Apr. 17—With $1.5 billion in recent commercial investments, Decatur Mayor Kent Lawrence said Thursday morning that he believes “we have a lot of momentum going across the whole city.”
Lawrence led a host of city officials, including council members, directors and business leaders, in his first State of the City, an annual breakfast presented by the Decatur-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel Decatur Riverfront.
Yogi Daugher, a local developer, said the city has roughly $1.5 billion in investments “coming in right now,” including $500 million in the downtown area. He called what’s happening in Decatur economically “sort of underrated.”
Brian Cook, president and chief executive officer of Cook’s Pest Control, said Decatur’s momentum “is really growing. It’s exciting to see all of these different cogs in the wheel start to turn at a higher rate.”
Lawrence said local industries are still building and expanding while the city is finally seeing residential growth.
“There’s three new subdivisions on the Planning Commission’s agenda for this month (at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday) to be approved,” Lawrence said. “We have two new apartments coming out of the ground right now. We haven’t had that in many years.”
He said the city is working with developers on two “class A” apartments in the downtown area.
The Planning Commission approved in February the preliminary plat of Phase 1 of the South Brook development with 55 lots on 11.1 acres. This is part of a $400 million development by Land Innovations, of Nashville, on the former Decatur Country Club property owned by Cook Properties LLC, Cook’s Pest Control’s real estate holding company.
Lawrence, who served on the Planning Commission for 12 years, has been in the middle of this push for residential development.
“Growth didn’t happen overnight,” Lawrence said. “Planning and growth takes time. Sometimes the projects we work on don’t come to life for several years, but we’re seeing those things now.”
The mayor said this positive momentum started with the OneDecatur comprehensive plan developed in 2017, and the previous council’s going to the bond market and borrowing $35.2 million.
He pointed out the Sixth Avenue streetscape, Calhoun Community College’s plan for a dorm and ballfield complex and the designation of the Cook Museum of Natural Science as a STEM center for north Alabama are key projects for the city.
Parks and Recreation also has a new $52.5 million recreation center that will be finished late this summer, a new event center scheduled to open soon and a $32 million ballfield complex under construction off Modaus Road Southwest.
Chief Financial Officer Kyle Demeester said he is now working to develop a five-year financial plan. He said bond counsel recommended the city have a plan in place when they went to New York to obtain the bonds.
Fire Chief Nathan Springer said a top department priority is strategic planning.
“We’ve got to make sure we’ve got the right resources in the right locations to respond to as an all-hazards department,” Springer said. “We have to stay on the cutting edge with professional standards of the fire service.”
The fire chief said they’re focused on “taking care of our people,” especially in mental health and cancer prevention.
“Those who work in the fire service have a higher possibility of obtaining cancer just because of the environments we work in,” Springer said.
Police Chief Torry Mack said he wants “to continue to put the mission first with people always. We want to continue with a high level of professionalism. We want to make the department conducive to all, not just one group. We are here to serve all.”
Lawrence said he hired Dan Durbin’s Durbin Leadership LLC to work with city directors on leadership skills. He said the directors were “working separately in silos” when he took office in November.
Decatur Youth Services Director Johnny Jones said Durbin will hold the departments accountable for working together and becoming a better team.
“What I like most is creating consistency across all departments,” Jones said. “To get better service, it doesn’t make sense if I feel like we’re all in silos.”
Parks and Recreation Director Hunter Allen said staff development is also critical.
“Pouring time and energy into our staff at all levels directly impacts what you experience as residents in Decatur,” Allen said.
Demeester said the departments are creating succession plans “so we’re prepared for those events where they leave, change jobs. We’ll have those leaders prepared and ready to step in and keep the city going.”
Allen said he is seeing the motivation of his managers and supervisors increase. This positively impacts their employees’ work with the community.
Demeester said preparing the fiscal 2027 budget starts soon. They will have to educate a new mayor and three new council members on the budget process. This means learning their ways of thinking, he said.
He said a budget priority is taking care of city employees, but the workforce is changing. They’re younger, so they don’t care about fringe benefits as much as straight pay, the CFO said.
“We will have to be really creative and think about different ways to get that younger workforce,” Demeester said.
— bayne.hughes@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2432
