Check out
the Event Calendar for "Images
of America: Bluff Park" and "Images of America: Hoover"
Look here for important updates and announcements.
Have you seen a story about Bluff Park that we are not referencing here? Is there something that should be listed on this page and is not? Let us know by sending us an
e-mail
. Be specific (send us a link, tell us where and when you saw it, etc.). Remember, stories that are about or affect Bluff Park only.
Photo Courtesy of Heather
Photo Courtesy of Tish Bagley
Photo Courtesy of Tish Bagley
Photo Courtesy of Tish Bagley
Photo Courtesy of Tish Bagley
04/27/15 - The Hoover Sun has named
Bluff Park as being the "Best Neighborhood in Hoover 2015" and the Bluff
Park Art Show as the "Best Community Event in Hoover 2015". Check
out the results
here.
01/29/15 - - Check out the Hoover Sun Q & A
with Bluff Park's Jayne Morgan, Featured artist from Artists on the
Bluff
here
12/04/14 - Heather's Corner has a new story
"Bluff Park Holiday House" Check it out
here.
11/14/14 - Heather's Corner has a new story
"Bluff Park Bees" Check it out
here.
10/15/14 - Check out the story about
BluffParkAL.org's neighborhood meeting on 10/14/14 in an article in the
Hoover Sun by Jessa Pease by clicking
here.
10/10/14 - Check out the story about
BluffParkAL.org's neighborhood meeting on 10/14/14 in an article in al.com by Jon Anderson
here.
07/02/14 - Heather's Corner has a new story
"Bluff Park Green Home and a Dog Named Zee" Check it out
here.
01/14/14 - Heather's Corner has a new story
"Would You Like Tea With Your View?" Check it out
here.
10/23/13 - 2013 Holiday Events Page
has been posted. Check it out
here.
07/06/13 - Check out the story about
Heather's new book about Hoover in an article in al.com by Jon Anderson
here.
04/13/13 -
Check out the story by Jon
Anderson of the Birmingham news on the event to honor founders of Bluff
Park
here.
03/18/13 -
Help
Moonlight on
the Mountain celebrate their 3rd Birthday on March 20 at 7:30pm.
Check out the story by al.com's Mary Colurso
here.
03/08/13 -
Images
of America: Bluff Park has gone into
re-print after selling out the first printing. Check out the
article by Jon Anderson of the Birmingham News
here.
02/24/13 -
When she's not busy at book signings for
Images of America: Bluff Park 's, author Heather Skaggs is
writing more great stories about Bluff Park . Check out her latest
story "Bluff Park's Camp In The Woods: The Fresh Air Farm - Part I"here.
02/01/13 -
Images of America: Bluff Park is featured in an article by Jon
Anderson of the Birmingham News on AL.com. Check out the article
here.
01/02/13 - BluffParkAL.org is
featured in an article in the Hoover Sun. Check it out
here.
11/20/12 - Bluff Park's community
Thanksgiving celebration is featured in an article by Birmingham News'
Jon Anderson. Check out the article
here.
10/16/12 - The 2012 Holiday
Calendar is online. Check it out
here.
09/23/12 - Birmingham News has a
story about Bluff Park Elementary's clean up day. Check it out
here.
08/15/12 - BluffParkAL.org celebrates our 6th year anniversary. We went online on 8/15/06.
08/15/12 - BluffParkAL.org is featured in the al.com story about the Hoover Council Candidate Forum scheduled for August 21. Check out the article here.
07/31/12 - Roy Williams of the
Birmingham News wrote an article on Robert's Discount Pharmacy's 10 Year
Anniversary. Check it out
here.
07/18/12 - Birmingham News has a
story on Beth Haynes, Kindergarten teacher at Bluff Park Elementary
School, who won an award. Check out the story
here.
07/12/12 - Robert's Discount Pharmacy will be celebrating their 10 Year Anniversary on Saturday August 4, 2012 from 3-6pm. For more information, check out their Facebook page.
03/31/12 - The Hoover Board of
Education will hold it's April 2012 Regular meeting in the Artists on
the Bluff facility on Park Avenue at 5:30 pm. The public is
welcome to attend.
