POWERGRAMS

18 window and adorned by eight gold-painted iron lion's heads gripping a ring in each mouth. A short walk from the historic downtown district is Haleyville's new City Hall, Police and Fire Departments and Municipal Courtroom. Mayor Ken Sunseri, 76, was first elected in 2008 and his current term runs through 2025. The retired Army colonel and Vietnam War veteran hands a visitor a long list of community improvements coming to Haleyville, not counting the major paving projects underway for the airport runway and key city streets. The city pool and tennis courts were remodeled in 2022 and a pickleball court was added. He's proud of the new sports complex and $17 million National Guard Armory, each completed in 2016, and the town's status as a Main Street Alabama designee and Alabama Community of Excellence (ACE). "Haleyville is a faith-based community that cares about our citizens and works to increase our quality of life," says Sunseri, a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, native who received the 2015 Outstanding ACE Mayor award. "The inclusion of broadband installed by Freedom Fiber has opened up a wealth of opportunities for our businesses and industries. We have many challenges ahead but we are confident that we are prepared to have economic growth." Five years ago, Sunseri worked with local, state, federal and medical officials to make sure the financially failing Lakeland Hospital kept its doors open. Within six weeks, the three-story health care facility was purchased for $1.5 million through a 1-cent sales tax. Lakeland Community Hospital now is one of only five 5-star rated hospitals in Alabama, providing services that weren't previously available in Winston County. The 49-bed hospital is the center of a complex that includes nearby doctor and dentist offices and the adjacent Northwest Alabama Mental Health Center. It is considered a textbook example of how people can join hands to save a rural hospital. "It's tough when you have to raise the sales tax but our community had to have medical care," Sunseri says. "The hospital is critical to us for the welfare of our citizens. I can't put a dollar figure on it but we've had many people whose lives would have been lost without Lakeland Hospital. The health care of our citizens was our major concern. We would have been 45 minutes to the nearest emergency room after being picked up by an ambulance. Without a hospital we would not have been able to attract new industries, which would limit our economic growth, and our businesses and industries would have had a major increase in workman's compensation insurance." EXXEL When a major sleeping bag factory was set to shutter its facility 23 years ago, a California entrepreneur saw the chance to excel by adding the Haleyville plant to his burgeoning outdoors business. Exxel CEO Harry Kazazian bought the 250,000-square- foot Brunswick Corp. facility and has since made it what he says is the most efficient facility of its kind worldwide. It is America's last big maker of sleeping bags, sending 1.5 million annually to stores across all 50 states. Exxel's 150 employees also sew tents, ponchos, compression sacks and bivouac shelters for the U.S. military, with half of the plant dedicated to products for soldiers and the other half making goods for major retailers such as Walmart. "We're a strong, privately owned company," said Vice President Eric Huggins. "Our mission is to help everyone create memorable life experiences with a family of trusted brands, from the backyards across communities to the summits of the highest peaks." The main facility workers are aided by huge machines that help stitch together large sections of sleeping bag fabric, but most of the process for each of the Exxel products is done by hand. Scores of veteran employees sit each day alongside Durkopp Adler, Juki and Mauser sewing machines, putting together pieces of materials that will soon be in outdoors stores nationwide. Above their heads are American flags and murals of soldiers using the tents the workers made. Huggins said Exxel hopes to help Haleyville grow as the plant grows, having recently opened a 50,000-square-foot shipping/ storage facility and making "a huge investment" in renovations to the entire main facility. There's an artistic flair to the new breakroom, dining room and outdoor eating area lined by paintings, sculpted wrought iron and cedar wood walls on polished masonry floors. An employee park outside the facility was added and the factory roof has a new energy-efficient white coating. The recent upgrades brought accolades from U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who said the success of Exxel is a realization of the American Dream, and U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt, whose Exxel sleeping bags roll down assembly line. Lakeland Hospital was saved by community efforts. Spools of thread spin onto sewing machines.

• Cover