Event center and new Falkville Senior Center among Morgan County projects

By Erica Smith 

For the Enquirer  

At Thursday’s State of Morgan County Forum, the chairman and three of the commissioners discussed last year’s accomplishments and this year’s plans, including completion of the event center in Cotaco and a new Falkville Senior Center. 

“The state of Morgan County is great. It’s booming right now,” said Morgan County Commission Chairman Ray Long. “Everyone that wants a job has a job. The economy’s booming; people are spending again. We’ve got houses going up everywhere.” 

The annual forum was hosted by the Decatur-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce and took place Thursday morning at the DoubleTree by Hilton Decatur Riverfront. 

District 1 Commissioner Jeff Clark said West Morgan Road has been closed for about three years for safety reasons but is finally close to being rebuilt. He said the project has gone out to bid. 

“That should happen in the next 90 days, and construction should start around August, I think,” Clark said. “It won’t be completed this fiscal year, but it will be started this fiscal year and finished next year.” 

There is another part of the project besides redoing the bridge, Clark said. 

“When they complete that bridge and get it opened back up, we’re going to do an intersection improvement at the intersection of West Morgan Road and Lamon Road to take out that dangerous curve right there,” he said. “We’re waiting right now because that’s the only way people have to get in and out.” 

Clark said it is a dangerous curve. 

“People do not slow down and they get in both lanes,” he said. “We’re going to straighten that curve out and bring it in at a 90 degree (angle) and put a stop sign there at the three-way stop. … They should fix the bridge in the spring of next year then in the summer do Lamon Drive.” 

North Park in Priceville is getting two additional ball fields and another concession stand. 

“The ball fields are just about done,” Clark said. “We’re going to start the turn lanes we’re hoping in the next month on North Bethel Road and East Upper River Road. … I don’t think it will take that long; I would say within a month we would have it completed.” 

District 2 Commissioner Randy Vest said the gymnasium at West Park has been operational for about a year and a half and is going great. 

“We’ve got activities going on every day,” he said. “We’ve got basketball with 100 county teams, we’ve got pickleball with all ages. We just started volleyball for female youth.” 

Vest said the Council on Aging is also utilizing the facility. 

“The seniors stopped by last month,” he said. “In March, they’re having a county-wide senior citizen dance. So, it’s just great what takes place there with the gym.” 

Long said the county wants more gymnasiums and plans on having two or three more in the county in the next 10 years. 

It was District 3 Commissioner Matthew Frost’s first forum as a newly elected commissioner. He said the county purchased a former Dollar General store near the Falkville Senior Center. 

“We’re going to remodel it for a senior center (to) give them more room for day-to-day operations,” Frost said. “They’re in the smallest one there is right now.” 

The new building is over 9,000 square feet. 

“You couldn’t have built a building for what it cost to buy and remodel this one,” Frost said. 

He said the county has yet to decide what to do with the former senior center. He said the remodeling project has not gone out to bid yet, so the county does not know what it will cost. 

South Park in Falkville is also getting two additional ball fields while another concession stand has been completed. 

“They’re coming along pretty good. We have the fencing up; all we’re waiting on is lighting,” Frost said. The new ball fields were needed “to give more room for the kids and to get more games in.” 

District 4 Commissioner Greg Abercrombie was unable to attend the forum, but Long spoke on his behalf about the Morgan County Event Center being built in Cotaco. 

“We’re hoping by at least the end of the year to have it up and going. They’ll be playing ball games in it when we start the new season,” he said. “Right now, they’ve got the roof on and working on the walking track. They should be pouring the concrete hopefully next week on it. Once the roof is completely enclosed, they’ll move inside. 

“In the next few months, you’ll be able to see a big difference out there. But there’s a lot of detail work.” 

The center will consist of two gymnasiums, an upstairs walking track and several meeting and event rooms. The center is costing about $7 million, with $5 million being American Rescue Plan Act funds, and about $2 million being money from a settlement with 3M. 

An organization donated about $4 million to the county to build an agriculture center to share a parking lot next to the event center. However, the agriculture center will cost more than the $4 million. 

“We’re still working on a design. We’ve looked at a couple to try to model it after,” Long said. “We don’t have the funding to build it right now. We feel like it’s going to be about $8 million or so. In the next couple of years, we’re going to be looking for funding for that.” 

Long said the center is much needed. 

“When they sold the Celebration Arena, FFAs, 4Hs, they have nowhere in Morgan County that’s big enough,” he said. “There’ll be rodeos, there will be a lot of stuff it’s used for.” 

The county has not yet hired an architect, Long said. 

Long said the county is in a much better position than it has been in the past. 

“Twenty years ago, we weren’t where we are today; we were a divided county. But today, everybody’s unified; we’re working together,” he said. “People see that, and that’s why we’re growing so much.”