Civil Municipal Magazine Aug 2023

44 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 8 “It’s a museum of rural history and artifacts you can’t find anywhere else,” he pointed out, “so Anniston is very blessed culturally. Anniston really has a rich cultural history, and we’re working to expand on that.” Speaking speculatively, Draper said he’d love to see live-music venues created in downtown Anniston. For example, he added, there is an historic amphitheatre on the campus of the former Fort McClellan, originally Camp McClellan, a decommissioned United States Army post located adjacent to Anniston. During World War II, it was one of the largest U.S. Army installations, training an estimated 500,000 soldiers for combat in the European and Pacific theatres. Economic development and healing past wounds Draper said the City’s efforts these days are much focused on economic development and the quality of life of its citizens. With the new fiscal year just begun, he noted the City has a $42 million annual budget. Anniston was the original home of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. It’s now in Montgomery. Folks said Anniston compares very favorably with other Alabama cities, such as Huntsville and Birmingham. Anniston’s future, he said, is a bright one. “I think the sky’s the limit,” said Folks, adding that he not only looks at Anniston as a municipality alone but also at the entire region of northeastern Alabama as a whole. Atlanta is only 91 miles and as many minutes away. Anniston’s proximity to one of the South’s biggest cities has a beneficial economic spillover effect. Folks cited Anniston’s history. It played a key role in the efforts of the famous Freedom Riders and other civil-rights leaders who crusaded against the violent and evil Ku Klux Klan in the old Jim Crow days of the then- segregated South, some 60 years ago. The efforts of these courageous men and