Mayor’s Minute

The City Council recently completed (Jan. 18-19) two days in a “work session” to explore the city issues that need to be addressed and began the process of prioritizing those issues. 

The recently completed citizen survey was utilized to provide citizen input in evaluating the priorities.

The priorities expressed by our citizens were similar to last year’s goals for the city. The top issues remain pretty much the same:

► Community center and parks renovations (Community Spaces Plan).

► Infrastructure issues, particularly roads and sidewalks.

► Economic development.

► Flow of traffic and congestion management.

► Stormwater runoff and management system.

These items will be addressed at upcoming council meetings.

Recently, Vestavia Hills, in conjunction with Congressman Gary Palmer’s office, hosted a reception for this year’s student nominees for the U.S. Service Academies. These nominees represent students who live or attend school within the Sixth Congressional District of Alabama. 

Vestavia Hills has two students out of a group of 24 nominees: Maggie Hargrove and Collin Armstrong from Vestavia Hills High School. I would like to recognize these two students for this accomplishment. 

There were more than 13,000 applications for each of the Service Academies. Of this number, some 2,000 applicants were qualified, but only 1,300 or so were accepted. This is quite an honor for the 10 percent that is accepted. 

Congratulations to Maggie and Collin, and thank you to Congressman Palmer and his Academy Advisory Board that work very hard in theselection process.

As I mentioned in the State of the City address, I have joined my mayoral colleagues from Mountain Brook, Homewood and Hoover, in participating in the “Freedom from Addiction Coalition.” 

One of our initial goals is having protocols in place to address treatment options for a person who seeks help from addiction. In conjunction with my colleagues, there will be quarterly meetings in the form of an “awareness” breakfast to provide information specifically regarding the opioid epidemic that is sweeping our nation. 

The first community breakfast will be at Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church on March 13 at 8 a.m. You are invited to a free breakfast to bring more awareness in our community about the current reality of this problem. 

The focus will be on what we can do individually and together to make progress in this battle.