State, local officials announce NACOLG impacts
The Northwest Alabama Council of Local Governments (NACOLG), local elected officials, board members and staff recently gathered with state elected officials to announce NACOLG’s impact on Franklin and Marion counties during the annual NACOLG Fish Fry at the Sweetwater Depot in Florence.
The purpose of the annual dinner was to highlight the regional collaboration and outreach efforts in the five county NACOLG region (Lauderdale, Colbert, Franklin, Winston and Marion). At the meeting, NACOLG staff met with elected officials from Franklin County to review the impact that NACOLG has had in the county over the past year.
In Franklin County, NACOLG served 79 Medicaid Waiver clients, a service which provides citizens with Medicaid services in their homes. This resulted in an estimated savings to the taxpayer of $8,500,000 from 2023 to 2024.
NACOLG also served 37,146 meals and helped people save approximately $757,393 through the SenioRx prescription drug program. NACOLG also announced that it was able to obtain $7,508,545 in grant funding from a variety of sources for projects throughout Franklin County.
The Executive Director for NACOLG, Keith Jones, thanked the local legislative delegation and the board members for their work.
“We want to thank Rep. Jamie Kiel, Sen. Larry Stutts and our local board members for their support. Our team is grateful to play a small piece in a much larger puzzle. You can see by the impact report that we are all working well together to get results for Franklin County,” Jones said.
State Representative Jamie Kiel praised NACOLG for the work they do for Northwest Alabama in brining tax dollars back to the region.
“NACOLG serves a very important role in Northwest Alabama. The most important thing they do is bring taxpayer dollars back to the communities, who paid in the money to beginwith.It’sanimportant function of government to have someone representing the people in Montgomery and in Washington DC to make sure our local needs are taken care of, and that’s exactly what NACOLG does”, stated Kiel.
– Continued State Senator Larry Stutts stated how he has enjoyed working with NACOLG and appreciated the work they do.
“It’s always a pleasure to work with NACOLG and I appreciate the work they do to help our communities. I enjoy seeing the money we appropriate in Montgomery coming back to the local level. As I’ve said many times, it’s not our money down in Montgomery, it’s your money, and it’s always exciting for me to see that money used for worthwhile projects in the NACOLG area”, said Stutts.
Franklin County Probate Judge, Barry Moore, expressed his appreciation for the work that NACOLG does in the county.
“I appreciate the hard work that NACOLG does for Franklin County and all the projects that they have worked on that benefit the citizens of the county”, stated Moore.
NACOLG is the regional planning and intergovernmental coordination agency created by the local governments per Alabama State Legislation in 1967. The objectives and purpose of NACOLG were established by Act 1126, Regular Session, 1969, Legislature of Alabama; Act 85-757, Regular Session, 1985, Legislature of Alabama and codified in Title 11, Chapter 85 of the 1975 Code of Alabama.
It is a voluntary Association of 37 governmental units in the fivecounty region of Colbert, Franklin, Lauderdale, Marion, and Winston Counties along with the municipalities therein.
NACOLG is not a government, but is an extension of city and county government through which officials get together to decide issues of regionwide importance and work together to solve problems that stretch beyond local government boundaries. All NACOLG policy decisions are made by local elected officials. This ensures all NACOLG programs and policies reflect the interest of the member governments.
