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Am I missing something here?  Are they really going to put a big lit sign up down at Riverside Park for folks to see on the river?  What an incredible waste of money, even if it is someone elses.  I really hope i read this wrong.......

 

 http://www.timesdaily.com/news...56-001a4bcf6878.html

 

TUSCUMBIA — Sheffield Mayor Ian Sanford wants to create an identity for his city on the Tennessee River.

 

On Tuesday, the Colbert County Community Development Committee awarded the city $12,000 to construct a lighted sign that will feature the city’s slogan — “Sheffield: The Center of the Shoals.”

 

The sign will not be erected along a highway entering the city, but at Riverfront Park.

 

The committee awarded grants ranging from $200 to $20,000 to schools, volunteer fire departments, police departments and various non-profit organizations. The money is provided to the county through Tennessee Valley Authority in-lieu of tax payments.

 

“This is very much appreciated,” Sanford said.

Beam me up, Scotty, there's no intelligent life here......

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Hi Chick,

 

Back in the 1950s, there was only the TriCities:  Tuscumbia, Sheffield, Florence.  Even the newspaper was called the TriCities Daily.  At that time, Muscle Shoals was considered part of Sheffield -- and all the kids living in the Muscle Shoals area went to Sheffield schools.  I lived in Muscle Shoals, on Central Avenue, for several years -- and it was always part of Sheffield.

 

So, with Tuscumbia to the south and Florence to the north, that puts Sheffield in the middle.  Hence, the center of the Shoals area.  Makes sense to me.

 

And, at this ad from the 1920s tells us:  Sheffield, Alabama:  Heart Of Muscle Shoals.

 

Way to go, Ian. 

 

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,

 

Bill

1920s Ad - Sheffield - Heart of Muscle Shoals

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  • 1920s Ad - Sheffield - Heart of Muscle Shoals
Last edited by Bill Gray

Just what this area needs, another gaudy, unsightly sign that won't be maintained because the city won't have the money to take care of it. 12K down the tubes. Surely someone in Sheffield has more vision than that.

But then again what can you expect from a city that hires police officers fired from other depts. and convicted in court.

Originally Posted by Bill Gray:

Hi Chick,

 

Back in the 1950s, there was only the TriCities:  Tuscumbia, Sheffield, Florence.  Even the newspaper was called the TriCities Daily.  At that time, Muscle Shoals was considered part of Sheffield -- and all the kids living in the Muscle Shoals area went to Sheffield schools.  I lived in Muscle Shoals, on Central Avenue, for several years -- and it was always part of Sheffield.

 

So, with Tuscumbia to the south and Florence to the north, that puts Sheffield in the middle.  Hence, the center of the Shoals area.  Makes sense to me.

 

And, at this ad from the 1920s tells us:  Sheffield, Alabama:  Heart Of Muscle Shoals.

 

Way to go, Ian. 

 

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,

 

Bill

1920s Ad - Sheffield - Heart of Muscle Shoals

___

As that ad tells us, Shurfiel' had some things going for it in the 1920s that it certainly no longer has. Yep, Shurfiel'--"high rank as a manufacturing center" and "City of Opportunity!!

 

And note that description of "transportation unexcelled by any city in the Tennessee Valley."

They must not have had that notorious railroad crossing back in the 1920s.

 

Lo, how the mighty has fallen!

 

Shurfiel'--no place to go but up.

Originally Posted by Contendah:
Originally Posted by Bill Gray:

Hi Chick,

 

Back in the 1950s, there was only the TriCities:  Tuscumbia, Sheffield, Florence.  Even the newspaper was called the TriCities Daily.  At that time, Muscle Shoals was considered part of Sheffield -- and all the kids living in the Muscle Shoals area went to Sheffield schools.  I lived in Muscle Shoals, on Central Avenue, for several years -- and it was always part of Sheffield.

 

So, with Tuscumbia to the south and Florence to the north, that puts Sheffield in the middle.  Hence, the center of the Shoals area.  Makes sense to me.

 

And, at this ad from the 1920s tells us:  Sheffield, Alabama:  Heart Of Muscle Shoals.

 

Way to go, Ian. 

 

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,

 

Bill

1920s Ad - Sheffield - Heart of Muscle Shoals

___

As that ad tells us, Shurfiel' had some things going for it in the 1920s that it certainly no longer has. Yep, Shurfiel'--"high rank as a manufacturing center" and "City of Opportunity!!

