COLONY – Colony Town Clerk Patricia Ponder grew up working alongside those who lived in Colony.
“I really didn’t see any color. It wasn’t until I got married, moved away from Alabama, that I realized the prejudice that went on. I had never experienced it; we were all friends just working together when I was growing up.”
Ponder’s life has led her back to Cullman, and although she doesn’t live in Colony, that is where she spends most of her time, because that is where her heart is.
Most of Ponder’s days are spent in Colony’s Tom Bevill community library, which is a part of the Cullman County Public Library System. The library is connected to the Colony Educational Complex, which is a prime example of a great facility that is underused.
Although the Educational Complex was built back in 1996, Ponder feels that some within the community don’t realize what a great facility they have.
According to Ponder, a previous council administration had organized a daycare in one of the classrooms at the complex, but that was ended by the following administration for economic reasons.
The building is packed with potential, some of which will be capitalized on when family gaming equipment arrives by the end of the year. Table-tennis, air-hockey and other games will be set up in one of the several empty rooms at the center.
There are classrooms, an industrial-size kitchen and an auditorium, all of which is underused.
Ponder and others feel that the Educational Complex has the potential to fill the void that exists because the lack of a community school – most of the children attend Hanceville’s schools. The more use that the center gets, the more it becomes a regular place of meeting and activity for the community, and the closer and stronger the people of Colony can become.
That may be happening sooner than later.
During the month of July, Colony’s library received almost 1,300 visitors.
“An all-time high,” Ponder said. To put it in perspective, Colony has under 300 residents. The main branch of the public library, near Cullman City Hall, received just over 6,000 visits; the city has just more than 15,000 residents.
“We want to be an educational center for the community,” Ponder said of the Educational Complex.
The center’s potential has been lightly explored, through programs set up by Ponder and others.
“Registration is a problem, because either people don’t sign up, or when they do sign up for programs, they don’t come, leaving the program’s administrator alone,” Ponder said.
Ponder hopes that if the center gets more use, jobs could begin to open up, including supervisors for the community family game room and the kitchen.
“We want to provide concession-type foods; burgers, fries, that sort of thing,” she said. “Only cooked better.”
Being the center of the rural community is the aspiration for the complex to Ponder.
“We offer a variety of things here, and we want to be the central place – other than the churches, which are very strong here – we try to offer what the churches don’t. We don’t touch on religion,” Ponder said.
The complex is a place for the whole community of Colony; however, it will be up to the area’s residents to continue to take advantage of the facility that sits at 151 Byars Road.
To contact the facility for information, call 256-587-1198.
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