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Community Heroes Series
From the August 2005 issue of Alabama Living magazine
Interview
by Kay Marshall
KM for TEC: What are your goals for 2005?
West: “The over all goal
is to make this a better place to live. To enhance our community
and, most importantly, to help shape the facet of economic development.
We’re also trying to enhance facilities in the park by applying
for a grant to improve our walking track and nature trail.
We love seeing our park used, and we want to improve, and at the
minimum maintain it. The only problem is the lack of funds. As with
most towns, we depend upon grants, which means that the funds must
be matched. That is a problem for all smaller communities. So, we
must continue to try for grants - one of the things that is helpful
in this job is persistence.”
KM for TEC: What goals do you have for our region?
West: “I think that
economic development is most important. When you have good economic
development then you have potential for growth.
We must provide good jobs where our county can keep people coming
in, rather than going out.”
KM for TEC: What, in your opinion, what is the greatest detriment
we have in Northwest Alabama?
West: “In my opinion, economically,
it is the lack of site preparation. That’s a big problem. You
can’t just show industry a scope of woods, saying that one
of these days we’re going to have a site here. We need prepared
sites for recruiters to see! It’s not that we’re not trying,
it’s just simply that the financial resources are difficult
to come up with. I’m sure that’s a problem with every
community. Also, I believe that Corridor X/I-22, once completed,
will enable people to see that blue line that will be of huge importance
to this area. It’s always hard to reach for the stars when
you’re standing on cactus... so maybe Corridor X/I-22 will
get us off that cactus.
Transportation is so important. Anytime you can improve that in
an area it helps the entire area. We all need to continue working
for West Alabama Freeway, whichwill be a tremendous asset to all
of NW Alabama. The idea is that this freeway would go from Mobile
to Florence with two limited access highways intersecting in our
county. It may be twenty years before that is complete, but even
a patch of it being completed in our county would benefit us greatly.”
KM for TEC: What would be your solution for pulling ALL of
the communities within Northwest Alabama together to work towards
the task of job creation?
West: “I think we have
grown in the number of jobs over the past 4-5 years with the help
of many people, including the CDF. Of course, we still have unemployment
and underemployment, so there’s still a lot of work to do.
The CDF needs to be strengthened. We all have a common goal - which
is the improvement of our county - and we need to work towards that
together.”
KM for TEC: What is Winfield’s greatest assets?
West: “I think we have
a well-educated community, one of the best school systems in the
state. and I think our folks have a good work ethic.
We are also very proud of our downtown, and we are dedicated to
keeping our downtown area alive. The Pastime Theatre is a great
example of this endeavor. It is a tremendous asset to the city,
and the whole area, as it provides a place for community meetings,
and hosts several musical and other entertaining shows each year.
Be sure to check our upcoming events schedule. We’d love for
you to come to our town!
Kay
Marshall is the Internet Projects Coordinator and Editor for TEC
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