By Andrew Edwards, EAN Staff Writer
As 2019 moves into the rearview and 2020 takes our full attention, it’s important to take a moment and recap everything that’s happened the past year.
I had a chance to sit down with Wetumpka Mayor Jerry Willis and get an idea about how the city has fared economically and socially over the past year, and the results were nothing more than positive.
As for the health of the city, Willis says Wetumpka is still reeling from the Tornado that struck earlier in 2019; however, he says the city has been stronger than ever.
“We’re in a great position as a city right now, in spite of the difficulties and problems that we had when we started off the year. On January 19, 2019, we were stuck by a tornado and it did severe damage in our city. It was devastating to us, but as we’ve worked through 2019 and cleaned up the debris – it’s put us in a position to see how we want to rebuild,” Willis said. “We’re currently trying to find a new facility to move the police department into, since they’ve been in a makeshift situation since the 19th. We should be able to move them into that new facility around January 19th of this year as well. We still need to respond to the needs of the senior citizens as well, and the programs that they had. We’re trying to put those back together, and it’s going to take us a little bit longer to do that. We’re still in a recovery mode, and we will be for the next year or two years. Luckily, we’re about 95 percent done with the clean-up from the tornado.”
Willis says the communal bonds between neighbors has been encouraging, especially after such a catastrophic event.
“The community has responded so well and it’s been great to see the comradery of the people. I love seeing everyone pull together for a common cause. I think it has woven our community closer together as a people, and as horrible as that day was to us, we look at it now as an opportunity to grow into the 2020 year.”
Willis says one of the goals for 2019 was to start on the revitalization of the downtown area, and he is ready to see that continue into 2020.
“Our downtown area is in the midst of a revitalization program that never stopped over the past year. We’re starting to see the results there as that area is really coming together nicely. We’ve enjoyed the beauty of what we’re producing in that area, and I haven’t found a single person yet that’s disappointed in the new look we’re giving it,” Willis said.
Economically, Willis said the city is in good shape heading into the new year.
“Just recently we’ve had three ribbon cuttings for new businesses coming into Wetumpka, and there’s more coming. We have a new grocery store coming, a Jack’s, Popeyes and numerous more in the works that will be coming our way. So, we’re very excited about that,” Willis said. “We also have some medical facilities coming in, which will give 15 new doctors to our community. We can build off of that and expand these facilities for the citizens of Wetumpka and the river region.”
Willis says the base population for Wetumpka is about 8,000, but he expects that number to grow as we move into 2020. With so many new people and businesses, Willis says the city has been on the ball with their infrastructure and resources.
“With all of our infrastructure downtown, we had to address the storm water issue first, which we did. We also addressed any sewer and drinking water issues as well. Everything has been upgraded in the downtown area to meet the needs of any business that wants to come,” Willis said.
Infrastructure throughout the city as whole has been a bit more difficult to pinpoint at times.
“Storm water is what concerns us for the residential areas. If it rains on the mountain, it’s going to the river. We’ve made some vast improvements for storm water throughout the city, but there’s still more to do. Sometimes we won’t know that until it creates a problem. When it does that, we have to be in a position to fix it,” Willis said.
As the interview came to a close, Willi wanted everyone to know that the city is in better shape than it’s been in since 2008. He loves the spirit his town has shown after such a tumultuous year and wants the people of the city to realize that they truly are putting the “WE” in Wetumpka.
