The City of Demopolis received the West Alabama Community Service Award on Saturday from the University of West Alabama National Alumni Association.

“We’ve had a longstanding relationship with the City of Demopolis,” said TyAnne Stone, the UWA director of alumni relations. “In June, the university was appointed as the managing partner of the Demopolis Higher Education Center.”

The award was accepted at the UWA Homecoming Awards program by Demopolis mayor Mike Grayson and Angelia Mance, the director of the Demopolis Higher Education Center.

“Demopolis views itself as a progressive town,” Grayson said. “The fact that we are able to line up in a partnership with a progressive, growing university is the right thing to do. It is a great opportunity — mainly for the students in our area to become educated and to learn a trade, where we can continue to move forward and be the community of choice.”

“Just to know that we are a part of UWA, I feel so optimistic about our future,” Mance said. “I know that we’re going to grow; I know that they will be able to extend their outreach and mission. I think the partnership is one that propels us both forward.”

During his State of the University Address during the program, UWA president Dr. Richard Holland spoke well of the Demopolis Higher Education Center and of the university’s future in Demopolis.

“It provides us the opportunity to truly expand our profile and our reach in that part of the state,” he said. “We are offering undergraduate and graduate courses there as well as specialized training courses for business and industry. We are trying to double our efforts with dual enrollment in that area through the Center. This is an association that we are very proud to be a part of.

“We have had a wonderful relationship with the City of Demopolis and the community of Demopolis. Next year, we plan to have a number of our athletic events in Demopolis with their facilities. We are looking in the next two or three years to adding golf and soccer to our programs. There have been some limitations with that — for example, we do not have an 18-hole golf course on our campus, but the city of Demopolis has one they say we can use. The same is true of soccer. We have one or two places on this campus where we can practice soccer. We have a large campus — over 500 acres — but only three acres are flat, and everything else is hilly. Demopolis has six lighted soccer fields that we will be able to use.”