T.W. Billings had been to Washington, D.C. before, but not as mayor of the City of Tuscumbia.
Or, at least, that was the case before a recent trip to the nation’s capital last week.
Billings and Dr. Lorie Johnson, a professor at the University of North Alabama who is active in the Tuscumbia community, made the trip to speak with members of Congress in the hopes of receiving some aid in the form of grants and appropriations.
“She lives in Tuscumbia, and her heart and soul are in the city,” Billings said. “She has been coming up with different areas we may go after some funds for. She suggested we take a trip to Washington, D.C. before they were out of session.”
Billings said Johnson knows Sen. Tommy Tuberville and was able to set up an appointment with him, Sen. Katie Britt, Congressman Robert Aderholt and others.
Billings is the second Tuscumbia mayor to take the journey to D.C. this year, as former mayor William Foster made multiple trips to request aid from Congress during his tenure, especially in the wake of the tornado that caused much destruction earlier this year.
“We flew up there and back in one day,” Billings said. “It was a long day. We both got up around 2:30 a.m. to get ready and go fly out of Huntsville.”
Billings said he talked with the officials about the city’s major needs like roads, sidewalks and work on Spring Park.
“There are so many,” he said. “We had something like four separate storms in February. The first one was the most devastating. Everybody we met with wished me luck, and we talked about our highest priorities.”
Another major item for discussion was the encumbrance in Spring Park, an issue that has been worked on since (at least) Kerry Underwood was mayor of Tuscumbia.
We discussed that with Sen. Tuberville,” Billings said. “Spring Park is not technically a federal park, but it’s within the Muscle Shoals Heritage District. Despite the surveys coming back and being approved, it sits a few feet over the (property) boundary. They have been trying to rectify that for years. Because of that, there are certain grants we are not able to get. I think this is a good time to get that resolved and get back on track.”
Billings said he is hopeful some help for the city will come out of the trip.
He said different officials have asked him to send back some bullet points on the issues discussed.
“I think we will get some help from this trip, but don’t know anything specific right now,” he said.