 

And note that description of "transportation unexcelled by any city in the Tennessee Valley."

They must not have had that notorious railroad crossing back in the 1920s.

 

Lo, how the mighty has fallen!

 

Shurfiel'--no place to go but up.

============

I think back in the 20's a railroad in the downtown was considered an asset. Sheffield used to have trollies, and not so much automobile traffic, which was probably why the tracks were not such a negative issue .
It does seem strange to me tho, that Sheffield has not managed to rise to the level of the big cities like Corinth that has what seems like a world of underpasses on it's streets, or Iuka which has an underpass and an overpass.

Also, in the 20's Woodward Ave had not even been thought of , and hwy 20 to Decatur was not too much, maybe not even paved. All traffic East and West on hwy 72 went thru Sheffield as well as Tuscumbia and Florence once the bridge was built, but now East and West traffic does not even think of going thru those towns.
As the bypass we now know as Woodward Ave, along with the bypass we now know as Hwy 72 and 20 , business left all the down town areas and moved along those routes plus the suburbs and the automobile kinda ended the downtown concept and Sheffield suffered the worse of the bunch. Maybe the main thing is the question someone has to ask themselves is "how do I get to downtown Sheffield without tearing up the undercarriage of my car, and why would I want to go there in the first place ?"

 

Originally Posted by unclegus:

OK so when the river traveler's see the sign denoting the spot where it is Sheffield, then what are they going to do?

======

They are going to throw out an anchor in the rip rap rocks, jump out of their boat, and walk up the hill to all the fine restaurants and shops that abound in downtown Sheffield en masse.

 

Last edited by seeweed
Originally Posted by Crash.Override:

at least sheffield is encouraging growth.. and trying to improve and draw in new business.. nobody else, in colbert co., seems to be trying. jmho.

And I agree !  However, Sheffield needs to start prosecuting criminals instead of focusing entirly on drugs, and do something about the run down property in town.
Maybe a model would be what I hard of a Yankee city did, they condemmed some of the fallen in property in the city, and sold it to people for $100, but the condition was they had a time limit to turn it into something, a store, a dwelling, something. I don't remember where or when , but back when I read that article, it was supposed to be successful.

 

I live in Sheffield and have a dog in this race - unless the grant said Sheffield must use it to erect a sign on the river, this was a waste of money.  This money could have been used elsewhere, and my tax dollars that it offset could have been put to better use.  Not to mention the cost of electricity, however small, to light the thing.  

 

As if i didn't have enough reasons to question how my tax dollars are spent by the city.

 

And I gave up on getting anywhere with the council when they couldn't understand why it was more important to encourage traffic on Jackson Highway instead of Hatch Super-speedway.

 

 

Last edited by Capt James T
Originally Posted by Contendah:
Originally Posted by Bill Gray:

Hi Chick,

 

Back in the 1950s, there was only the TriCities:  Tuscumbia, Sheffield, Florence.  Even the newspaper was called the TriCities Daily.  At that time, Muscle Shoals was considered part of Sheffield -- and all the kids living in the Muscle Shoals area went to Sheffield schools.  I lived in Muscle Shoals, on Central Avenue, for several years -- and it was always part of Sheffield.

 

So, with Tuscumbia to the south and Florence to the north, that puts Sheffield in the middle.  Hence, the center of the Shoals area.  Makes sense to me.

 

And, at this ad from the 1920s tells us:  Sheffield, Alabama:  Heart Of Muscle Shoals.

 

Way to go, Ian. 

 

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,

 

Bill

1920s Ad - Sheffield - Heart of Muscle Shoals

___

As that ad tells us, Shurfiel' had some things going for it in the 1920s that it certainly no longer has. Yep, Shurfiel'--"high rank as a manufacturing center" and "City of Opportunity!!

 

And note that description of "transportation unexcelled by any city in the Tennessee Valley."

They must not have had that notorious railroad crossing back in the 1920s.

 

Lo, how the mighty has fallen!

 

Shurfiel'--no place to go but up.

____________________________________
When the railroad was king, there were a number of important persons calling in Sheffield, because of the industry,  At the old Sheffield RR station, when I was a kid, my father showed me the hookups for private RR cars to provife steam heat and other utilities when detached from the train.  Private RR cars weren't cheap.

