From Staff Reports

In many ways, it’s hard to believe we’ve already reached the end of another year. In other ways, it seems like January 2014 was just a few days ago.
One of the most eye-opening things we at the Shelby County Reporter is our annual Year in Review section. Beginning in today’s paper and concluding in next week’s paper, we will take a look at the county’s biggest stories from the past 12 months in an effort to give you a comprehensive look at 2014.
The year started with a bang – literally – when an airplane crashed in the backyard of an Alabaster house on New Year’s Day. Luckily, the pilot was able to walk away from the incident and no major property damage resulted.
A few months later, Montevallo’s American Village marked a major milestone when dignitaries gathered at the venue for the dedication of the National Veterans Shrine. Also in February, it was confirmed a 62,000-square-foot, 15-bedroom mansion in Shoal Creek was the largest home for sale in the United States.
While there were plenty of sad stories from Shelby County over the past year, such as an infant tragically dying in an Alabaster vehicle crash and fire in March and multiple suspects sentenced on murder chargers, there were also many tales of kindness and good news.
We saw the best of our communities in late January when a snow and ice storm slammed central Alabama. We posted several stories of residents helping perfect strangers and teachers selflessly staying overnight at school to care for students who were stranded at the schools.
More recently, Shelby County named its first female district attorney, Jill Lee, after longtime district attorney Robby Owens stepped down from the position. On the other side of the county’s law enforcement, John Samaniego won the Republican primary for the Shelby County sheriff’s seat and went on to win the general election in November. Samaniego will replace longtime sheriff Chris Curry, who did not seek re-election for another term.
Whatever the story, it’s our honor to keep the residents of Shelby County informed.