03/06/12 - The latest installment of
Heather's Corner is Part 3 of "Artists on the Bluff". Read it
here.
02/20/12 - Check out the stories
in the Birmingham News and on CBS42 on Bluff Park's "Learning To Be
The Light" that are linked on the LTBTL's web site by clicking
here.
11/01/11 - Bluff Park has
Neighborhood Meeting with Mayor Gary Ivey, the Hoover City Council,
State Sen. Jabo Waggoner and State Rep. Paul DeMarco in attendance.
For the Birmingham News story by Val Walton, click
here.
10/01/11 - Bluff Park Art Show was on October 1. Click here for a slideshow.
09/14/11 - Bluff Park Art Show is on
October 1. More info here.
08/15/11 - BluffParkAL.org
celebrates 5 years of serving the Bluff Park community of Hoover,
Alabama. Thanks, Bluff Park, for your continued support of YOUR
neighborhood web site.
08/08/11 - What's Artists on the
Bluff? Don't be the last to know. Check out
BluffParkAl.org's Heather's exclusive story on Bluff Park's newest
treasure right here.
08/06/11 - Vestavia Hills
firefighters credit 18 year-old Bluff Park resident Austin Harris and
his mother Sherri, for alerting tenants of an apartment building that
was on fire. Read the entire story
here.
07/29/11 - Hoover PD is having their
2011 National Night Out at the Super Target in Hoover. Click
here
for more info.
06/20/11 - Artists on the Bluff is
official at the Bluff Park Community School, per Linda Williams. Read
about the changes taking place at the school. Part I is now posted. This is a BluffParkAL.org exclusive story.
06/07/11 - Read BluffParkAL.org Heather's story on the changes taking place at the Bluff Park Community School. Part I is now posted. This is a BluffParkAL.org exclusive story.
04/29/11 - Fox6 has a story on Bluff Park's storm damage. Take a look at it here.
03/04/11 - Fox6 has a story on Bluff Park's Tip Top Grill. Take a look at it here.
01/11/11 - The BluffParkAL.org Adopt-a-Soldier Project has just shipped out it's 8th shipment. Over half ton of donations have now been sent to soldiers in Iraq thanks to the Bluff Park and Hoover community. Take a look at the latest items shipped here.
01/02/11 - The Birmingham News has a story about Bluff Park business Moonlight on the Mountain, who is also a BluffParkAL.org sponsor. Read the story here.
12/09/10 - BluffParkAl.org wants to
welcome our newest sponsor, Michael's Home Repair & Improvement
Service. Call Mike Hearn today for all of your home
improvement needs. The contact information can be found on our Businesses page.
11/25/10 - Fox 6 did a Pass 6 On
story on the Adopt-a-Soldier project. To see it
click here (story takes a few minutes to load, so be patient).
10/26/10 - The 2010 Holiday Event Calendar is now online. Check it out
here.
10/14/10 - Val Walton of the
Birmingham News has written an article on the BluffParkAl.org's
Adopt-a-Soldier project. Check it out
here.
10/08/10 - Roy L. Williams of the
Birmingham News has written an article on two Bluff Park stay-at-home
moms who put together a thriving business. Check it out
here.
10/02/10 - Check out some
photographs of the Bluff Park Art Show.
06/30/10 - Here is a
copy of the proposed plan for the Valley Street/Alford Avenue construction. This plan requires
Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to open it. Once you have clicked on the link and it has opened, save it to your hard drive for future reference.
06/21/10 - Hoover PD will be hosting
a Neighborhood Watch/Crime Prevention meeting for the Shades Crest Road
area on Monday, June 28, 2010 from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm at the Bluff Park
Community Center (by the pool). Everyone is invited to attend.
06/15/10 - BluffParkAl.org is proud
to again sponsor Shades Mountain Park All Star teams, this time 2 teams!
Take a look at them here.
03/27/10 - Heather's Corner has a new story "On a Shoestring". Check it out
here.
02/14/10 - Congratulations to Bluff Park's own Daniel Ellis for winning the Mercedes Marathon in Birmingham today. Check out the article from the Birmingham News
here.
