By Donna Thornton/News Editor
The City of Attalla experienced a good 2013, Mayor Larry Means said, and city officials look forward to more growth and improvement in 2014.
“We’ve had new businesses and seen the expansion of some existing businesses,” Means said. “Of course, we want more and more.”
City leaders have been especially pleased with progress in nuisance and abatement within the city.
“People have been very good about doing what we’ve asked them to do,” Means said, about cleaning up problems with their property.
“We look forward to continuing to do that this year,” he said.
In other areas, the city was able to resolve a safety issue at the Etowah Blue Devil’s stadium. Some of the bleachers were deemed unsafe and needed to be repaired. The city was able to get that done before the start of the 2013 football season.
Means said the city was able to acquire the Stowers Hill school property and make the gym there more available to the public for basketball and other sports.
An older portion of the school building was torn down and has been cleaned up. The gym and some of the classrooms remain.
The city will have a new bike trail ready for riders soon. The bike trail, which starts near Etowah High School, will give riders a 5-mile workout. The trail is being marked along streets now.
Where streets are concerned, some of those should be in better shape soon. The City of Attalla received an ATRIP paving grant from the Alabama Department of Transportation, and received paving grants from Etowah County Commissioners Jeff Overstreet and Carolyn Parker. Burke Avenue and Fourth Street are among the streets expected to receive paving work, courtesy of those grants.
The city also helped with improvements at recreation facilities, constructing new dugouts at the baseball fields and helped with improvements at the Norris Building.
Means said the city leaders have been pleased with the growth they’ve seen recently in Attalla, with new businesses like Ace Hardware, Cornerstone Coffee, 5th Avenue Marketplace, Wendy’s, and others, along with the relocation and expansion of the Dollar General store.
The mayor said he and the council are committed to continuing with clean up and improvement efforts to pave the way for continued growth of their city not only for business, but for families looking for an inviting community to call their own.