Mayor’s Minute

This month I would like to make you aware of what our city is doing to make our community safe.

As you know, in August we held a “Crimes against the Elderly” informational seminar. This conference was in response to numerous citizens having contacted me about financial scams that victimized them. Our police department was one of the agencies participating in the seminar. It is our hope that awareness is one of the best ways to prevent our citizens from falling for these financial scams.

Other agencies that participated were: the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Alabama, the Alabama Securities Commission and the Alabama Department of Senior Services. A special thanks to Paul DeMarco, who assisted in organizing the conference. DeMarco, the former state representative for House District 46, was one of the co-sponsors of a bill to address financial exploitation of our senior citizens.

Also, I am proud to report that Vestavia Hills was rated the “safest city in Alabama” by HomeSnacks, an organization that has been professionally ranking cities, neighborhoods, counties and states across America for over three years. HomeSnacks combines recent data from the Census, the FBI, OpenStreetMaps and dozens of other sources into bite-sized studies to help you understand what it’s like to live in different communities across the country.

This number one ranking was based on an analysis of 90 cities in Alabama with a population of more than 5,000, using the latest FBI crime data. This was the second year in a row that Vestavia Hills was rated the safest city in Alabama.

There are other sources that list Vestavia Hills as second or third safest, but for cities over 30,000 in population, Vestavia Hills is clearly the safest.

I would like to congratulate Chief Dan Rary and the men and women of the Vestavia Hills Police Department for making this happen. Safety, along with other quality of life factors, is the main reason people choose to live in our city.

I borrowed the following quote from an FBI publication, and I believe it clearly defines the importance of safety particularly for our children: “The protection and well-being of all children is paramount to having a peaceful community, now and in the future. Children are molded by what they see, by what they hear and by what they feel. Let our children see beauty, hear praise and feel safe.” It also challenges us to set good examples by what we say and do.

In addition, in our initiative to address drug addiction and opioid abuse, we will soon be publishing an “Addiction Resource Guide” that can direct addicts and family members to specific agencies for help with these issues.  More information will be provided after publication of the brochure.

Rest assured that we will continue to address quality of life issues that affect our citizens.