POWERGRAMS

30 model for many larger cities. Along Sportsplex Drive stands the 54,000-square-foot central building that the Alabama Power Foundation helped fund when the doors opened in 2001. Within the clean white walls and tan tile floors are a community room/ gymnasium, walking track, three public meeting rooms, two racquetball courts and a recently expanded fitness area with several rows of exercise and weight machines. The 25-yard-wide, eight-lane indoor pool has a zero-entry side and whirlpool. The Community Center is open year- round, most days from 5 a.m. until 9 p.m. The new senior center dining room seats 52, and averages 40 people for lunch each day. (Employees deliver nearly 100 daily meals to seniors who can't get to the center.) Before and aer eating, there are games to play, puzzles to fill and three computers for seniors to surf the internet. Next door is the football stadium and outdoor track that is home to Valley High School and Point University of Georgia. Farther down the drive are five soball/baseball fields surrounding a large central controls and concessions building with restrooms. Across the street are public tennis courts shared by the high school and Point U. The college Skyhawks also use Valley facilities for their swimming and lacrosse teams. It is easy to understand why nearly half the residents of Valley are dues-paying members of the Parks & Recreation Department. "We're busy all the time, but that's a good thing," says Blount, a Columbus, Georgia, native who eight years ago took over the Valley department that offers youth leagues for basketball, football, soball, baseball, soccer and track. Valley Rec each year hosts baseball and soball tournaments, the district track meet, two senior soball tournaments and the district Masters Games. In July, politicians shake townspeople's hands when they gather for Free Tomato Sandwich Day at the department's Farmers Market. It is a time-honored event where people mix, mingle and "slap sliced tomatoes and mayonnaise on white bread." In October, the Community Center hosts Fall Festival for children's Halloween tricks and treats. In December, Rec employees help organize the Christmas parade and the free Christmas merry-go-round in front of Langdale Mills, which was started more than 60 years ago by West Point. "We've got people who've ridden every year of their life, and now their children and grandchildren are riding the merry-go-round," says Blount. "It's just one of the coolest traditions I've ever seen anywhere." Welcome to Sweet Home Alabama Nearly every parking space is filled as cars and trucks move to separate areas off Interstate 85 just inside the Alabama state line along the Valley city limits. A large green sign takes liberties with the Lynyrd Skynyrd classic, declaring "Welcome to Sweet Home Alabama." Nearby, some out-of-staters are eating picnic lunches on tables underneath pavilions, while a man wearing a Boston College T-shirt rests on a bench below tall pine trees. A Spanish-speaking couple takes a selfie in front of the welcome sign. A woman walks her poodle on one of the sidewalks that converges at the main building just beyond a stone marker engraved with the words "Alabama We Dare Defend Our Rights." Some of the 275,000 visitors who venture off the main road each year to use the rest rooms or just rest up may find somewhat disconcerting the bronze bas-relief portrait of George Wallace from 1977, but greeters behind the front desk quickly Facility offers picnic tables, resting place for interstate travelers. Welcome Center Manager Smith fills brochure racks.

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