Several goals Maplesville Mayor W.C. Hayes had for his town in 2013 will remain on his to-do list this year and could increase the town’s revenue, if completed.

Extending both the sewer system and town limits are at the top of Hayes’ list, followed by resurfacing the truck route that runs through downtown Maplesville and expanding the community ballpark on Shanks Drive.

The project to extend the town’s sewer system to the intersection of U.S. Highway 82 and Alabama Highway 22 and beyond—as far down as West Fraser on 22, most likely—is still in the pre-construction phase, but Hayes said he hopes to secure grant funding and break ground before 2014 is over.

“That’s our main project for 2014, and we want to be working on that before the end of 2014,” Hayes said.

In November, the Maplesville Town Council and the Maplesville Utilities Board each committed to paying half of the preliminary engineering fee ($11,000) to Sentell Engineering Inc. for the sewer project.

Hayes said the project is estimated to cost about $750,000 if the town borrows money.

The town is in the process of completing grant applications for the project and talking to local business and industry representatives to determine whether extending the sewer could lead to job creation.

“Now, what we’re trying to do is see if we were to put sewer [in more areas], how many jobs would be created,” Hayes said. “We know we’re going to get sewer to a lot of them, and it’s really going to help them.”

Another economic boost for Maplesville would be extending town limits by annexing more areas of police jurisdiction to the town, Hayes said.

“I want to try to extend the town limits all the way out to the (police) jurisdiction,” he said.

Extending town limits to include at least 300 more residents would bring Maplesville’s population of about 707 up to 1,000, which would increase tax revenue collected from businesses and landowners.

The town receives the full amount of tax revenue from businesses in town and half the amount of tax revenue from anyone outside town limits but within Maplesville’s police jurisdiction.

Regarding roadways, Hayes said he has heard the state-funded project to resurface the truck route (from Highway 22, or Main Street, to the Dallas County line) is set to begin in April.

“That’s going to be two bids,” Hayes said. “They’re supposed to start it (on) Highway 22 to the Dallas County line, stop at the bridge over the bypass, this side of the bypass coming through town, then go somewhere between here and Clanton. In 2014, we’re supposed to go from the Dallas County line all the way down into Clanton.

“We’re going to try to come up with some money to resurface all the streets in town, or at least a major portion of them,” he added.

In 2013, the town applied for but did not receive a grant to expand the community ballpark on Shanks Drive.

Expansion of the ballpark would entail adding one or more ball fields and possibly connecting the two separate park areas with a walkway of some sort.

“I want to try again for another grant for another ballpark,” Hayes said.