When Charles Dismuke first took office as mayor of Gordon, he didn’t know if the small southeastern Alabama town could keep going.

“To be honest, things weren’t very good,” he recalled. “We weren’t really able to function right. Everything was on the edge, and we didn’t have much to work with.”

Six years later, the story looks very different.

Since 2019, the Community Infrastructure Team at Communities Unlimited (CU), led in Alabama by State Coordinator Dinah Foreman, has worked alongside Gordon’s leaders to stabilize the town’s finances, repair its struggling water and wastewater systems, and restore confidence in local government.

A Town in Trouble

Gordon, a Houston County town of fewer than 300 residents, was already in crisis when CU arrived. Hurricane Michael had torn through in 2018, and the former mayor abandoned the town amid a voter fraud scandal. With a delinquent USDA wastewater loan and inexperienced staff, the new administration inherited chaos. A Technical, Managerial, and Financial (TMF) assessment revealed widespread compliance failures and mounting financial distress.

Early efforts, such as QuickBooks training for the town clerk and a CU rate study in 2019, brought modest stability. But the town still fell deeper behind on its loan and struggled to provide basic reports.

Building Back Stability

In 2020, a new administration under Dismuke began working more closely with CU. Staff were trained on bookkeeping and utility billing. A bookkeeper was hired to prepare quarterly reports, and CU provided a bridge loan in 2023 to cover overdue audits.

“That loan carried us until other funds came in,” Dismuke said. “It helped us catch up on four years of audits and we finally had a fresh start.”

The payoff was transformative: the completed audits unlocked $1.5 million in Alabama State Revolving Fund (SRF) grant funding with 100% forgiveness for wastewater improvements. USDA also agreed to reamortize the delinquent loan — essentially restructuring the repayment schedule to make it more manageable — saving Gordon roughly $3,000 annually.

A Measurable Turnaround

The numbers tell the story. In 2019, Gordon was running a net operating loss of $68,614. By 2024, under Dismuke’s leadership with CU’s assistance, the town had swung to a positive $187,764. CU also completed two rate studies that the council adopted, boosting revenues for both water and sewer services.

Today, Gordon’s bookkeeper delivers quarterly financials on time, and the utility clerk has been trained to verify bills and reduce delinquency. The systems that once teetered on collapse are now stable.

Looking Ahead

Dismuke, who recently faced a runoff election, takes pride in how far his town has come.

“I grew up here, and I didn’t want to see Gordon go under or become unincorporated,” he said. “Now, we’re paying our bills. We’re not thriving yet, but we’re stable.”

Gordon has weathered the storm — literally and financially — and its mayor credits teamwork for the progress.