With the ongoing discussion regarding the site of a new elementary school and the possible demolition of the historic former middle and high school on Parkway Drive, Mayor Gene Melton has his own ideas about the fate of the building. Below, is the mayor’s letter that he sent to the Trussville Historic Committee last Thursday.
The Mayor’s Plan for Restoring the Cahaba Project School Site
The Cahaba Project is the last standing U.S. Government’s Projects of the 1930’s still intact today as a planned community with homes, parks, sidewalks, street lighting, a water system, a sewer system, a community commissary serving as Heritage Hall and a community center given to the Jefferson County School Board to become a high school.
The Historic Cahaba Project will always be a part of American History I discovered first hand while visiting our U.S. Capital. Our school building and the old commissary building along with the open air park malls is the center piece that makes the Cahaba Project what it is today, a small town community that needs to keep its history alive.
Our project school site was not planned for a K-5 school site for a growing City of today with 20,000 residents; an example would be “PUTTING A SQUARE PEG IN A ROUND HOLE”. We should be proud of our history and it should be protected to remind all that there was a time when our Government actually spent our tax dollars wisely.
Mayor’s Plan:
1
. Find the Trussville School Board a school site that would better serve the entire City as the City continues to grow.
2. The City would correct any environmental problems that might exist today along with any other utility issues we discover.
3. Appoint a Cahaba Project Restoration Committee
4. Take Committee’s recommendations and develop a plan to restore the Cahaba Project School Site.
5. Fund the Cahaba Project School Site to a level that would insure to the satisfaction of City Council that the City of Trussville is capable of restoring this site.
-Mayor Gene Melton