Latest news with #TabBowling
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Improvements to begin on Flying Dragon Disc Golf Course
May 30—Hall of Fame Course Design will begin to update and improve the Flying Dragon Disc Golf Course, located at the Jack Allen Recreation Complex, next week. The Decatur City Council approved a resolution Monday to allow Mayor Tab Bowling to sign a contract with the company. Hall of Fame first provided the city with a description of the scope of work in January. "It's basically just giving the course a refresh and making it more playable and safer," said Lavone Wolfe, owner of Hall of Fame Course Design. "We hope that it will help it get a lot more use." Wolfe estimated the project will take between four and eight weeks, depending on weather conditions. The scope of work contract estimates the project's total cost to be $114,312. The city received a grant for $100,000 from Alabama Mountains, Rivers and Valleys. The additional $14,000 will come from the Community Development grant-matching budget. "We have a ton of quality of life, recreation projects going on, so I think it shows that not everything is a $52 million rec center," said Councilman Kyle Pike. "Some things are as small as a $100,000 improvement to a disc golf course." In February, the city broke ground on the new Wilson Morgan Park recreation center, the largest Parks and Recreation project in progress. Pike said the disc golf course update is another way to support the varying hobbies of Decatur residents. Wolfe will focus improvements primarily on holes 11 through 18, including walkways. Updates will include installing new concrete tee pads, refurbishing the targets, adding new signs and removing boulders. The improvements will make the course more navigable, safer and easier to play on, Wolfe said. Players have requested upgrades to the course in recent years, largely because of the difficulty seeing targets and walking through the course. "It's to the point that it really needs it," Wolfe said. Hall of Fame first installed the Flying Dragon Course in 2012. Wolfe, a Disc Golf Hall of Fame inductee, has designed or built more than 78 courses in the Southeast. Brad Phillips, Decatur's director of Information Systems, is an avid disc golfer. He enjoys traveling to different disc golf courses in the area and spoke highly of Wolfe's work. The disc golf community in north Alabama has been on the rise in recent years, Phillips said. "With (these updates), I expect the playing on that course to go way up," Wolfe said. Decatur has two other disc golf courses: the Outback, at Central Park, and Riverside, at Rhodes Ferry Park. — or 256-340-2437
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
State of the City: Mayor cites massive budget growth during his terms
Apr. 18—A lot has changed for Mayor Tab Bowling and the city of Decatur during his four and a half years, but few things have changed more than the city budget. During his final State of the City, an annual breakfast held by the Decatur-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce, Bowling reviewed on Thursday his two-term tenure that ends in November. He is not running for reelection. Wade Weaver, chamber public policy committee chairman, moderated the presentation. Bowling called serving as mayor "my dream job. It has been a privilege to serve this town in a way not many others have had, and we're not yet to the end." He reviewed a period of tremendous growth for the city that included new hotels and homes, downtown changes, the $98 million settlement with 3M Co., the COVID-19 pandemic, and major updates to parks and recreation facilities. Bowling took a moment in the breakfast before over 300 people at the Doubletree by Hilton Decatur Riverfront to apologize for refusing to attend last year's State of the City. He chose not to attend because of a disagreement over the presentation and Council President Jacob Ladner's participation. "Last year I made a bad decision," Bowling said. "While I didn't like what was being done, I didn't handle it properly, and I did not come and do one of my duties in providing a State of the City and, for that, to the chamber and the chamber members, I'm very sorry." Bowling said his first budget in fiscal 2016 was $58.2 million, and then he showed how it grew yearly to $98.4 million in fiscal 2025. "Next year, I think we'll say triple digits as we go into the (fiscal) 2026 budget," the mayor said. He pointed out that the city celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2020, so it took 100 years to reach $58.2 million. "It's incredible that, even though we're conservative with our spending, that the budget increase has almost doubled," Bowling said. He attributed the burgeoning budget to multiple factors, including benefiting from north Alabama's growth with the new Mazda Toyota Manufacturing plant and Federal Bureau of Investigation office in Huntsville. Among the other factors were the Decatur-Morgan County's job