02/03/10 - The 2010 Bluff Park Community Party will be taking place in May. If you are interested in serving on the party committee, please send an e-mail with your contact information to info@bluffparkal.org.
01/14/10 - A
thread as been created on the
Bluff Park Forum with details on the Valley Street closure/detour. We'll try to keep it as up-to-date as possible as we receive information from the city.
12/22/09 - Bluff Park UMC Youth Pastor Michael Pugh is featured in Oklahoma newspaper. To read the story click
here.
12/11/09 - There will be a meeting of the Hoover Planning and Zoning Board on 12/14/09 at 5:30 pm. For details on the meeting, please click
here.
11/18/09 - Click
here for Hoover PD Capt. Coker's November message.
10/31/09 - Check out the slide show of Halloween Around Bluff Park by clicking
here.
10/16/09 - The 2009 Church Halloween Calendar is posted. Check it out
here.
10/12/09 - Heather's Corner has a new story on "The Yellow Cottage". Check it out
here.
10/08/09 - Check out the slideshow of the 46th Annual Bluff Park Art Show by clicking
here.
09/26/09 - The date for the 46th Annual Bluff Park Art Show is Saturday, October 3, 9:00am - 5:00pm. In case of rain, it is Sunday, October 4, noon till 6:00pm. For more information click
here.
09/23/09 - More sidewalks for Bluff Park, including Rockview Lane and Chapel Road. Read the article in the Birmingham News by Val Walton
here.
08/29/09 - We've just received another photograph of the Bluff Park Hotel that we've added to Heather's story on resorts. Check out the story and look at the new picture
here.
08/05/09 - Bluff Park to get more sidewalks near Bluff Park Elementary School thanks to grants. Read the Birmingham News story by Val Walton
here.
07/29/09 - Minerva's, a Bluff Park business for the past 12 years, relocates to Homewood. Tiffany Ray of the Birmingham news has the story
here.
07/02/09 - BluffParkAl.org was proud to sponsor the 2009 Shades Mountain Park 8-Year-Old Orange All-Star Team. Click
here to see their banner and their picture.
06/28/09 - Heather's Corner has a new story on "The Overseer's Home". Check it out
here.
06/16/09 - The Tuscaloosa News has a story about the Gold Star Wives and Gold Star Mothers, whose membership includes Marynell Winslow, mother of former Bluff Park Elementary student Marine Lance Cpl. Ryan Winslow who was killed in Iraq on April 15, 2006. Check it out by clicking
here.
05/13/09 - Bluff Park road work receives 100% federal funding according to article in the Birmingham News by Val Walton. Click
here to read article.
05/08/09 - Hoover City Schools web site has a story on Bluff Park Elementary School's ecoscape outdoor classroom. Check it out
here.
04/04/09 - The High Country 5K sponsored by Shades Crest Baptist Church was a success. Take a look at some
pictures of the run taken by BluffParkAl.org and hosted by Photobucket.
03/27/09 - Join BluffParkAl.org sponsor
Hoover Fitness in their kickoff campaign for "A Healthier Bluff Park" on Saturday, March 28, 2009 from 10am-3pm. The
Red Cross Blood Mobile will be there, and there will be a clothing drive to benefit
The Foundry. There will be a Health Fair with lots of nutrition information and FREE massage therapy. Open to the public.
03/20/09 - Shades Crest Baptist Church will be holding their annual High Country 5K Fun Run on April 4, 2009. This year they will have
Olympian runner Jeff Galloway as a guest runner. Be sure to support this great Bluff Park event by cheering for the runners as they run through your neighborhood. If you're interested in finding out more or if you're interested in participating, click
here to download the brochure.
03/01/09 - Check out the "Blizzard of 2009" slideshow of Bluff Park pictures
here. Send your snow pictures to
info@bluffparkal.org. Include your name if you want credit for the pictures, otherwise just include the street they were taken on.
0/2/28/09 - Heather's Corner has a new story about The Hale-Joseph Home.
Check it out.
02/17/09 - The city's annual Hazardous Waste Day has been scheduled for April 18, 2009.
Click here for more information.
