A lot can happen in a year, and few years in living memory will see as much change, at the county government level, as this one.

2022 marks the start of the Cullman County Commission’s new move to a five-member elected body, a reconfiguration approved by the Alabama legislature in 2020 that shifts away from the commission’s longtime three-member makeup. On top of that, this is an election year, which means that one incumbent from the current three-member lineup faces a primary challenge, while two more newly-created associate commissioner positions will bring a pair of fresh faces to the commission’s new look.

Commission chairman Jeff Clemons is still early in his first term, and his position — which remains a full-time chairmanship under the new five-member makeup — won’t be on the ballot this year. Associate commissioner Kerry Watson faces no opposition in his race, and will remain in his newly-configured west side role as the commission changes over. But the GOP primary election this May will determine the three remaining contested seats: All of the candidates in all three races are Republicans.

Under the old setup, the two association commissioner’s roles were full-time ones, and the pair of elected jobs came with full-time pay. But the chairman’s role will be the only full-time one when the commission changes over, with the four associate commissioner positions all framed by state statute as part-time roles, each of which pays $25,000 per year.

The switch to five members comes with a handful of unanswered questions about how associate commissioners will liaise with county personnel as well as the public they represent. Commissioners past and present will tell you it’s tough to treat the job as a part-time one, especially since being accessible to county residents is an obligation that never takes a day off.

“We’ve talked a lot about how this is going to affect the way we do things,” says chairman Clemons. “It will mean some big changes, especially with how our road department is set up and how commissioners communicate with department heads. But we’ve kind of agreed that, instead of laying down a bunch of guidelines ahead of time, we should wait and allow the new members to take their seats; to get sworn in and be a part of that decision-making process. This is a change that’s going to affect them just like it affects everyone else.”

Even as the commission’s structure changes, its function doesn’t, and roads remain at the top of many rural residents’ priority list when it comes to what they expected from county government.

When it comes to roads, 2022 should be a comparatively rewarding one: The commission is flush with millions of dollars in one-time federal funds — much of which is approved for road use — thanks to more than $16 million in overall direct funding from the American Rescue and Recovery Act (ARPA).

The county needed several months of back-and-forth communication with state and federal sources to learn how the money could be spent at the local level, and for a time, it appeared that using ARPA funds for road improvement would be off the table. But recent clarification to the Act’s disbursement terms freed up a chunk of the money for infrastructure projects, and the commission has responded with by signing off on the first wave of ARPA-funded road projects.

That means paving will be going on across Cullman County this summer, and lots of it. The commission recently flagged $6.2 million of the money for an initial round of county road resurfacing and rehabilitation, which should begin in the coming weeks to cover 32 miles of local roads. With the annual county road budget untouched by any of those miles, commissioners say additional road projects will be announced once work has begun on the first round.

“At every turn, we’re looking for ways to give our citizens the best value we possibly can, and our road department will be out there doing road work of their own on top of what we’ve already contracted,” said Clemons.

“We’re really happy with the partnerships we have with our citizens, with our legislators, with our local towns, and with the City of Cullman to try to improve our entire community and make Cullman County an attractive place to live and to bring in new industry.

“Those kinds of partnerships have led to great progress at the [Cullman Regional] Airport, in recruiting and expanding our industrial base, and we hope in serving our residents. The Cullman County Commission is there to serve everyone in Cullman County, and we’re in a really exciting place right now.”