ST. CLAIR COUNTY — It’s official for the second year in a row — St. Clair is Alabama’s fastest-growing county, surpassing Jefferson and even Shelby counties in the yearly population estimates released last week by the U.S. Census Bureau.The population of St. Clair County last year was 78,054, up just over 4 percent from the year before and up 8 percent over the past two years.
“We’ve pretty much figured our growth rate at 4 percent a year based on changes in the way tax revenues are coming in” County Commission Chairman Stan Batemon said. “They’re going up.”
With population estimates putting several counties in the South on the list of rapid growth, St. Clair has yet to break into the top 100, but officials say the slow and steady growth is the best kind.
“So far the growth has been pretty positive,” Batemon said. “If we follow the path of Shelby County, our growth should last about 25 years. If we track Shelby County, with their growth slowing down some now, it looks like we could get about 25 years of good growth.”
The difference between Shelby and St. Clair, Batemon said, is that St. Clair’s growth is a countywide experience.
“Shelby County saw most of its growth centralized around Pelham and that area,” he said. “We’re seeing the growth countywide — in Margaret, Moody, Odenville, Pell City, it’s all over the county, making it a more manageable issue.”
In the past several years, Batemon said, the county and municipalities have been taking action and preparing for the future with this type of growth in mind.
“We’re the only county in Alabama that doesn’t have any dirt roads, almost all of our citizens are on public water, we’re looking at a new hospital and a new water treatment facility,” he said. “The County Commission and municipal governments have planned a little ahead, especially in infrastructure.”
Batemon said the county has also added a number of sheriff’s deputies and public safety personnel to help manage the increasing population.
As for finances, Batemon said St. Clair is more ready and sitting much prettier than most Alabama counties, with an average 50 percent fund balance.
“Most counties struggle to maintain an average 10 percent fund balance,” he said. “We’re financially ready for this growth. Even with the economy slowing down, St. Clair County is not. We’ll be able to weather this growth a little better.”
Batemon said the increasing population estimates also help businesses, both retail and industrial, determine whether to open up shop in St. Clair.
“We’re in the middle of a commercial development study and that growth factor helps draw commercial developers here,” he said.
But with the blush and boom of growth also comes growing pains and challenges.
County engineer Dan Dahlke said new growth is good for the county, but added that growth means additional road construction and maintenance for county roads.
“We’re coming up with the money to keep the roads maintained and we have additional projects we need done now, like turn lanes in some places,” he said. “With prices of everything going up, income is actually a little less. We get a lot of our budget from gas taxes. With gas prices going up, people travel less, and less gas tax is coming in.”
Dahlke said of his department’s $4 million total budget, nearly $1 million is spent on road maintenance alone. The county also gets $500,000 in federal funds to help maintain the more than 500 miles of county roads. Dahlke said the county also helps maintain more than 300 miles of roads within municipalities. He said the city pays for the materials but only half the cost of labor and equipment for the upkeep on many of their roads.
“We’re currently spending most of our budget on road maintenance,” Dahlke said. “There are road improvements that need to be done now but the federal funds are not increasing to help with that. The county is going to have to come up with the money to keep up.”