Mayor Jim McCamy held the annual State of the City address last week. The event was sponsored by Scottsboro Electric Power Board, Redstone Federal Credit Union, CFD Research, Unclaimed Baggage, the City of Scottsboro, Wenzel Metal Spinning and Mr. Rooter.
Pastor David Mormon with Center Point Baptist Church opened by giving the invocation, Bill Butler lead the Pledge of Allegiance and Bailey Hixson sang the National Anthem.

Chairman of the Mountain Lakes Chamber of Commerce, Brian Presson, introduced McCamy by stating, “It is now my pleasure to introduce our keynote speaker, Mayor Jim McCamy. Jim McCamy was first elected Mayor of Scottsboro in the August 2020 municipal election and was reelected for his second term in August 2024. McCamy retired from TVA in December 2019 as the manager of TVA Crisis in Emergency Management, where he was responsible for the implementation of crisis and emergency preparedness for TVA non-nuclear programs. Prior to his service at TVA, McCamy served as U.S. Representative Bud Kramer’s Congressional District Director. As district director, he managed congressional staff and multiple district offices across North Alabama. McCamy worked with local and state government officials, as well as other federal agencies and officials. He was also the liaison working with North Alabama, economic development, and business development organizations, helping recruit jobs to our area. Before working with Congressman Buck Kramer, McCamy served the state of Alabama as an area coordinator for the State of Alabama Emergency Management Agency. This included manager for the State of Alabama Earthquake Program and Public Information Officer for the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program. Mayor McCamy also served Jackson County as director of the Jackson County Emergency Management Agency. As Jackson County EMA Director, he was responsible for all hazard planning for Jackson County. Please join me this morning in welcoming Mayor Jim McCamy.”

McCamy began by thanking all sponsors and guests of the event. He said, “ To the department heads who have been able to be here this morning, thank you for what you do every day, to ensure the goals and objectives are met to provide the best possible services to our citizens. To our city employees, thank you for your work and dedication each and every day to the city of Scottsboro. To my family, thank you for your patience, your understanding as we continue through this exciting journey to help improve our city and increase opportunities for everyone. Our Legislative Delegation, Senate Majority Leader Steve Livingston and state representatives Mike Kirkland and Ritchie Whorton continue to play a major role in the success and support we have received from all of our state agencies. I appreciate their leadership, their friendship, and help and support with all any aspects of stake up. The past four years, especially the past three years, we’ve seen significant accomplishments and growth in Scottsboro. We will work to continue to sustain and improve that success in future years. As I’ve stated many times, advocate communication, collaboration, and cooperation. To support that, we continue working to create and enhanced partnerships throughout all levels of city government and supporting organizations, as well as neighboring cities in the county. We continue to work closely with County Commission Chairman Bill Nance, Jackson County Commissioners and the Jackson County Sheriff. They are incredible partners with us. I need to add a special thank to you at this point to Chairman Nance and the County Commissioners. Thank you for the project you have undertaken to repair, beautify, and extend the life of the Jackson County courthouse. I hear comments regularly from visitors about how beautiful our courthouse and the courthouse square are, and your efforts will ensure that this continues for generations to come. We truly appreciate what you’re doing, even if you are digging up our street.”

McCamy continued, “Two of the most frequently asked questions when new industry including retail are looking at are area, are regarding access to quality health care and strong educational systems. Scottsboro is well positioned in both areas now. On the health care front, in partnership with Huntsville Hospital, Highlands Medical Center continues to improve facilities and capabilities while recruiting new physicians and staff that provide excellent health care in Jackson County. We’re fortunate to have Ashley Poole as H.H. Highland’s president. She’s done an incredible job in bringing us to where we are. Under her leadership, the facility has reached several significant milestones. This year, the facility achieved joint commission accreditation. This milestone reflects their commitment to the highest standard of clinical care while reaching record high patient satisfaction scores. This exceptional performance earned them the title “Most improved” in every key matrix spot monitored by the hospital health system. Over the past year, the hospital provided care to more than 93,000 individuals. The hospital continues strengthening its community presence by partnering with local schools and the Chamber of Commerce, hosting free clinics and participating in downtown events. Their community reach goes even further. The hospital is now the largest non-industrial employer in Jackson County, providing jobs to more than 800 individuals. Since joining the Huntsville Hospital system, over $16 million in financial support has been invested in our local facility, further strengthening health care in Scottsboro. They continue investing in the future of health care by partnering with Northeast Alabama Community College and Scottsboro High School to support training programs in fields like EMT, CNA, lab tech, nursing, CA, and culinary arts, helping build a strong local talent pipeline.

Scottsboro City Schools continue to excel both academically and in extracurricular activities. As of May 9th, Scottsboro City Schools had 2,430 K through 12 students enrolled with 194 new students joining the school this year, primarily from within Alabama, but also from 18 other states. Over 50% of the 160-member senior class is receiving some level of scholarship. Over 400 dual enrollment courses were taken by more than 200 students. Nine staff members have received national board certification. We are also incredibly proud of the successes of both the boys and girls athletic programs, winning eight state titles this year. Our ladies’ basketball team are 5A state champions for the first time ever. Our girls cross country are 5A state champions this year. Our girls bowling team are 5A state champions for the first time. Our wrestling team, 5A state champions. Our boys swim team, 5A state champions. Boys outdoor track, state champions. girls outdoor track, state champions.