01/28/09 - Hoover PD has launched a new e-mail alert system for residents to receive information regarding crime in their neighborhoods. Check out the Birmingham News story by Val Walton
here and sign up for the service
here.
12/24/08 - Here is a
link to the Santa run in Bluff Park.
12/17/08 - For the second time in a week,
Hoover PD has done a great job of solving a crime that occurred in Bluff
Park. The first crime solved was the
burglary of Bluff Park Elementary School. The second crime
solved was the
robbery at Piggly Wiggly. Read the
press release here. We commend the Hoover Police Department for a
job well done!
12/02/08 - The 3rd Annual Christmas Decoration
Contest is on! Take a
look at the rules and start sending in your pictures.
11/25/08 - Don't forget to check our
Community Billboard on a regular basis. With Christmas coming up, we have a lot of announcements being posted.
10/31/08 - Just in time for Halloween, Heather
has a spooky story...right
here.
10/15/08 - Tiffany Ray has an article in today's Birmingham News about Bluff Park's Migratory Men's Coffee Club.
Click here to read it.
09/27/08 - Check out Heather's Corner story on
Bluff Park Baptist Church's Snow Day. Click
here to read it.
09/27/08 - Check out
Heather's Corner story on Cooking
History in Bluff Park. Click
here to read it.
Also don't forget to check out the Community Billboard page to find out how to purchase Bluff Park
Baptist Church's Cookbook and DVD.
09/23/08 - Check out Heather's Corner story on
the 2nd Annual All For One and One For Everybody party. Click
here to read it.
09/13/08 - All systems are go for our 2nd
Annual "All for One and One for Everybody" Bluff Park Party on Sunday,
September 14 from 4pm-7pm. Please click on the Home page for more information. See you there!
09/13/08 - The Bluff Park Art Association has
asked us to post a letter regarding the 45th Annual Bluff Park Art Show.
Please go to the Community Billboard
page to read the letter.
08/20/08 - The Birmingham News has an
article in today's paper about the three candidates for City
Council, Place 7, Jim "Jimmy" Brown, John Greene and Rusty Creel.
The article mentions that the candidates plan on attending the Bluff
Park "All for One" event on Saturday, so make sure you come out and say
hello to the candidates.
08/06/08 - The Birmingham News has an article by Tiffany Ray about one of our Bluff Park business people, BluffParkAl.org sponsor, "All for One" party committee member and all-around-good-guy, Ron Lane. Check it out
here.
07/22/08 -
Another e-mail from resident on the
Neighborhood Watch section. Folks, lock your cars at night!
07/11/08 - Check out the
Community Billboard for some upcoming events in Bluff Park.
06/23/08 - We have added several links on the
Information Page, including all Hoover City Departments and a link to the Municipal Code of Hoover. Check the page out and if you can think of any other numbers that would be beneficial to the Bluff Park community, send an e-mail to info@bluffparkal.org
06/18/08 - The Birmingham News has an article
by Mike Cason regarding our "All for One" party in today's paper.
You can read it
here.
06/11/08 - There will be
a Town Hall Meeting at the Hoover Country Club on Thursday, June 12,
2008 at 6:00 PM regarding the development being proposed on Patton
Chapel Road (Douglas Farms). This area is in un-incorporated
Jefferson County, so the Hoover City Council does not have authority
regarding this issue. Although this is not in Bluff Park, it will
impact Bluff Park.
06/07/08 - The "All for One and One for
Everybody" event committee met today and decided to plan our annual
event for Saturday, August 23, 2008. Time is TBA, but mark your
calenders. This year's event promises to be spectacular.
05/05/08 - Applications are now being accepted for the 2008
All for One and One for Everybody Bluff Park Annual Party. If you would like to be on the committee, please send an e-mail to
info@bluffparkal.org
04/30/08 - The firemen from Hoover Fire Department Station 5 have been going around painting fire hydrants. Click
here to see why.
03/28/08 - A story we missed in the Birmingham News when it came out on 3/21/08 about Bluff Park's Paul Schweigert, but are now happy to post a
link to. We've known the Schweigerts for many years and their story is truly an inspirational one. If you ever run into Paul around Bluff Park, say hello to him. He'll be the one driving a truck with a large cross in the back, you can't miss him.
