Limestone County Chairman Collin Daly delivered the keynote address Wednesday morning the Athens-Limestone County Chamber of Commerce State of the County held at the Alabama Veterans Museum. The explosive growth the county continues to experience was the focus of Daly’s speech.

“I know in Limestone County we are really unique. Not only do we have people wanting to move here, other cities want to move here. We have Huntsville and Decatur. They want to know what we’ve got going on over here, too,” Daly said.

Limestone County is the fastest growing county in the state per population with a 3.3 percent growth rate.

In the past 12 months, the Limestone County Commission has approved 1,129 lots in unincorporated part of the county which is 10 times the state average. Daly stressed that it is important to focus to capture the younger generations.

“Apartments and townhouses, Athens and Limestone County has been low on that for a long time because there wasn’t a lot of need. There’s no secret you drive out here to the interstate and they are going up everywhere,” Daly said. “That’s the new way of life for the younger generation.”

Daly complimented Athens Main Street, Athens-Limestone County Tourism and others for their contributions and for promoting the area and bringing people to Athens-Limestone County.

“In Limestone County, we strive everyday to build a better place to live, work, play. All those things have to work together,” Daly said. “It’s an honor and a privilege to have people from other counties call and ask, ‘How do you do this? How do you handle this? How do you work through these issues?’ People are looking at Limestone County and this region to how to build their region.”

This year, the Limestone County budget is more than $48 million, which is $10 million more than four years ago. He credits all the county departments for working together for accomplishing great things.

“This last 12 months, we have done things we only dreamed of. A lot of it has come from Rescue money and things like that. We have paved 52 miles of road. Four years ago, when I first came here, we were getting 25 or 26,” Daly said.

The county’s growth is being felt in the License Commission’s and the Revenue Commission’s offices. License Commissioner Joseph Cannon reported to Daly that in 2020, 65,000 people came through his office. Last year, 90,000 came through. He reported that in 2020, there were 6,135 online customers. Last year, there were 16,038 – up 250 percent.

Revenue Commissioner Brian Patterson reported that last year the county had 54,100 parcels of land in Limestone County. This year, there are 58,600 due to being subdivided.

“We have 77,106 registered voters in Limestone County. I think when I ran for office, we had 61,000 or 62,000. That’s how many more registered voters we have and adding more everyday,” Daly said.

“Thank everybody and I hope God blesses each and every one of you. It’s an honor and it’s a privilege,” Daly said. “Thank everybody and God bless our great county.”