While many are focusing on the five and a half weeks left in this decade, local artist Kathy Newman is unveiling her idea of Limestone County three decades from now.

The piece was commissioned by Mark Isley, executive director of Human Resources for Limestone County Schools, who admitted Newman looked at him “like I had four heads” when he brought up the idea. They were looking at a potential aerial view of the Mazda-Toyota Manufacturing USA site, and Isley asked if she could create an aerial view of the county in 2050.

It took a few months, but Newman said she soon had plenty of ideas for what the county could become.

“Our older generation worked in cotton fields, and they did all of this work to create Limestone County as a great place to raise children,” Newman said. “Now, as the generation here, what are we going to leave our young generation coming on? Think about it.”

For her and Isley, one answer includes an amusement park, industry that isn’t annexed into a city outside Limestone County, a football stadium, a new golf course and more.

“If we invested as a county in one major thing to get it started, you would have regrowth happen just like that,” said Newman, who works as a custodian for the Limestone County Commission. “Budgets would go up. Jobs would come in. Our children … would have plenty to look forward to in Limestone County, and they wouldn’t have to go anywhere for enjoyment.”

Newman labeled the amusement park “Aqua World,” placing it between Athens and the southwestern border of the county. A sky ride takes people along the Tennessee River. In the northwestern corner, Newman painted a factory labeled “Float Master.”

Closer to Athens is a new central office for Limestone County Schools and what Newman calls a “Bridge Street remake.” Bridge Street Town Centre is a popular outdoor mall featuring stores, restaurants, a movie theatre, children’s carousel and more off Interstate 565 in Huntsville.

“Our citizens are having — and you know this as well as I do — they’re having to go to other counties to spend our county money,” Newman said. “Think about this. If we actually had like a Bridge Street remake, we would not have to travel anywhere. Our county money would be building.”

She also envisions a football stadium near East Limestone High School that serves as the central location for all football games in the county. Isley said this idea would require changing up game schedules, but it could be done.

“You would do Friday and Saturday games,” he said. “It’s just another way of looking at it, saving money and also having a better facility. People would come because you have this.”

While the painting may not be an exact portrait of Limestone County’s future, Isley said it’s at least a start.

“It could be one of those pieces that is sort of the springboard that gets the (Limestone County) Board of Education and the (Limestone) County Commission and local businesses, our media, the paper here locally, and we can legitimately begin small and build from there,” he said.

Isley previously commissioned a piece by Newman portraying unity at Tanner High School. The finished work features a wide variety of students holding hands around the building, including a student in a wheelchair, another on crutches and one in an ancient Egyptian headdress. Above the students are hands forming a circle around the Limestone County Schools logo.

“Both of us share the same vision that the county, regardless of our position — that we’re all important and part of that vision,” Isley said. “… Kathy and I actually believe this place is about to take off. I don’t care what the experts say, and you can quote me on that.”

Furthermore, he believes there’s real potential in her artistic vision for the future.

“What kind of vision can two people have that they change history? You may say, ‘Well, you just sound crazy up there,’ but I think when you look at it, it can happen.”

Newman agrees.

“Our older generation has built Limestone County and made it what it is today,” she said. “Limestone County, we have to think of our generation now. We have to leave a legacy for our new generation coming on.”

And after 11 months of work, she has created a physical portrait of what that legacy could be.