POWERGRAMS

26 V isitors to Valley oen find themselves an hour late to appointments, as the town of about 9,000 residents long ago adopted the Eastern Standard Time of neighboring Georgia. The rejection of Alabama's Central Standard Time, however, did not make time stand still. In the past several decades, Valley has watched its longtime economic lifeblood dry up, as the American textile industry was overrun by foreign competition. The mills where Valley workers beginning in 1866 produced billions of bed sheets, towels and home necessities are all gone. Time marches on and the former mill towns of Fairfax, Langdale, Riverview and Shawmut, sharing common boundaries and concerns, joined hands in 1980 to form a new city and fight for a beer day. With an influx of auto manufacturing, communications, retail business investments and nontextile industries, such as the new $110 million John Soules Foods plant, local people are puing those old coon plants in their past. The many iterations of West Point companies and their predecessors provided everything the workers once needed, from the company store to the hospital to the schools to the churches and small houses surrounding each of the mills. There's still a West Point factory outlet just off the interstate exit into town, but nothing in the huge building is made by local workers. Today, Valley is home to a vibrant medical community anchored by East Alabama Medical Center – Lanier (named for the mill founder scions), which is the largest local employer with nearly 500 workers. The 115-bed acute care hospital on a bluff overlooking the Chaahoochee River includes the Lanier Surgical Center, inpatient rehabilitation and emergency care sections and 103-bed nursing home. In 1950, it was the first hospital built in America under the Hill- Burton Hospital Survey and Construction Act. Along the riverbank below the hospital is a winding road with more than 20 buildings offering dialysis, hospice, dentistry, orthopedics and other medical services near the Chambers County Health Department. Not far away is Bradshaw Library, with a wing housing the Cobb Memorial Archives filled with Valley history willed to the town by the first local Coca-Cola boler. In addition to the 62,000 books and frequent community programs offered, the library is currently exhibiting "Defenders of Democracy: The Valley in World War I." The impressive glass-case displays include leers, photographs, uniforms and memorabilia of local soldiers from the international conflict that ended in 1918. Many businesses in Valley retain names associated with "Village," but modern commerce is spreading inside the town borders toward the interstate to the north, the Georgia line on the east and Lake Harding to the south. Fob James Drive is home to Southern Union State Community College, the Alabama Career Center, banks, medical offices, motels and a complex that includes City Hall, police department, EMT headquarters, post office and Alabama Power. Running along the nearby creek is the Chaahoochee Valley Blueway, a recent extension of the 7-mile Rails to Trails scenic exercise pathway. Several upscale residential complexes line either side of Fob James Drive, including The Apartments at the Venue, The River and Riverwood homes subdivision. King Chevrolet is "a family tradition" for Valley residents, while locals have been buying sod, plants and shrubs from Ponders Nursery VALLEY East Alabama Medical Center – Lanier Marie Peacock, grandsons Luke, 6, and Jordan, 9, look at WWI items at Bradshaw Library.

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