the Airbus Lakota training helicopters at Fort Rucker. He starts naming the foreign government contracts — Canada, Germany, Italy, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Japan — when someone suggests it would be almost as easy to name the countries Brauer doesn't sell skid shoes. He also has steady business with law enforcement agencies in every state. Brauer Aerospace sells its skid shoes for half the price of what new landing skids cost, and the Brauer skids last 125 times as long. They've sold more than 23,000 pairs of the 26-pound clamp-ons. "We're the largest manufacturer of skid shoes in the country," Brauer says as he looks at a helicopter skid with a foot-long split down the middle sent from Europe. "We feel like we have the best shoe in the world." THE SOUTHERN STAR The United Kingdom has the monarchy; Ozark has the Adams Family. Since 1867, the Adams have edited and published what today is Alabama's oldest family owned newspaper: The Southern Star. Founder Joseph A. Adams moved the weekly from Newton to Ozark in 1870. Joseph H. Adams took over in 1887, John Q. Adams in 1907, Jesse B. Adams in 1925, a second John Q. Adams in 1930 and Joseph H. Adams, or simply "Joe" as his byline states, became editor in 1957. Joe Adams, 86, in August began his 63rd year as editor, officially becoming the longest serving of his family. His dad was listed as editor on the masthead from 1930 to 1992 but was only active until 1983. The surviving scion has been editor and publisher for a half- century. The Southern Star hasn't been an all-male operation. Adams notes that his grandmother came to the rescue of his short-handed dad in the 1950s, agreeing to help her son "get the paper out" until it was fully staffed again, but ended up becoming a vital cog in the machine for 44 years. "Her last 12 years at the Star were my first 12 years," Adams says of the namesake of the Vivian B. Adams School that has helped people with intellectual disabilities since 1971. "She did it all, from bookkeeping to reporting … a little of everything at the paper." Two metal plates are bolted to the Star building Adams bought in 1977, both plaques given by readers. One was dedicated in 1932 for the newspaper's "worthy and uninterrupted service to Ozark and Dale County." The second was presented in 1967 to commemorate the Star's century of "outstanding leadership … and dedication to the principles of freedom and democracy." An Alabama Tourism Department historic marker credits Jesse Adams and Congressman Steagall for prompting the federal government in the mid-1930s to purchase 35,000 acres in Dale County, then persuading the War Department in 1941 to use that land as the nucleus of the 64,000-acre infantry training post that would become Fort Rucker. Editorials Joe Adams wrote during his tenure helped push voters to approve taxes that have been important to his community. The first, in 1961, was the passage by 37 votes of a 3-mill property tax earmarked for the Dale Medical Center, which had no public assistance. The tax now brings in more than $1 million annually. The second, in 1972, was for the sale and taxation of alcohol, which was legal in most of the surrounding counties. The measure had failed in 1937 and 1963, but passed by 437 votes on the third try, and has since brought more than $3 million to the Adams School. "I don't know if those would have happened without strong editorial support," says Adams. The Southern Star is facing the same tough times that newspapers across the nation are enduring. At 75 cents per issue, or $29.43 for a year, it would seem a bargain for the 3,000 current subscribers of the weekly. Yet, Adams and his two employees can't garner the income of a decade ago, much less of 50 years earlier when the newspaper had its own printing press. "Unfortunately, we are way down in advertising income and subscriptions," says Adams, who is recuperating Star Editor and Publisher Adams. The Southern Star is state's oldest family owned paper.

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