The Haleyville City Council met Monday with Councilman Bud Wilson absent. The agenda had only one item, to approve the minutes from the council meeting on 21 May. David Roberson, who replaced Grady Batchelor as president of the Winston County Development Authority, spoke about his new job and industrial development of for Winston County. 

The past has been bleak since the formation of the cooperative district of Winston County was formed 10 years ago. Since it's inception, Mr. Roberson stated Winston County has lost 3,000 jobs since 2007. He explained there were a lot of reasons, "We are a rural county, we don't have tremendous assets, or a lot of money to attract businesses. We need to find a way to create leverage in the kind of things we do." He said, "the people who created the cooperative district was way ahead of it's time and things are in place for economic growth." Roberson said he felt like, "the timing was right for us, in that I-22 is slated to be connected this year and that will change the opportunity base for this area." He stated, "the number one economic tool you can have are road systems."

He went on the say it takes a cooperative effort among the cities, and counties to bring economic growth to the area.  A meeting of representatives from all the cities in Winston County is planned in the near future to formulate a strategic plan for the economic growth of the county.

The next council meeting will be Monday, June 15 at the Neighborhood Facilities Building.