Leigh and her husband, Dennis, and their three children moved to Helena 10 years ago. This fall their oldest son will be an upcoming freshman at Pelham High School. Their youngest son and their daughter will be in third and fifth grade at Helena Intermediate School. Both Leigh and Dennis have actively volunteered for their children's sports teams for the last 10 years with the Helena Rec Programs. Leigh is a graduate of Auburn University. She is a current city council member and owns Tiny Kingdom Creation, LLC, a Helena based business. She is a volunteer with our schools and our community. She has organized events like the Back to School Picnic at HES, as well as the Silent Auction at HIS on Family Fun Night. She has been the volunteer coordinator for the last three years for the Buck Creek Festival and was an official duck wrangler this year! She is actively involved in her church, First Baptist Church of Pelham.
When Leigh ran for office four years ago her goals were as follows:
- Push forward the completion and opening of our city's first recreational center:
- Today, the Helena City Recreational Center provides our youth a top-notch facility to play basketball, rather than traveling outside the city for games;
- The Recreational Center also provides opportunities for school, church, and civic events, again, without leaving Helena.
- Work with community, city, and state leaders to secure a new Helena High School:
- Development and construction is underway and our new Helena High School is scheduled to open for the 2014 school year!
- Push forward the completion of the Bypass:
- Working in tandem with the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) we realized the successful completion and approval of the environmental impact study and completed the required public involvement meetings (Town Hall Meetings);
- Unfortunately, the economic downturn required ALDOT to delay many scheduled road projects across the state; however, we continue to push for funding to complete this much needed project.
- Work to improve economic development:
- Frankly, we still have much to do with improving economic development in Helena. Although the economic downturn certainly hampered our efforts, it did not hinder our resolve; just recently we have added Zaxby's and continue to add new businesses to Helena, which I hope will help fuel resurgence in economic activity for Helena.
