Mayor’s Minute

On April 9, I attended another meeting of the four “Over the Mountain” mayors. This group is comprised of myself, Stewart Welch of Mountain Brook, Scott McBrayer of Homewood and Frank Brocato of Hoover. We have agreed to meet quarterly and discuss topics of mutual interest. 

Among other business, we continued our discussion of the Freedom from Addiction Coalition (FFAC) which was founded just a few months ago. The drug addiction awareness breakfast FFAC hosted in March was a huge success based on the number of attendees and the number of agencies that attended.  We are encouraged that we can effectively raise awareness about the disease that is addiction.

My goal for the FFAC is to have protocols in place so that addicts, or families of addicts, can get immediate assistance when they decide to address the problem. Eventually, I can envision a “call center” concept with city and county cooperation wherein an toll-free number could be disseminated and a person could get the appropriate treatment quickly.

The next FFAC awareness breakfast is being hosted by Mountain Brook and will be held at Canterbury United Methodist Church on June 12.

May is an inspirational month because that is when we celebrate Memorial Day and pay tribute to all the military veterans who have died serving our nation. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates more than one million veterans died in combat from the time our nation was founded though today’s conflicts. Memorial Day is not to be confused with Veterans Day, wherein we celebrate all veterans, living and deceased, and thank them for their service to our nation. 

We should never forget the ultimate sacrifice that our service men and women have made preserving our way of life.

May is also a time for us to honor our mothers. Mother’s Day will be Sunday, May 13. Please remember to recognize your mother on this special day. There was an old Coach Bear Bryant commercial for the telephone company wherein Bryant said, “Be sure and call your mother — I sure wish I could call mine.” 

I can relate to that commercial.