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By BOB WALKER DAILY Staff Writer FAYETTEVILLE, Tenn. — The Concept, TVA’s word for an optimum living environment on the lower reaches of the Elk River Watershed, was unveiled for a committee of the Elk River Development Association here Monday night. Embracing 400,000 acres in Limestone County in Alabama and Giles and Lincoln Counties in Tennessee, The Concept projects population and employment growth to the year 2000. It foresees the creation of new industrial centers of 7,500 people at Ardmore and Frankewing, Tenn., along with expanded centers of population and industrial activity at Athens, Pulaski, Fayetteville and Huntsville. Envisioned are at least 10 rural residential communities of 2,500 each, complete with housing, schools and convenience shopping. It ‘includes a mass‘transit system between Fayetteville and Huntsville, between Fayetteville, Frankewing and Pulaski, between Athens and Ardmore and between Ardmore and Huntsville. Trends indicate the population of the three counties would be 91,000 by 1980, a 10 per cent increase from 1960. By 2000 the estimated number of persons living in the area would have grown to 104,000, according to TVA planners. But the Concept, the growth rate would triple by 1980 to 30 per cent, 109,000 people. For the next 20 years, the program would stimulate another gain in growth rate to 40 per cent and 151,500 people. Job opportunities would outstrip population increases to 1980 and again to the turn of the century. The importance of the proposed Sugar Creek Dam on Elk River in Limestone County to the entire concept and planning is paramount. Without the dam, which would create a reservoir of 45,000 acres in Limestone, Giles and Lincoln counties, the whole idea would probably fail. Joe Sir, originator of what evolved as The Concept, says Sugar Creek Dam is assured, and sees a start on that structure by the end of the war in Vietnam. Construction would force water close to Elkmont, bring the reservoir shoreline to Ardmore’s back door, make of Richland Creek a lake that would virtually surround Pulaski, and provide Fayetteville and the area north of that place with ideal lakefront residential sites. First, however, it is the Lower Elk Committee’s aim to involve people and county governing bodies in The Concept. Some of the objectives seen for the governing bodies and the people of the tri county areas are: Improve transportation Female members of the class of 1955 of Decatur High School met in the home of Mrs. John Hurst, 715 Holland Dr. SW, with Mrs. Richard Lee, Mrs. Jim McAllister and Mrs. Jimmy Davis as co-hostesses. Plans for a class reunion in December were discussed. The co-hostesses ask that they be contacted with information regarding the whereabouts of any of the members of the class 1955. First row, from left, are Bobbie Schaefer Seibert, Bettye Edgil Lee, Renee Blackwell Royer, Vonda Nelms Aldrich, Betty Dillashaw Sharp, Bettye Nation George, Marge Winton McAllister, Margie Spencer Hermes; second row, Dean Steenson Wilson, Linda Smith Davis, Elaine Holle Hurst, Gerry Sandy McLemore, Myrna McBride Royer, Barbara McGlawn Hickerson, Billie Ward Davis; third row, Wilba Price Newby, Wyndall Dendy Sellers, Libby Burleson Birdwell, Annie Ulm Matthews, Linda Pate Moore, Barbara Taylor Maner, Betty Brewer Rodgers and Martha Garnett Russell; connections between area towns; upgrade education, health, welfare and other programs; provide water, sewer and solid waste systems to communities; develop a full range of recreation facilities and opportunities and program for rational utilization of natural resources. It is this first step in planning that the Lower Elk Committee busied itself here Monday night. Class Reunion Planned
Newspaper Details
Decatur Daily
Decatur, Alabama, US
Tue, Jan 12, 1971
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Michael M.
USA 20 Jan 2026
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