The Tale of A City

Story By Natalie Salvatore Photos Contributed To LIVE Lee

The city of Smiths Station began in the home of LaFaye Dellinger, the first mayor of Smiths Station, who served from 2001 to 2016.

The community of Smiths Station began in 1738. Before the city’s incorporation, this community had a large interest in becoming a city, according to Dellinger. The community worked together, going door to door to get opinions from people about the incorporation effort. A successful vote in 1999 secured the city’s incorporation, but it was not declared a city until a year and a half later, on June

22, 2001.

The reason for the delay was because an opposing group to the incorporation challenged the election, saying it was not fairly executed by the probate judge.

However, Dellinger said that the judge over the case confirmed that the election was nevertheless properly done, and everything was correctly carried out by law.

At the time, Dellinger was a chairperson for that current incorporation effort. Although she was not the only chairperson, she was there at the time the effort succeeded. That was when people started encouraging her to run for mayor.

“I had had no desire and no thoughts to run for that position,” she said. “I had no political experience other than going to the polls and voting and supporting my candidates.”

Nevertheless, as the support became stronger and stronger, it started to influence the future mayor in making her decision.

“I started thinking about it, and praying about it and one morning at about 3 a.m., I woke up and the message was there to run for mayor, and I did,” Dellinger said.

She won against two other male candidates, and her election marked the beginning of the city. She recalled how she turned a room in her own home into a little office, as well as used her home computer and printer to create the space that would serve as the city’s main location for the first several months.

“We had absolutely nothing. At that point, we didn’t even have a pen or pencil — everything was borrowed.”

After the city was officially incorporated, money started coming in as different citizens made several project contributions to help get things going. Dellinger shared how as time passed, the city got stronger and stronger.

One day, Dellinger received a phone call from a man in Auburn that she had once worked with, who was also a senator for Alabama at the time.

He offered to sell the city a module home and said that if Dellinger could find some land to put it on, the city could bring it to Smiths Station to serve as an actual physical location, rather than it being in Dellinger’s home.

This addition created the first office for the city, which was originally located next door to the Smiths Water and Sewer Authority. Later on, East Alabama Medical Center sold the city a building that it was no longer using in Smiths Station at a reasonable price.

The building the city had been using moved to a park to serve as an office and meeting room for park activities, Dellinger said. After establishing this physical location, the next step was to build the city’s infrastructure and pass ordinances that Dellinger and her team felt were necessary at the time.

She said that the city handled the needs as they came and tried to anticipate what was coming. The city also began hiring employees as the need for different things arose.

“I think we had a very strong employee base that was very interested in the city, not just because it was an employment place, but also because that’s where they lived and wanted to grow,” she said.

Dellinger expressed that the city grew so successfully since its start in part because the community learned from previous incorporation efforts what it needed to do for its effort to be successful. Before the vote came through, there were many efforts for incorporation by different people at different times over the years, but it had the organization and momentum going.

“One of the reasons behind the incorporation was that we were about to lose our own identity as Smiths Station, because we were being annexed into different areas, and people did not want that,” Dellinger said.

Smiths Station was considered a very large city in Alabama, coming in at nearly 5,000 people versus most cities in the state that have approximately 2,000 or fewer people.

Dellinger said the major drive behind the incorporation was that without being a government entity, Smiths Station could not apply for money or receive any of its tax money

back. The former mayor said they knew there was a lot of tax money that went into Alabama from the area of Smiths Station before it became incorporated, and without being a city, all the money collected from the area was out of its hands. The tax money was collected, but cities receive money back through grants, which Smiths Station could not participate in because it was not a government entity.

“There was a huge need for recreation in Smiths Station — you can go out to the park during the seasons and see how much that park is used by the thousands of kids and adults,” Dellinger said.

After the city’s establishment, the community worked with the Lee-Russell Council of Governments, an organization in the county, that helped it with the grant application paperwork, oversaw grants after they were received and helped to monitor the spending of the money overall.

“Once we had the park in place, we had to start little there and grow,” Dellinger said.

Smiths Station started with two fields and eventually became an almost fully-developed city. Smiths Station was, and still is, “a very, very busy area” during the seasons.

Being roughly 30 miles from the Auburn-Opelika area, the city attracts many because of its reputation and excellent school system. The schools were formed before the city was but were backed by the city’s support over the years.

“We have had lots of visitors to Smiths Station because of the curiosity of such a small group and community growing so fast,” she said.

Dellinger said she looks back on her years in office with great fondness. She thoroughly enjoyed her time as mayor as she helped shape Smiths Station into the blossoming city it is today, Dellinger said.

“The time I served as mayor was probably the most enjoyable years of my life,” she said. “I never dreamed that I would be in that position or anything close to it. I met so many people in Alabama.

“People talk about politicians, but they don’t know them until they become one and work with them. I had nothing but success in working with the ones I worked with.”

As a new politician, Dellinger said she appreciated the support from the politicians she got to know, as they helped her in her new position, as well as helped the city become a viable one.

“I can’t name anything that we have tried to do that failed,” she said.

In 2016, Dellinger ran for reelection but withdrew after her doctor medically advised her not to run.

“I gave my support to Bubba, who I have known from childhood, and he has always told me that he would run for mayor when my turn was up,” she said.

F.L. “Bubba” Copeland has been serving as mayor since.

Dellinger has moved away from the city limits to Lee County with her husband. However, she said she misses it. She said that the move was not due to anything negative with the city but due to health reasons for her and her husband. They downsized their home and moved out of Smiths Station in the process.

“It is still dear to my heart and always will be,” she said. “That is one thing I regret because I didn’t think I would ever leave Smiths Station.”