Hoover Mayor’s Minute By Frank V. Brocato - April 2024

I hope by now you’ve heard all the buzz surrounding a tremendous opportunity that lies before the city, one that would greatly improve our access to health care. Riverwalk Village is envisioned as a mixed-use community focused on health and wellness, to include medical offices, housing, retail, trails and green spaces. But the centerpiece will be an outpatient surgery center and diagnostic center.

In January, the Hoover Health Care Authority submitted an application to the state, seeking a Certificate of Need for the surgery and diagnostic center. As part of our application package, we asked you, our residents and business leaders, to submit letters and/or sign a petition in support of the project. Nearly 200 signed the petition, and 85 submitted letters. I want to say a personal thank you to everyone who helped us with that effort. 

We’re still waiting to learn if our application has been approved and should have an answer sometime next month. But we believe strongly that it will be accepted and that this will be the start of a project that will revolutionize our city for generations to come!

I’d also like to take this time to extend a personal invitation to this year’s Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast, which is hosted by the Hoover Beautification Board. This will be our 41st year holding the event, and I am pleased to announce that our speaker for this year is Auburn head football coach Hugh Freeze. I hope you will join us for this wonderful event that always brings us together as a community. 

The breakfast will be Tuesday, May 7, from 7 to 9:30 a.m., and it will be held in the ballroom of the Hyatt Regency Birmingham — The Wynfrey Hotel. If you’d like to attend, you can purchase tickets through the Hoover Public Library Theatre Box Office. Their phone number is 205-444-7888. I hope to see you there.