I’m also happy to announce a new partnership between the city and the Kevin Duke’s Career and Innovation Academy. It’s the Fire Science Program. You know, fire departments across the state of Alabama are facing a hiring hardship, and this program will help address that need globally. Introducing high school students to careers in public safety is invaluable, and in other counties, similar programs have already proven successful with graduates entering the workforce quickly. In conjunction with the Alabama Fire College, Fire Chief John Lee in the Scottsboro Fire Department will lead this program that will allow students to become certified volunteer firefighters through hands-on and in-class training. After graduation from high school and completing the fire science curriculum, students will be eligible for a shortened path to full firefighter certification. Once this program is established, we hope to build on that success with a similar program focused on law enforcement careers.

This brings me to another significant partnership, our ongoing collaboration with Northeast Alabama Community College. We continue to work with Northeast through the Scottsboro Industrial Development Board in the Jackson County Economic Development Authority to provide a location and facilities for Northeast’s commercial driver’s license, or CDL, truck driving training facility. We’ve also worked with Northeast’s workforce Development, building an instruction program that allows their students to shadow our building inspectors to observe actual building inspection processes.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, the city council has managed your tax dollars very well, and I’m happy to report to you the city of Scottsboro is in very sound financial condition. We continue to maintain an A+ rating. This is the highest possible rating. It isn’t just a point of pride, it also allows us to invest strategically in Scottsboro’s future. You’ve heard me say this many times before. One of the primary rules of economic development is to take care of your existing industries first, and we take this very seriously. 80 to 85% of job growth for industrial jobs comes from existing industries. The Jackson County Economic Development Authority continues working to support expansions as well as working to recruit new industries. As recently as this month, a developer drove in unannounced, checked out the airport, Goose Pond, retail stores, went to Wal-Mart, and spoke to residents. They learn everything they can about our community before we know they’re even looking at us. The image we project, both visually and personally, says everything about our community and can be a deciding factor on location decisions.

We’re proud to have the exceptional facilities at Scottsboro Municipal Airport; an updated airport layout plan is now being completed and providing strategic vision for long-term development. For the first time ever, the airport moved over 80,000 gallons of fuel, including 41,000 gallons of aviation fuel and over 40,000 gallons of jet fuel, a clear sign of increasing traffic from corporate jets to business aircraft frequenting our city. We saw over 7,500 aircraft movements last year, averaging about 21 operations per day, with approximately 40% of that traffic being corporate or business related. Martin Aviation, our long-standing partner, signed a new five-year lease for the 88,000 square foot hangar. Their growth in the aviation maintenance industry continues to bring new business, jobs and traffic trucking to our city. Since 2020, our airport has received over $3 million in state and federal funding, enabling these projects and positioning us for a bright future in air transportation. As we work to build momentum in transportation and industry, we’re also seeing the same energy reflected in our retail sector.

We had significant retail growth again in 2024. Hobby Lobby continues to be on track to open in November of this year, just before Christmas. As retail interest in our city continues to grow, it’s critical that our infrastructure keeps pace.

Transportation projects remain a key priority to support this growth and improve connectivity. The latest ALDOT traffic account for US. Highway 72 is 32,282 cars a day.

Looking ahead, we’re excited to announce the city has been awarded an ATRIP grant by Governor Ivy in the amount of $1.7 million This grant is to realign the intersection on Micah Way by First Southern State Bank. This will be crucial to traffic management as the county relocates offices to the Jackson County Courthouse Annex on Liberty Lane this fall.

As we invest in safer, more efficient roadways to support our growth, we’re also focused on another critical area of our local infrastructure, and that’s housing. We continue to be challenged with housing for residents coming in with growth. In 2024, we issued 55 new single family residential permits for a 17.5 million investment and 158 residential additions or alteration permits totaling a $2 million investment. The new housing development, Jackson Bend on Phillips Drive, has already started with plans to provide 116 single family homes. There are 10 homes started to date, with plans to complete phase one by the end of the year. Phase two has a an additional 33 homes and phase three has an additional 41 homes. Stone Bridge is planning a 150 single family home development, while Feathered Oaks on Snodgrass Road will add nine additional homes this year. These developments represent significant progress in addressing our housing needs. They’re just one part of our broader amendment to moving Scottsboro forward.

We applied for and we were awarded another $400,000 grant to continue our cleanup efforts. We developed a list of another 29 structures that were targeted for removal. This project is nearing completion with the removal of 27 structures and another additional site in process. We are implementing more aggressive actions to help clean up our city, to include abandoned houses, vehicles and trash. City Councilwomen Nita Tolliver and Donna Fredrick led the second city-wide cleanup work day on April 12th of this year. Volunteers collected 650 pounds of trash. All of these efforts will help to improve the appearance of Scottsboro, enhance our opportunities for growth, and serve as a general indicator of our quality of life. Scottsboro continues to be a part of several regional and multi-state programs and projects.

In closing, thank you all for your time and participation this morning, and thank each one of you for what you do to make Scottsboro and Jackson County a better place to live, work, play and grow. I hope I’ve effectively communicated and describe the partnerships that exist and their importance in moving to Scottsboro forward. Now it’s time to take these successes to the next level. I know they will continue. I ask for your continued prayers and support, because we continue to pursue quality retail and industrial growth, that provide good jobs for our present and future residents. Thank you all. May God bless you,” McCamy ended.