Former Gov. Robert Bentley shakes hands with students at Athens-Limestone Public Library during an appearance in September 2015.

Former Gov. Robert Bentley was no stranger to the Tennessee Valley.

Since winning re-election in 2014, Bentley was a fixture at economic development events and ribbon-cuttings.

“Every time I can hold some big scissors means we have some good news,” he said in November while attending the ribbon-cutting for Polaris on Greenbrier Parkway.

Bentley was frequently photographed at a variety of economic development announcements both before and after the scandal that ended his leadership Monday. Bentley donned a Polaris cap at a press event in January 2015 next to a smiling Limestone County Commission Chairman Mark Yarbrough, who had just been sworn into office two months earlier.

“I hate this for all parties involved. … There are no winners in this,” Yarbrough said.

Yarbrough had numerous conversations with Bentley’s office and other economic development officials over the past two years. Other area projects that came to fruition during Bentley’s tenure include:

• Carpenter Technology;

• Remington;

• Shape Corp.;

• Asahi Kasei; and

• GE Aviation.

Employment was the focus of Bentley’s administration. He pledged he would not take a paycheck until Alabama reached full employment, or an overall unemployment rate of 5 percent.

“He’s been good to North Alabama in the form of economic development,” Yarbrough said. “I know every time we asked him for something, he answered the call. … I hope Kay Ivey will feel the same way.”

State Rep. Danny Crawford, R-Athens, said he doesn’t believe North Alabama’s good economic fortune has much to do with who the governor is. He believes it is instead a partnership between the governor’s office and other state and local partners. He also cited the valuable resources of the area — infrastructure and workforce.

“If you’ve got something good, people want to be part of it,” he said.

Athens Mayor Ronnie Marks said he found Bentley easy to work with, but added he dealt with other economic agencies as much or more as Bentley.

“The governor had surrounded himself with some good people, which was good, because he became — in my opinion — ineffective,” Marks said. “I regret this for the state of Alabama.”

Marks, who once worked in Gov. Bob Riley’s administration, knows Kay Ivey and predicts her transition to governor will be a smooth one.

“I think between her and the leadership in the House and Senate, we’ll continue to progress,” he said.

Political fallout

The state Republican Party over the weekend issued a statement urging Bentley to resign, a plea that the local party agreed with. Noah Wahl, chairman of the Limestone Republican Party, said Bentley’s resignation is a good thing because Alabamians want leaders who have strong moral character.

Wahl said there were other aspects of Bentley’s leadership he found troublesome, including how the sex scandal boiled over to an alleged misuse of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. He also cited ALDOT’s decision in 2015 to withhold money from State Sen. Bill Holtzclaw’s district after Holtzclaw erected a billboard criticizing Bentley’s plan to raise taxes.

“I think it will be good for the whole state,” Wahl said.

Crawford said had Bentley not resigned, there would have been impeachment hearings in both the House and Senate. Those hearings would have cut into valuable time in the ongoing legislative session.

“We’ll just put it in our rear-view mirror and get away from it,” said Crawford, who has been a proponent of Bentley’s removal from office. “It’s not really what I wanted to see from the standpoint of a legislator, but it achieved what we were trying to achieve. Impeachment was inevitable.”