POWERGRAMS

At 8 a.m. on a Friday, there are few bases open at Deanna's Homeplate Café, where casually dressed diners are loudly chatting it up beneath more than 100 baseball caps lining the ceiling. They order single, double, homerun or grand slam breakfast menu selections, though some opt for the Out of the Park Omelette. There's a small American flag at each table. A large flag behind the cashier is intermingled with an eagle, "God Bless America" and "The Spin Stops Here." A trio of EMS employees stands there ready to pay, only to learn that Dadeville Fire Chief Anthony Keith Wilkerson has already taken care of their tab. Two men — one retired, the other almost there — discuss the booming local economy, largely driven by the growing popularity to outsiders of 42,000-acre Lake Martin, which created a 750-mile shoreline when Martin Dam was built nearly a century ago. "I can get $400 a night for my cabin on the water; I'm thinking of getting another place," one says excitedly. "There's a lady up North who wants to rent mine for two months, wants to send me $7,000 right now," the other says with a laugh. They leave the restaurant headed to lake property they've heard is for sale. In Dadeville, population 3,230, it seems everyone smiles at a stranger. The townspeople are quick to offer a kind word. But when asked where they're from, seldom are they born and bred here. People are not only visiting the seat of Tallapoosa County nowadays, they are staying, buying and building here. Newcomers are working with lifelong residents and government agencies to revive the old downtown square around the courthouse, including newly paved streets and sidewalks surrounding the structure built in 1960. Investors are purchasing properties and upgrading them, opening businesses and making community improvements. Melody Ritchey has been a part of the community for three decades, deeply involved in bettering the lake and the town. She is among an ever-growing number of people who sell or rent lakeside property, but the former Dadeville "Person of the Year" is a longtime resident and local Realtor. "It's a wonderful place," Ritchey says, noting that her neighbors on Sandy Creek inlet are from New York, Louisiana, California and Georgia. "I hope our best kept secret doesn't totally get out." Ritchey says Dadeville is old school in many ways, yet embracing changes as each day passes. She says people often see photos taken from her back porch and can't believe it's Alabama. "You don't meet a stranger here," says the Aronov Realty Lake Martin representative. "People come here from everywhere and they become family. I love this place and embrace the old and the new." Floyd's Feed & Seed has held down the corner of North A New Day Dawning on Dadeville by Chuck Chandler PHOTOGRAPHY by PHIL FREE AERIAL PHOTOS BY JAY PARKER Downtown Dadeville is undergoing major road, sidewalk and building renovations. 22

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