Marengo County lawmakers talk highways, education, healthcare in town hall meeting

Marengo County elected officials held a Town Hall meeting on May 29 in Linden to give a legislative update and talk about key issues impacting the area.

State Reps. AJ McCampbell and Thomas Jackson, along with state Sen. Bobby Singleton, addressed a crowd of about 60 people at the Marengo County Economic Development Authority with highlights from the 2025 legislative session and took questions and comments from residents.

Other elected officials attended including Linden Mayor Gwendolyn Rogers, Demopolis Mayor Woody Collins, Marengo County Sheriff Robert Alston Jr., Marengo County Commissioner Freddie Armstead Jr. and Linden city council members.

Topics that rose to the surface were the accomplishment of bringing the Alabama School of Healthcare Sciences to Demopolis, continued construction of the West Alabama Corridor, the battle to keep rural hospitals open and education.

“This is what democracy looks like,” Jackson said when addressing the crowd. “We’re your voice in Montgomery” and want to hear what they want they need.

Jackson, McCampbell and Singleton gave credit to Demopolis leaders for fighting in Montgomery to get the Alabama healthcare high school in Marengo County, specifically Rob Pearson, vice president of the ASHS Foundation. Pearson was in Montgomery most of the session and helped get a tax incentive passed for the project that includes a $62 million campus that will house 400 residential high school students learning to work in the healthcare industry. The school is being built behind Whitfield Regional Hospital where students will train. Construction starts in the fall.

McCampell said the delegation has worked hard to continue construction of the expanded West Alabama Corridor that opens a north-south corridor from Tuscaloosa to Mobile. The route goes through small Black Belt towns and will bring economic opportunity.

“This is going to be a boon to the towns along the corridor,” he said.

It is especially key that construction continued even after other lawmakers tried to move funding to add lanes on Interstate 65, McCampbell said. Keeping the funds for expanding Highways 43 and 69 in the Black Belt has a bigger impact, he said.

Singleton agreed, saying “we had to fight to keep the highway coming here – we deserve this highway.”

Jackson said he has been fighting for rural healthcare for 20 years and is concerned for residents now that Thomasville’s hospital closed in September, causing many to drive long distances for care.

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“We need to come together and work as a unit” to keep hospitals open, he said.

Whitfield Regional Hospital CEO Doug Brewer said it helped that the state approved a rural hospital tax program, but it is just a Band-Aid that won’t last. The state still needs to expand Medicaid to “save rural hospitals,” he said.

Singleton pointed to an improvement in education funding during the 2025 legislative session that will send dollars to school districts based on need instead of attendance. He said that will help local schools but added the next challenge is to find teachers to hire.

Several educators in the room, including Linden Mayor Rogers, urged the state lawmakers to increase salaries for teachers, principals and administrators, adding teachers haven’t gotten a cost of living raise since 2008.

Aliquippa Allen with the Rural Business and Training Center asked about added efforts to support rural businesses and encouraged lawmakers to incentivize future suppliers of larger industries to locate in rural communities. 

Singleton said they are trying to set up a rural economic development office that would offer incentives for businesses to set up in rural Alabama instead of just giving tax abatements.

“Getting 50 jobs in Marengo County is like getting 3,000 at Mercedes in Tuscaloosa,” he said. “It means a lot to a community like Marengo County.”

One resident asked about the future of the lottery bill, which Singleton said ended this year because of outside interests from neighboring states with a lottery not wanting to lose Alabama customers. In the end, one lawmaker changed his vote to end this year’s efforts to offer a lottery.

“There are different interest groups representing the states all around us who come over here to keep us from getting it,” he said. “They want to keep us from prospering for ourselves.”

Singleton outlined plans for a $30 million Apple academy training center that would be headquartered in Montgomery and teach cybersecurity, coding and other needed technology. The state is working to get Apple CEO Tim Cook, an Auburn University alumnus, to choose Alabama for this campus that would be headquartered at Alabama State University.