Bessemer Ketchup

Actually, it's Bessemer catch up, but I thought the title was cute.

City Council

It's been a while since I've been to a city council meeting. We've been out of town so much, and other obligations have just made it difficult to go.

Last night I went.

The council, always moving forward since this session started, seemed a little out of sync last night. A resolution that were expected to pass, did not, and the council then heard from a property owner, and figured out how to do a re-vote, did it and passed the resolution.

Then, a motion to introduce the ordinance that would raise the lodging tax from 3% to 6% came up. As a vote neared, nervous hotel owners were on the edge of their seats wanting to speak. Finally, they were allowed, and they argued that raising the tax would send guests to the new hotels near the Galleria, and also that the last time the tax was raised, they had to lower their rate so the amount charged to guests was still competitive. They will have to do that again, one said, and when they lower their rates, and when their business falls, the tax collected goes down too.

The council decided to take the matter up in a planning session at which the owners will be allowed to make a presentation. The session will be May 10 at 9:00 am.

News

Here is some news out of the meeting. The Bessemer Super Highway Bridge will be replaced by ALDOT. This will be an 18-24 month project. A start date had not been set, and a decision on whether to replace two lanes at a time, allowing reduced traffic flow to continue on the other two lanes, or to close the entire bridge and do it all at once, but finishing the project about 6 months quicker, has not been made.

Also, repaving of a section of I-20/59 is imminent. This includes a section from Bessemer to Fairfield, and includes the exits and entrances and streets underneath, such at 18th and 19th streets that are so rough and bumpy.

E-Waste recycling

There will be an E-waste recycling day at the Bessemer Civic Center on Saturday, May 7, from 8 am to 1 pm, for electronics and computers. They will take desktop, laptops, empty inkjet cartridges, laser toner cartridges, cell phones, some pagers and blackberries. They will not be taking used printer ribbons, fax ribbons or empty toner bottles.

This will be a fundraiser for Bessemer City Schools. For every three computers recycled, one refurbished computer will be donated to the school system.

Zero!

Here is some more news from the meeting. The Bessemer Police Department is implementing a Zero Tolerance policy in Bessemer regarding crime. More on this later. But maybe it will lead to less of this type of graffiti, seen recently in downtown Bessemer.


Let's see. A racial slur toward Hispanics, a Nazi symbol, then some Hispanic graffiti. Lot's of hatred going around.

Opportunities

I spoke to the council about the opposite; the outpouring of love as evidenced by the local response to the tornado. Specifically I spoke about Hands on Birmingham, and urged anyone who wanted to volunteer to go the web site and register and check back often for updated opportunities. The recovery will be a marathon, not a sprint, so there will be plenty of opportunity in the coming months. But the need is great right now.

I also spoke about a way to honor my friend, Bessemer DHR Director Nancy Wilson, who was killed by the tornado. More about this later.

A rec center!

Bessemer will finally be getting a rec center, according to the Birmingham News. This came about at one of the meetings I missed. A 1 cent sales tax was passed, and part of this money will go toward a rec center. Plans are not finalized, in fact, they are not even under way.

We certainly hope a swimming pool will be a part of the new rec center. Council member Sherrina Rice thinks so too. The last public pools in Bessemer were closed during the 1960's so little black boys and girls and little white boys and girls wouldn't be able to swim together. Isn't that just tacky? And embarrassing, that our ancestors (not that long ago) thought that way?

Council president Jesse Matthews thinks Roosevelt Park would be a good location. One of the pools that was filled in was at Roosevelt Park. Good central location.

A suggestion

Planning is in the early stages. I have a suggestion for the mayor and council. The Public Building Authority is bringing a top notch DHR building to the city. Why not give the PBA the job of bringing a rec center to the city? Just a thought, from a PBA member that wants to continue to make Bessemer a better place.

Maybe Bessemer is Making Progress

Those of you who remember my campaign for city council will recall that I wanted to connect the citizens to the city government, and vice versa. "Get Connected" was my campaign theme. One of the issues I was promoting was city wide wi-fi access. Since the election, I have read articles in the Birmingham News about Hoover and Birmingham looking into wi-fi access. Someone with access to our city government told me that a few years ago a plan was devised to bring wi-fi to Bessemer, but at present there is no talk of advancing on this. I still believe it would bring new business to Bessemer, and I know it would increase opportunity for students. Now I am not naive enough to believe that all Bessemer students have computers in their home, but with city wide wi-fi, more students would probably get computers, in fact, I believe we could probably get some corporation to donate computers for our students.

Also during the campaign I gave a speech in which I made reference to the clock on the tower at City Hall being stopped, and our city government being stalled too. Well, both are still at a standstill. Not that the council hasn’t been working, but its hard to get excited about finally passing a budget or debating a lodging tax. Even talk of upgrading street lights doesn’t do a lot for me (it might if they were in residential sections). Well, I take it back…this article in the Birmingham news a couple of weeks ago caught my eye:

Recycling plant looking at Powder Plant Road site

Wednesday, February 07, 2007
ROBERT K. GORDON
News staff writer

The principals who want to build a 200,000-square-foot recycling plant in Bessemer have scrapped plans to build near the Rock Mountain Lakes community and instead are considering a site near Powder Plant Road.
Waste Not Technologies plans to not only build the plant, but also construct what is being called Bessemer Green Park. Plans include the recycling plant and eight mini-mills, which would turn the recycled material into usable products.
The new plan would bring 1,200 new jobs - with an average salary of $27,000 - to Bessemer in addition to eliminating the needs for landfills, company president David Bennett said.
*****************
The article goes on to say the project could generate as much as $800,000 a year in property, sales and occupational taxes for the city. I promoted recycling in my campaign also, and I certainly support this project. It is this kind of progressive thinking that we need in Bessemer, and I commend the mayor for pursuing this. I was afraid the project would die when the company at first tried to locate near Rock Mountain Lakes, but they realized that they did not need to be near residential areas and the new site would put them closer to the Northern Beltline (oh yeah, I talked about that in the campaign too!)

So there is hope for progress. I would expect a progressive government to challenge its citizens to improve their selves and their city, and I would expect a newspaper to do the same. Instead of using their limited space to print editorials that express the views on Atlanta’s Sunday liquor sales and the opinion of someone in Michigan regarding Hillary’s presidential bid, try printing editorials that challenge city leaders to improve city services, or promote the Jonesboro Garden project, for example. For those of you who do not know, the Bessemer Historical Homeowners Association is partnering with the Bessemer School Board and Vulcan Materials to build a community garden at the site of the old Jonesboro School. This will be a place that will bring people together, and a place for relaxation, exercise and education. This project is moving forward and site preparation and planting should begin within a few weeks.

Please leave a comment or email me with your ideas for progress in Bessemer. There are lots of issues, what is important to you? And check out the comments others have left on these topics, and add your own.
Joe
Metrocat10@aol.com