03/26/08 - Congratulations to
Bluff Park Elementary, who will be the first school in Alabama recognized by the USDA as a
HealthierUS School on May 1. Check out the story in the Birmingham News
here.
02/25/08 - Recently Bluff Park Elementary
School celebrated Arbor Day and the dedication of a new outdoor
classroom. BluffParkAl.org's Heather was there. Check
out her story.
02/01/08 - Congratulations, Bluff
Park! In today's
Birmingham News, Mike Cason discusses the decrease of crime in
Hoover. Capt. Coker of the Hoover PD mentions Bluff Park:
Coker said the Bluff
Park community, in particular, has done a good job
of reporting and raising awareness about crime.
The community has a
Web site where crime statistics and suspicious
activities are reported. Bluff Park residents
convinced the city to open a police substation there
in 2006.
02/01/08 - Check out our
"Mini-Blizzard of 2008" section by clicking
here.
01/23/08 - Bluff Park Elementary
School teacher Leslie Marshall is one of three Hoover City Schools
teachers nominated for Teacher of the Year. Tiffany Ray of the
Birmingham News has the
entire story.
01/10/07 - There will be a Teen
Driving Forum on Monday, January 14, 2008 at 7 pm at Hoover High School.
State Representative Paul DeMarco will be in attendance. For more
information, please go to the Bluff Park Forum under General
Announcements.
12/20/07 - Wouldn't you like to know when Santa is going to come down your street riding on the back of the fire engine? Well, thanks to Fire Station 5, we know have a schedule for Bluff Park. Check it out
here.
12/16/07 - We
have set up a page with all
the entries of the Christmas Lights and Decoration Contest. Today
is also the final day to bring toys to the fire station for
Operation Grateful Heart.
12/12/07 - The
Bluff Park Neighborhood Web Site is staging the 2nd Annual Christmas
Lights and Decoration Contest. If you would like to be considered,
please send an e-mail to
info@bluffparkal.org along with a photo of your decorated home.
You can also send an e-mail to
heather@bluffparkal.org to have Heather come by to take a photo of
your home. Judging will be done by Bluff Park Neighborhood Web
Site and the grand prize will be...your home on the front page of the
site for everyone to see!
12/12/07 - Bluff Park United Methodist Church is featured in the Birmingham News.
Click
here for the story.
11/29/07 - Back in August it was reported that church signs and real estate signs were being stolen in Bluff Park. Click
here for the forum entry. It would appear that the culprits have not finished their thefts, as they have now targeted the Boy Scout Christmas tree sale signs. It appears to be the work of a middle aged woman and her son who drive around in a white or white and blue pick-up truck who have issues with signs. According to reports from the local churches, this has cost the churches a lot of money. If you happen to know who these deviates might be, contact the Hoover Police department at 822-5300 and turn them in. If you'd rather remain anonymous, e-mail us at
info@bluffparkal.org and we'll contact the Hoover PD.
11/20/07 - In
response to numerous complaints made by Bluff Park residents regarding
traffic violators, Ofc. Foreman has set up a new system. For
complete information, click here.
11/18/07 - Update on some attempted car burglaries on the
Neighborhood Watch page.
10/31/07 - Bluff Park's Sissy Mitchell's Halloween decorated home is featured
in a story today in the Birmingham News.
10/28/07 - BluffParkAl.org's Heather has a new story just in time for
Halloween about pumpkin carving featuring the Hamilton family of Bluff
Park. You can read it
here.
