Haleyville Answers The Call As An Alabama Community Of Excellence

By Cary Estes

On Feb. 16, 1968, Alabama Speaker of the House Rankin Fite stood in the Haleyville mayor’s office, dialed three numbers on a bright red rotary phone and made history for the small northwestern Alabama town.

The numbers he dialed that day were 9-1-1, marking the first use of the nation’s new emergency-response phone system that is now called more than 200 million times each year. Haleyville is so proud of this achievement that the city celebrates the historic moment with an annual 9-1-1 Festival.

Nearly a half-century later, Haleyville continues to answer the call when it comes to meeting the needs of its residents, especially in the years since the city graduated from the Alabama Communities of Excellence (ACE) pilot program in 2005. Under the guidance of the ACE program, communities assess their local resources and devise ways to strengthen their long-term economic prospects through leadership development and strategic planning.“ACE gives you the structure of how to work on these things, then it goes through the steps of how to accomplish them,” said Haleyville Mayor Ken Sunseri, who was elected in 2008 and is serving his third term. “It gives you a snapshot of where you are and where you want to be, and the availability of the assets you can tap into. Things that small communities might not be familiar with.”

Please visit Alabama News Center for the Full Article

Tags: ANC, exp01

Category: ALL POSTS, Partner News Stories