City officials answer questions at Bluff Park meeting

Bluff Park residents met with city officials Oct. 14 to discuss such local issues as traffic, police presence and neighborhood watch in a town hall style meeting.

The meeting, which was meant to give residents the opportunity to voice questions and concerns, was held at Artists on the Bluff, and was moderated by Robin F. Schultz the founder of BluffParkAL.org.

“I think the world of this community,” said Mayor Gary Ivey. “I’ve always tried to come to the events up here, and I’ve tried to be responsive [to its concerns].”

Those concerns have recently been heard through social media and the internet, according to Schultz. He said the use of social media really took off a few months ago when Stephen Hertz created the Facebook group Bluff Park United in response to the rezoning issue within Hoover City Schools.   

The same thing happened when talk of building a Walmart in Bluff Park came up. The proposal was eventually withdrawn from the city council’s agendas because it was not well received within the community.

“The internet is basically what fueled people’s passion to stop both of those things,” Schultz said. “[Hertz] did exactly what social media and what the internet is supposed to do. He took it, he made it work and he actually got folks together in coming united — making it basically go away.”  

BluffParkAL.org, Schultz said, will now be working in conjunction with the Facebook group in order to connect the residents of Bluff Park.

Neighborhood watch programs are another way Schultz stressed to not only tie residents together, but also to make Bluff Park a safer place. Hoover Police Officer Brian Hale, who helps train neighborhood watch programs in Hoover, spoke on that issue.

 “We face a lot of challenges, and without you guys — you guys are our eyes and ears of the neighborhood,” Hale said. “Neighborhood watch was born, in the ‘70s, to decrease burglaries and car break-ins. Citizens had just had enough.  Now neighborhood watch has kind of evolved into whatever you want it to be.”

Hale explained that he has a lot of groups that don’t even call themselves neighborhood watches, but having one can make a huge difference. The Hoover Police Department was able to catch a burglar in a Hoover neighborhood because residents called the police when they noticed him looking in windows.

The residents also took photos of the man. Because of that, the police were able to link this burglar to other crimes he had committed all over Hoover.  

“Neighborhood watch works,” Hale said. “Through the years burglaries, car break-ins, criminal mischief and other residential-type crimes, in an active neighborhood watch area, studies have shown they are drastically lower. Is that because of anything we are doing? No.”

Although the Hoover Police Department is not responsible for creating neighborhood watch programs for residents, the department will provide training materials and even DVDs that show residents what to look for. Hale said it is as easy as forming a group and calling him in for a meeting.

Question and answer session

During the question and answer session, many residents expressed concerns dealing with sidewalk projects like those on Lester Lane, concerns of street lighting in neighborhoods and the repaving of Patton Chapel Road.

City council member Jack Wright said that the sidewalk and repaving projects would be completed as soon as possible, and that the council wanted to see them finished just as much as the residents. The streetlights, he said, are something that could take longer to establish because some residents are against them. Wright said in most cases a homeowners association would be responsible for the cost of those lights, and many Bluff Park neighborhoods do not have one.

A couple different residents also asked what the plan was for the space where the Walmart was proposed. One suggested using a grant to create a public park. Wright explained that the owner of the land has the right to do what he wants with the space, but the amount of parks in the area already makes another one less likely.

Other questions addressed concerns about the future rezoning of High Schools, which board of education member Derrick Murphy said is not something the board is looking at now. Something as big as rezoning Hoover and Spain Park high schools would take a lot of time, and he doesn’t see it happening for years to come.

One of the final questions brought up addressed bringing more retail stores to Bluff Park, which Wright explained has more to do with residents. Skaggs explained that residents can pitch ideas to owners of retail space to help bring more shops out, and then they have to pitch in and promote them. She referenced Homewood’s downtown area, and said it was up to the residents to create an environment like that in Bluff Park.