growth, hiring a chief financial officer, "flat budgeting" and jumpstarting the city's residential growth, which he attributed to a chamber initiative launched in 2018. Walton Ashwander, of Rogers Group, is a Decatur native whose company now does a lot of work for the city, including handling its annual paving contract. He said after the meeting that the city's budget growth was the thing that stood out in the mayor's presentation. "That budget growth is phenomenal," Ashwander said. "It's great that money grew that quickly. It must be a massive undertaking to deal with that kind of money." Bowling said after the meeting that he considers two intertwined issues the proudest points in his service as mayor. The first is the $98 million environmental settlement with 3M, which he said will actually grow because 3M "is spending a lot of money on cleaning up our landfill." He said the second is the $35 million bond issue allowing the city to build major upgrades to parks and recreation facilities. The city is building indoor tennis and pickleball courts for $2.5 million, turning the Point Mallard Ice Complex into an event center for $3.5 million, building an eight-field ball field complex for $17 million and, finally, building a $52.5 million recreation center at Wilson Morgan Park. Bowling said the City Council "wanted to return to a time when Decatur was known for its recreation." Even though he has six months left as mayor, he pointed out there's still a lot of work to be done. The City Council is in the process of filling multiple director openings in Planning, Parks and Recreation, Youth Services and searching for a new police chief. "We have so many projects, and we're short staffed," Bowling said. "It will be all hands on deck, especially since there will be more projects announced soon." Bowling said they're still working on getting $4 million to $5 million for a second study for another Tennessee River bridge. He said this study will look at which routes are environmentally feasible. It will also eliminate the routes that don't create an additional pathway around Alabama 20/U.S. 31. Decatur paid $1 million and also received a $1 million federal grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission for the first phase of the study. The city recently paid $450,000 for 0.2 of an acre at Alabama 67 and Upper River Road for right of way for intersection improvements. Hwy. 67 Used Furniture and Appliances was in this building, but Bowling said the city will demolish "the old block building any day now, and then the next phase can begin." Bowling said the new Renasant Bank is a great new part of the gateway into Sixth Avenue Southeast, and the city will start soon on the Sixth Avenue streetscape project between Wilson Street Northeast and Prospect Drive Southeast. He said they've moved most of the utilities underground. "If you see one wire hanging on our telephone poles, the only wires remaining belong to Temple Electric, which controls the traffic signals," Bowling said. The wires will eventually go into cobra traffic lights, which hang from curved poles over the road rather than power lines. "This will be very appealing," Bowling said. Bowling said he has been working with the Tennessee Valley Authority and would still like to see a lodge built at Point Mallard Park north of the event center. — or 256-340-2432
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Deactur historical marker replaced after damage
DECATUR, Ala. (WHNT) — A Decatur historical marker commemorating African American Heritage has been replaced after it was damaged last month. The African American Heritage marker in Old Town Decatur has been replaced after it was damaged on March 24. MLF competition canceled following deadly multi-boat accident on Lewis Smith Lake The marker chronicles the forgotten contributions of African Americans to the City of Decatur, going back to before the city was incorporated. Established in 1821, Old Town was the home of many prominent African Americans and black-owned businesses before Urban Renewal took over in the 1970s. Decatur was incorporated in 1826. A spokesperson for the Decatur Preservation originally said it would take a year to get a new marker and the replacement would likely cost thousands. Historian Peggy Towns, who helped get the original marker placed, thanked Decatur Mayor Tab Bowling for helping get the marker quickly replaced. SHERIFF: Son kills father in Lauderdale County murder-suicide The mayor told News 19's Archie Snowden that he simply knew the right person to call for help. 'Nothing beats having reliable friends,' Bowling said. 'When I learned about this unfortunate incident, I knew which friend to call.' Decatur Police said last month they were investigating what caused the damage to the marker but had not determined if it had been damaged intentionally or accidentally. Authorities said on Tuesday that there were no updates in that investigation. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
