Sand Mountain Reporter

The main question on most people’s minds at the community involvement meeting Tuesday night to discuss the moving of Alabama 75 was if they were going to get fair market value for their properties, while one family was left wondering how they could put a price tag on more than 100 years of family history.

“It’s not just about the money,” Sam Wright, a landowner who will be affected by moving the road, said. “It’s about the family history.”

The land Sam and his wife, Karen, own has been in the family ever since her great-great-grandfather walked from Albertville to Huntsville to claim it according to Karen.

The sentimental value of the land is important to the Wrights.

The house they currently live in has been passed down through the generations.

The Wrights will not lose their home, but they will have to part with most of the land they own.

The relocation of Alabama 75 will also place the right of way 105 feet from their house.

The Wrights said this causes a safety problem because they have a 4-year-old son who is deaf.

“There’s so many different ways it impacts stuff,” Sam said.

Sam said he understood the need for the airport to expand and the need of progress in general.

“We’re not going to fight it,” Karen said.

According to Airport Manager Jerry Cofield, there is not a timeline on the acquisition of the land, but he hoped land could start being purchased around this time next year.

In all, there were 99 members of the community along with representatives from Albertville Regional Airport, Alabama Department of Transportation, the city of Albertville and other elected officials.

State Rep. Frank McDaniel was there to talk to people about the project.

McDaniel has worked closely with the city of Albertville and the airport to make the project happen, according to Cofield.

McDaniel said it was important to continue pushing expansion and growth at the airport because he believes the aviation field is important to the future of Albertville.

“I think it fits in with the plans we’ve had all along,” McDaniel said, “to create an opportunity for people to have a better quality of life.”

He said that even though the economy had slowed down some of the plans for the expansion of the airport and the Albertville Aviation Training facility, it was still important to have people trained and ready when jobs started to become available.

“If we plan for it, we will have an opportunity to be a player in all of it,” McDaniel said.

McDaniel told a story about a grandmother who had given up her land when the city wanted to build the temporary building for the training facility.

Her grandson later graduated from that training facility.

In all there are 54 plots of land that will need to be acquired, which will affect between 45 to 50 landowners.

Share | Save | Mail | Print | Letter

Follow the Reporter on Twitter:

SMR News and
SMR Sports

Serving Albertville and the Sand Mountain region

Publisher: Ben Shurett

1603 Progress Drive
Albertville, Alabama 35950

Tel: 256-840-3000 | Email

A Southern Newspapers publication.