Civil Municipal Magazine Aug 2023

211 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 8 SOUTHSIDE , ALABAMA However, these days, the biggest employer is now the Etowah County School System. It has 137 employees in Southside’s schools. Southside High was awarded the prestigious “School of Distinction” honor for 2023 and the elementary school has the highest reading scores, as Hutchins reveals. “We have the best schools in the county, right here in our city,” Snyder agrees. Then there’s the City of Southside. It employs 60 people. As well, some 16 percent of Southsiders work for local, state, or federal government agencies. There are two medical clinics, a pharmacy, a gym, two therapeutic-massage facilities, a grocery store, a hardware store and other commercial and retail establishments. It’s a comfortable place. At an average of $73,594 a year, Southside has one of the highest median incomes in the state. Hutchins also points out that Southside is going green. It’s working in partnership with Rainbow City for recycling collected cardboard, using the latter’s in-house system. He added Southside hopes to eventually add plastics and other recyclables into this mix with its sister city’s program. Plus, for the past three years, Southside has engaged in several roadside clean-up efforts in the springtime. “That’s been a very big success,” says Hutchins, “as far as getting areas cleaned a whole lot better than what they were.” Snyder, Hutchins, and the Southside City Council are all quite keen on their community’s future economic development. “We’d like to recruit some more retail,” says Snyder, “and maybe some light industry. We know that our infrastructure, quality of life, recreation, and things of that nature will help with that. That’s a lot of our plan. It’s ultimately for economic growth and for recruiting businesses to come here and just trying to get those things in order: somewhere that people want to live, work, play, and stay.” The mayor also returned to the topic of the sidewalk project Hutchins discussed. “We would like to have a walkable, bikeable community, especially through the town center”, she says, adding she hopes to see Southside’s downtown become more developed. “I think that we have a lot of untapped market potential.” Parks and rec Southside boasts 47 acres of Park land and 31.8 miles of shoreline on the Coosa River. Hutchins cites the Southside Parks and Recreation Department. The Southside Sports Complex, Southside Landing, and Southside City Park are all hidden gems.