From fellow commissioners and county employees to his family and the thousands of other families that make up Limestone County, Collin Daly gave thanks to a litany of groups during his “State of the County” address Thursday.

“I don’t think there’s any place in this region or state that I’d rather be,” Daly, who serves as the Limestone County Commission chairman, said.

He started his address by praising the education facilities in Limestone, including Calhoun Community College, where the speech took place. Daly said over the years, he’s watched the college grow from a small community college into “a beautiful campus, a beautiful place.”

He also praised the Limestone County Career Technical Center. The two schools work in partnership with each other and with other schools in Athens and Limestone County to help students gain a variety of skills, many of which are sought after by business and industry in Limestone County.

“The future of our success here in Limestone County greatly depends on places like the Career Technical Center and places like Calhoun,” Daly said, noting another of Calhoun’s roles as a “great feeder school for Athens State” University.

Calhoun and the tech center also offer medical programs, helping support another group Daly took time to thank during his speech. He said it’s hard to prepare for everything, and the most prominent example recently has been the coronavirus pandemic.

“We gotta thank all these front-line heroes,” he said. “… It’s amazing to watch people like at the hospital, how they make things work.”

He also thanked the tourism groups, including Athens Main Street, for their work helping businesses adapt to the pandemic and implement procedures that kept business thriving and employees and customers safe.

“We learned how to live through this,” Daly said. “Here we are, a year later, and we’ve survived and been through it. I want to thank all those heroes.”

County work

Daly provided a brief review of the county’s revenue and expenditures in 2020, highlighting a budget that increased by more than $3 million and how public safety accounted for nearly 60% of the county’s spending.

“Without a safe community, we don’t have a community, and I am so proud we live in a safe community,” he said. “This is a great place to live, a great place to raise a family.”

He also highlighted investments in Limestone County during 2020, from the infrastructure improvements made possible through the Rebuild Alabama Act to the more than $1.1 billion invested through new capital projects.

Limestone County had more than 22 miles of road projects made possible through Rebuild Alabama in 2020, he said. Another 27.34 miles of resurfacing was aided by funds received through the act.

“With all the growth we have and all the industry we have coming to this area, that’s vital to our community,” Daly said.

He thanked his fellow commissioners and the 280 employees across the county’s departments for working together over the last year.

“A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and we have no weak links there,” Daly said. “… They work together like spokes inside a wheel to make this county go forward and keep us rolling.”

However, the county would be nothing without its residents, and Daly made it a point to emphasize the importance of getting an accurate count of just how many they serve and represent through participation in the U.S. census.

“I was so repetitive on the census, but when you have a growing county like we have, you have to be repetitive,” Daly said. “Everything comes off census data, and that’s why I was so repetitive about it.”

New capital

Mazda-Toyota Manufacturing has made its fair share of headlines over the last few years, but they weren’t the only ones investing in Limestone County in 2020. Aldez, Buffalo Rock, DaikoNishikawa USA Inc., Nippon Express, Toyota Tsusho America and YKTA Inc. also made the list of companies seeking to expand or make a new home in Limestone County.

“We are so blessed in this area to have the economical growth that we have,” Daly said, adding the county had more than 600 jobs come to the area last year and is on track to add hundreds and hundreds more each year in the future.

Another major announcement in 2020 was the joint approval by the Athens City Council and Limestone County Commission to welcome Buc-ee’s Athens. Daly said when he talks to people, they often use the rocketship on Interstate 65 at the Alabama-Tennessee state line to mark Limestone County, but soon, it could be Buc-ee’s Athens that folks use instead.

The establishment is set to bring about 170 jobs and $35 million in investment. Though many customers view it as much more, one of its primary purposes is as a gas station, and the 100-plus gas pumps could mean plenty of gas tax revenue that will be used to improve roads in Limestone County.

“As far as road funding and stuff, we’re going to have about $500,000 more a year to put into road funds,” Daly said. Currently, road commissioners have about $1.2 million to split evenly between them each year for road projects.

When it’s all added up — education, government, workforce, infrastructure, residents and more — he said the end result is the best county one could ask for.

“I could sit up here and talk all day long about how great this county is,” Daly said as he neared the end of his address. “I think everybody watching and everybody in this room would agree this is a great place.”