10/10/07 - The Birmingham News has a
story in today's paper regarding the 2008 Fiscal Year Hoover Budget. The story includes reference to Hoover Police Department not having the money to hire additional officers. The article includes the following statement:
"Hoover Police Assistant Chief A.C. Roper said he was satisfied with this year's budget, adding that the department had no immediate needs to address". The article goes on to say that the budget could have a mid-year adjustment. Although this does not impact Bluff Park directly, it does affect us indirectly. Currently Bluff Park is in Hoover Police Beat 30, which covers Hwy. 31 from Tyler Road to Patton Chapel Road, all the way to Shades Crest Road to I-65 and everything in between. We have asked the
Hoover PD to cut Zone 30 in half, therefore creating two zones out of one. By creating two zones out of one, response time to Bluff Park would be enhanced greatly. We have spoken to Asst. Chief Roper regarding this, and also to Councilman Gene Smith. Both have advised us that in order to have this done, five additional officers would need to be hired, three for regular days and two for off-days. Although we experience a low crime rate in Bluff Park, one of the lowest in the city, the response time to Bluff Park is still rather slow due to the huge area that Beat 30 covers. We were able to address this last year with the creation of the Bluff Park sub-station, which, by the way, has had its lease renewed. The next step is to create two beats out of Beat 30. We look forward to continuing to work with both the Hoover PD and the City Council to have this done soon.
09/14/07 - Another story in Heather's Bluff Park history series is now online! Check it out
here.
09/13/07 - The deadline for purchasing the land for the proposed Muslim Worship Center ends 9/14/07, so the developer has withdrawn his request. They will now be searching for a new location. Read the story
here.
09/13/07 - A new story from BluffParkAl.org's Heather has been posted in
"Heather's Corner". This is a terrific story in Heather's Bluff Park History Series dealing with the resorts that Bluff Park was famous for. Some really rare pictures of the Bluff Park Hotel are in the story.
09/11/07 - Bluff Park native honored at Patriot Day ceremony. The family of Lance Corporal Ryan Winslow, who was killed in Iraq, received a standing ovation at Tuesday's ceremony. For more information, click
here.
08/15/07 - Mike Cason of the Birmingham News has written a story on the Bluff Park revitalization study which was conducted earlier this year. Read the story
here. Voice you comments on the
Bluff Park Forum.
08/09/07 - Please read the newest e-mail on the
Neighborhood Watch section.
08/06/07 - A suggestion was made on the Bluff Park Forum to have downloadable flyers for the Community Event for people to be able to download, print and post. These are now available for download in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) file in both
color and
black & white. Download them, print them and put them up.
08/01/07 - Liz Elleby of the Birmingham News has an article on the Muslim worship center meeting that took place on 7/31/07. You can read it
here. There's also a report on the
Bluff Park Forum.
07/27/07 - Another e-mail from resident on the
Neighborhood Watch section. Folks, lock your cars at night!
07/25/07 - The Hoover News section of the Birmingham News has a story today regarding our Community Party on August 11, 2007 from 1-5 pm. The story, unfortunately, is not online, so we cannot link to it, but it is in today's paper.
07/24/07 - Please take a look on the
Neighborhood Watch section regarding an e-mail we received from a resident today.
07/06/07 -
The Plaza Pop Festival and the Plaza 500. What? Over thirty years ago these were annual events in Bluff Park and our own Heather has the story in the latest installment of
Heather's Corner. Check it out!
06/27/07 - Heard any new church bells lately? Maybe you have and an
article in the Birmingham News explains why.
06/27/07 - The Birmingham News features an article today about a Bluff Park resident's backyard Putt-Putt course. Read the article by clicking
here.
06/24/07 - For those of you that have not visited the
forum, we are in the process of lining up
1st Annual Bluff Park "All For One and One For Everybody" Community Party at the Bluff Park Community Center. The tentative date is Saturday, August 11, with the time TBA. Scheduled to app/ear is Hoover's own
Ryan Kinder! Check the forum post
"All For One and One for Everyone!" for more details.
06/23/07 -
We would like to welcome our newest sponsor to the bluffparkal.org web site,
Cabinet Essentials, located in Bluff Park. Call them today at 824-8099 or visit their
web site .
06/22/07 - Check out the poll and the discussion on the
Bluff Park Forum regarding the Bluff Park Party. Vote today for a date.
06/20/07 - The Birmingham News has an article about Hoover communities and it includes references to Bluff Park. Read it
here.
06/07/07 - The Birmingham Water Works has entered Stage Three in Drought Management. Complete details on what can and cannot be done can be seen on the special
Bluff Park Forum Topic. More information will be posted as it becomes available.
