Looking ahead, planning for future
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In My Humble Opinion
Jodi McDade
Welcome to 2025! I am really looking forward to a great year. The Wilsons and I held a “briefing” earlier this week to review our travels from 2024 and to look at the trips we have planned for 2025.
So far we have plans for a cruise to the Virgin Islands, a big trip to the Northern Midwest to see at least five national parks plus national memorials and monuments, a trip to Gulf Shores for the Shrimp Festival, and a trip somewhere to see Christmas lights.
This will be our sixth year of traveling together, and we have agreed to keep going as long as we possibly can. In addition, Emily Campbell and I are going back to Germany to see more areas of World War II history.
Hopefully our economy will turn around with the new Trump administration coming in. Food and gas prices should come down when he opens up drilling for our own oil and gas instead of buying it from Venezuela or other foreign countries. The DOGE committee will help identify and put a stop on wasted money being spent aiding other countries and illegal immigrants.
Closing the border and deporting illegal immigrants will improve many areas of our economy, plus our health and education programs. And, requiring federal employees to either work in the office, quit, or be terminated will make agencies more efficient. If you are a taxpayer, you should be excited about what the next four years will bring!
I want to hope that things in Coosa County will also improve. Westwater should be very close to opening its plant at the industrial park and start processing graphite that is brought in. Jobs will be coming with this, and other companies have already or are expected to come in to support Westwater.
We need businesses, housing, grocery stores, and other services that can support the influx of people to our county. These will be people making good wages and will contribute to the economy of Coosa County instead of the four surrounding counties. They will bring in children to increase the population of our school system and provide more tax money to support it.
A positive attitude is what is needed most in Coosa County. We all need to see the wonderful natural resources we have and the Highway 280 corridor that could bring in businesses like Talladega, Tallapoosa, Shelby, and Lee counties have done. An enormous amount of income would come from local residents, but also all the people traveling for football games, going to the beaches and just passing through.
But we need people in Coosa County to put pressure on the Coosa County Commission, the Coosa County Chamber of Commerce, the Lake Martin Economic Development Alliance, and our state senator and representative to get involved. I don’t know about you, but I am so tired of listening to the “we don’t have any money” excuse for not being able to take care of our roads; pay decent wages to our deputies, county employees and teachers; upgrade our towns; and provide needed services to our citizens. We deserve better!
The best way to make changes is for people to get involved. Attend Neighborhood Watch meetings and discuss issues that need improvement. Stay in contact with your county commissioner, mayor and other elected officials – they work for us!
As long as we sit back and accept the status quo nothing will be done. If you have children, don’t you want them to have the opportunity to remain in Coosa County instead of having to move for better jobs, entertainment and activities? If you are getting up in age, wouldn’t you like to see an assisted living/nursing home and more medical care closer to home?
I feel certain that I have mentioned before the Strategic Planning Committee we had back in 2016-18 made up of citizens and elected officials who put together a plan to improve our county. Great ideas and suggestions were made, but when the metal hit the pavement it hit a dead end. The property owners and powers that were (and some still are) would have none of it.
And before that there was a planning meeting with the county commissioners way back in 2008 or 2009 to hear ideas from the citizens. Maybe six of us showed up, a list was made, and that’s as far as it went.
Unlike most governmental agencies and businesses, Coosa County has never had a 10-year plan, a 5-year plan, a 2-year plan, or even a plan for next month. Success does not fall from the sky. Success is a goal that takes time and effort to plan for step by step.
I have all my information, including the outlines and plans, that were put together in 2017 and would love to share them with Commission Chair Lamar Daugherty and Commissioner John Forbus who have worked in the private sector for companies that had goals and plans. Actually I think I’ll send them a text when I finish writing this column!
So here is my rant to open 2025. I’ll look back at what I wrote to open 2024 and see how we fared. Hope you all have a great and positive new year!