Mayor’s Minute

My topic for this month is “stability.” Vestavia Hills continues to maintain a high standard in a number of livability factors that include quality in education, public safety, economic growth/health, housing values and overall quality of life determinants.  

► Education: I recently received the “Excellence in Vestavia” report for the 2017-18 school year. This report shows 222 students in our senior class graduated with the “advanced academic honors endorsement.” This translates into 44.4 percent of our total graduating class. Last year’s report showed that 43.8 percent received that designation. We also had 12 National Merit finalists! Only one other school in the state had that number.  

I commend our school superintendent, our faculty and school staff for these academic accomplishments. We also excelled in athletic accomplishments and philanthropic endeavors such as Habitat For Humanity, fundraising for the American Cancer Society and work with the Bell Center.

The quality of our schools is very stable and continues to maintain a high standard.

► Public safety: Through the use of our citizen surveys, which are conducted every several years, our police and fire departments consistently receive the highest satisfaction ratings by our citizens. Again, another example of stability and maintaining a high standard.

I congratulate our public safety personnel for their continued professionalism.

► Economic growth/health: Economic growth is one thing, but continued economic health is equally important. If you have been reading about the economic struggles incurred by neighboring communities, you are aware of the negative impact of lost revenue for these cities due to online sales. Some major “big box” stores have closed, and others are looking for different marketing strategies to stay afloat in this shift in retailing. 

Meanwhile, Vestavia Hills is showing a controlled growth in sales tax revenue. Our current projections show sales tax revenues increased by 10 percent over this time last year. I think this stability is due to the nature of our retail stores. We don’t have large, big box retailers. We have smaller, “mom and pop” stores with loyal local customers.

► Housing values: SmartAsset, a financial technology company, released its 2017 “Healthiest Housing Market” study, which indicated Vestavia Hills was in the top two rankings for the state of Alabama. This study measured the average number of years residents spend in their homes, home values and the ease of sale for the properties.

According to Elaine Julian with RE/MAX Southern Homes, the Vestavia Hills housing market is as strong and healthy as she has seen it in her 34 years in real estate.

This is another example of sustained stability. We can be very proud of the employees who make our city and our schools excellent and stable.