 

Originally Posted by Capt James T:

I live in Sheffield and have a dog in this race - unless the grant said Sheffield must use it to erect a sign on the river, this was a waste of money.  This money could have been used elsewhere, and my tax dollars that it offset could have been put to better use.  Not to mention the cost of electricity, however small, to light the thing.  

 

As if i didn't have enough reasons to question how my tax dollars are spent by the city.

 

And I gave up on getting anywhere with the council when they couldn't understand why it was more important to encourage traffic on Jackson Highway instead of Hatch Super-speedway.

 

 

============

I own property in Sheffield, and 2 of my 3 kids live there, so I have a stick in this fire as well. My third one did live there, but moved because as he puts it he "didn't want to live in the ghetto anymore". 

I would love to see downtown Sheffield prosper, and to some degree it is beginning to come back , one improved building at a time.
I doubt if it will ever again be a shopping mecca, but it does have a great potential to be a night time entertainment center, and development of the river front could really help making it a place people would want to move to.

I'm not too sure what has happened to improving Second St, it is the same rough bumpy street I remember when I first went over it about 60 years ago. Seems to me that is long enough to have made some improvements.

 

Originally Posted by Quaildog:
Originally Posted by Contendah:

What ever happened to the grandiose plan that surfaced a few years back--that plan for a resorty golf course in Shurfiel'?

they are fighting the new hospital with the money that would have built the golpfh course.

 


QD, I think you are correct.  If Sheffield and Muscle Shoals spent the energy and money trying to improve what they have instead of trying to prevent those north of the river from improving their own, there would be plenty of money to go around.  Instead, they had rather use their jealousy and pious attitude to stop rpgress in the whole area. Shame and disgrace, if you ask me.

Agreed t,…..Florence has always helped and promoted Colbert County with money only to get kicked in the teeth on the hospital issue. An olive branch and a bulldozer would help Sheffield tremendously.

They finally wised up and cut a hole in the barricade on 2nd street at the “Homeless Car Wash” so one could enter Sheffield down town.   2nd street East should be paved with something as a first priority.

Originally Posted by teyates:
Originally Posted by Quaildog:
Originally Posted by Contendah:

What ever happened to the grandiose plan that surfaced a few years back--that plan for a resorty golf course in Shurfiel'?

they are fighting the new hospital with the money that would have built the golpfh course.

 


QD, I think you are correct.  If Sheffield and Muscle Shoals spent the energy and money trying to improve what they have instead of trying to prevent those north of the river from improving their own, there would be plenty of money to go around.  Instead, they had rather use their jealousy and pious attitude to stop rpgress in the whole area. Shame and disgrace, if you ask me.

==========

I agree!

This area would prosper a lot more if all 4 of the cities would come together under one government.

However, I think the fight against our having a great regional hospital is more Keller Hospital and their alliance with Huntsville Hospital  than with the goverance of the 3 cities, Could be wrong tho.  Also, gotta remember, one of the proposals for placement of the new hospital was on the TVA res on the South side of the river, and the people of Florence wentn nuts.

 

 

Seeweed,

They did not go nuts about it, the proposal was killed way before it ever got off the ground.  The plan was nixed by the Keller BoD and the city officials over there.  Afterwards, the proposal died out, because why should the hospital be built on that side of the river if there was to be no cooperation. The plan to build the hospital on TVA property was nixed by forces south of the river, and any one who was involved with it knew that from the start. HKH and HH joined forces to keep a new hospital form being built.  HH has stood behind the curtain and does not put their name on anything officially but supports it thru loaned money and lawyers.  They already have the HH symbol on most of the hospitals in the region, even HKH sports the logo.  They continue to throw money against the new hospital endeavor which will bring over $300M into the local community, and rest assured when the next hearing occurs on April 18 and the if the judge finds the hospital can continue to be built, they will protest again and send it thru the courts for another year. Meanwhile they continue to spend money in an effort to prevent the Shoals from having a new facility.

T, yea I agree, but I believe there was also some Flotown people against it being on the S side of the river as well.
Frankly, I am most unhappy with the way Keller has opposed seemingly anything ECM has tried to do to improve our health care here. It seems not right that a business of any kind can use the court system to fight competition, and even worse, to fight a new improved hospital and cancer center (now long gone as I understand it)

I guess that is what you get when hospitals got privatized and became profit centers with enough spare money to hire lawyers.

 

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