Local

Just two months into organization, volunteers wanting to start a network of homeless shelters at local churches are seeing concrete results from their work.

Four host churches have now agreed to participate in the Interfaith Hospitality Network's shelters for qualifying homeless families. A month ago, one church had agreed to participate.

Host churches agree to donate facilities to shelter families a week at a time.

FORT LAWN - A soldier from Fort Lawn who was injured in Iraq earlier this year died early Saturday in a car accident in Texas, a newspaper there is reporting.

U.S. Army Spc. Charles "Charlie" Messer, 20, died when his car rolled in northeast El Paso near where he was stationed. Messer would have boarded a plane that same day to go home for the holidays, according to the El Paso Times.

Messer was driving a 2007 Honda Accord east on Loop 375 when he lost control, struck a metal guardrail and rolled about 1:45 a.m., the newspaper reported.

INDIAN LAND - Pleasant Valley Volunteer Fire Department Chief Paul Blackwelder answered two calls on Dec. 18.

The calls were a little different than usual, as Blackwelder, who has been chief of the department since 1973, took them as a full-time, paid firefighter.

Springs Memorial Hospital will have a new chief executive office starting Jan. 3.

Tom McDougal, who has more than 14 years of health-care management experience, has been named to the post. Most recently, McDougal served as CEO at Parkway Medical Center in Decatur, Ala., for five years.

While there, McDougal founded the first accredited chest pain center in Alabama and brought orthopedic, bariatric and plastic surgery services to the hospital. He also established a sleep disorder center and brought in advanced technologies, such as the first 64 Slice CT in Morgan County.