Level Plains celebrates Alabama’s bicentennial

Guests filled the parking lot of Level Plains City Hall for the Level Plains, Alabama Bicentennial Celebration on April 30.

The day also served as the 54^th anniversary of the city’s incorporation into the state of Alabama.

“I think our forefathers would be most proud of the progress of our great state and our city,” said Level Plains Mayor Bruce Grantham.

Alabama League of Municipalities Executive Director Ken Smith served as the keynote speaker for the event.

He spoke a little bit about the ALM’s history as it relates to Alabama’s history.

“In the early 1930s, Alabama was a study in contrasts,” Smith said. “Unprecedented advances in transportation, architecture and communications were reshaping Americans’ lives and concepts of what was considered physically possible, while crippling economic conditions were making many of these developments seem personally and individually unobtainable.”

It was during this time that the ALM was founded by Ed Reid. The idea behind the ALM was to give municipalities back some of the power lost from the ratification of the 1901 Alabama Constitution, which saw much of the local governments’ power returned to the state.

“In addition to marshaling our lobbying efforts, the young organization was charged with developing and offering resources to help municipal officials meet the challenges of their communities,” Smith said.

The ALM started out at this time representing only 24 municipalities; it now represents 453 of the state’s 463 municipalities.

“The League today bears little resemblance to the League that Ed Reid founded in 1935,” Smith said. “Today we have a staff of over 60 dedicated individuals that provide multiple services for our municipalities. We have three lobbyists who advocate on behalf of municipal needs. We have three attorneys on staff who address municipal legal questions and draft legal manuals to guide our municipal officials.”

After Smith’s keynote, the mayor and the city council revealed the other portion of the ceremony: the city’s time capsule.

“Originally we looked at maybe naming a building, facility or water tower after someone of significant history who contributed to the growth, development and prosperity of Level Plains, but the mayor came with a better idea,” said Level Plains Bicentennial Committee Chairman James Bullinger. “That was, ‘could we capture—somehow—what life is like today, put it in a time capsule and send it into the future so that way the next generation—during the tricentennial—could celebrate along with us?’ Then it becomes history for the future plus I’m sure the future mayor and city council will be racking their brains 100 years from now trying to come up with an idea to get their grant money on what they could do to celebrate the tricentennial. So we figured, we’ll help them out and give them a time capsule.”

The time capsule is set to be opened in 100 years at the state’s tricentennial and the city’s 154^th anniversary.

Inside the capsule are materials such as a letter from Gov. Kay Ivey, a letter from Smith, a letter from Grantham, newspapers, a water bill, copies of the city council minutes, church directories, photographs, etc.

After the mayor and city council revealed the time capsule and the plaque to mark the spot outside city hall where the capsule is buried, Bullinger made one more announcement regarding the capsule.

He said that the capsule would be named the Bruce Grantham Memorial Time Capsule in honor of the current mayor.

“There’s not a gentleman I know who’s put more time in this city and worked so hard as (Mayor) Bruce Grantham,” Bullinger said. “Many of you don’t know this but he served as our fifth mayor and before that he was on the city council. He has probably somewhere around three decades of service to this city in the city’s short 54 years of service.”

After the ceremony, attendees traveled to the Level Plains Community Center for a luncheon paid for by donations from businesses that do business with the city.