30 minutes with Mayor McCamy

Clarion Top News

Thursday, 24 February 2022 15:23

Mayor Jim McCamy had a Publix update at an interview with The Clarion on Thursday, February 17, 2022. According to the Mayor, The Tidal Wave Car Wash will be underway soon, along with the bank behind that. There are a few other parcels out for marketing with several different companies in talks. CSC Properties holds a property just east of the Publix, and they now have their marketing signs out. CSC Properties is currently actively pursuing tenants. Council recently approved allowing the Mayor to sign the contract for the traffic signal that will be installed there.

As far as bringing in more business to Scottsboro, Retail Strategies recently held a conference call with all the City’s partners: Commercial Development Authority (CDA); Goose Pond Board, The Mountain Lakes Chamber of Commerce (MLCOC); Industrial Development Board; Economic Development Authority (EDA); the City of Scottsboro.
“We had a call with them yesterday,” the Mayor stated. “They rolled out their strategy on recruiting retail for us. They are working very hard, and I’m really happy with what they have put together and the way they’re working and representing us. We’ve already made several connections that are quite significant.”

They Mayor also addressed paving, stating County Park and Roseberry will be the first ones resurfaced in 2022 as soon as the contractor can get it scheduled and the weather permits.
The City is also working with the Water, Sewer and Gas Board diligently to coordinate and ensure projects they need to complete or undertake are addressed initially so no problems are created that can be avoided.

As far as future funding for infrastructure, the Mayor stated, “There is additional federal and state money coming down as a result of COVID and Rebuild Alabama. Some of those funds, they funneled through Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM), and as soon as it was announced, it was already parceled out to other projects in the state that had previously not had match money. We did not get any of that, so what we ended up doing is, we applied for a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) to help fix some of the infrastructure and resurface at the same time.”

The Mayor said that if awarded, Scottsboro should be seeing those funds by late this year at the earliest.

Zoning has been on the table as local builders and contractors, including out of town of the same, have had numerous complaints and issues with zoning and ordinances as they stand right now. In order to bring in more building, business, contracts and desperately needed housing, the City saw that changes needed to be made. In an effort to address these issues, a package is prepared for City Council to review at the first work session in March.
“We’re going to try to address some of those issues,” stated the Mayor.

The Ben Sanford Boys and Girls Club of Scottsboro was also mentioned, as the Mayor wished to thank the council members for voting to approve declaring the old Scottsboro Wholesale property as a surplus, allowing it to be deeded over to the club for them to use as a multi-purpose building.

“I appreciate the action the Council took with the Boys and Girls Club, and we will start the process of transferring the property to the Boys and Girls Club of North Alabama for their coming project,” stated the Mayor. “That’s part of the project where Redstone Federal Credit Union has committed two-million dollars over the next four years, and the Boys and Girls Club of North Alabama will be getting $350,000. That is going to benefit a lot of kids in the town of Scottsboro.”

by Martha Smith