06/01/07 - Every once in a while you find a column in one of the local papers that makes a tremendous amount of sense. We have found such a column in this current issue of the Hoover Gazette. Hoover Gazette reporter Hunter Ford has a column which he called
"Hola! Mi amigos, Que te Pasa?". In case you do not receive the Hoover Gazette, Hunter has been kind enough to allow us to re-print it on our site. Take a look at it
here.
05/30/07 - Roger Batson of the Birmingham News has
a story in today's paper about the Hoover Police Department's tactics. It does mention Bluff Park and Roger did interview a few business owners for the story. Keep an eye on the Neighborhood Updates page for a follow-up to this story from our own writers - one that should prove to make some interesting reading.
05/25/07 - As you may or may not know, the
City of Hoover
does not have an elected
School Board. The members of the board are appointed by the
City Council. The
Hoover School Community Information Network (HSCIN), a great, independent site, has a survey available to rate the current School Board and
Superintendent, with some "interesting" information. If you have a child in the Hoover School System, please take five minutes to fill out their survey.
05/16/07 - Back on 11/14/06, the residents of Bluff Park met at the Bluff Park Community School to listen to city leaders address a variety of topics regarding our community. The Birmingham News covered the meeting and you can read the article
here. One of the topics was a business study to revitalize the Bluff Park area. According to a
story in today's Birmingham News, the results of the study are in (go to page two, bottom of the page). To discuss these developments, go to the
Forum section of the Bluff Park web site.
05/16/07 - Some art work from the
Bluff Park Art Association is on display at the Public Safety Center. Read the story
here.
05/07/07 - She never ceases to amaze us with her great stories! Who, you ask? Well, Heather , of course. This month she brings us a fantastic (and we mean
fantastic!) story on the Park Avenue Historical District, with some great pictures and references. If you live in Bluff Park and you want to know more about its history, read this story.
05/02/07 - 3:00pm - We are very happy to report that the
Bluff Park Neighborhood Web Site now has a way for residents to communicate about anything that's on their mind about Bluff Park, live and in real-time. The official grand opening of
The Bluff Park Neighborhood Web Site Forum (or the Bluff Park Forum) is online and you can get to it by clicking
here (or by clicking the new link at the top of every web page). Make sure you read the FAQ section, the Welcome message and register to be able to post (anyone can read the posts, but only registered members can post).
05/01/07 -
(continued from April 30)...
a way to get more involved on the web site. It seems that voices wanted to be heard in the form of words. Residents asked for a method to post their opinions, views, gripes, praises, ideas, and anything else they could think of. We wondered what we could do about this. We did find one solution, but that mean visitors would have to leave the site, and the result wasn't isolated to just Bluff Park. On April 30 we found another solution, one that we decided to implement. After installing it, tweaking it, testing it and having others test it, we decided to roll it out...on Wednesday, May 2, 2007 at 3:00 pm.
04/30/07 - We have an
exciting announcement about the bluffparkal.org web site! It seems since our start last year, people have been asking for...(to be continued May 1st)
04/15/07 - Pull up a chair and take a look! BluffParkAl.org's own Heather has done it again! An awesome article on Lover's Leap, with some incredible pictures. You can see it
here.
04/04/07 - Bluff Park United Methodist Church is featured in today's Birmingham News. Click
here to read the article.
04-04-07 - What Bluff Park church has three members over 100 years old? Bluff Park Baptist Church does and you can read all about them
here.
03/29/07 - We would like to welcome our newest sponsor to the bluffparkal.org web site, Studio 1 Dance at Bluff Park, located at 774 Shades Mountain Plaza. They will be holding an Open House next week (4/2-4/5) from 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm, so make sure you stop by and meet Kristi, Alicia and Karen.
03/28/07 - Today's Birmingham News features a story about Bluff Park high school junior Amy McElroy. Read it
here.
03/19/07 - We received the following from State Representative Paul DeMarco today:
The Town Hall Meeting and Reception which was originally planned for February 27, 2007 at The Preserve has been rescheduled on March 26, 2007 from 5:30 to 7:00 o'clock. The meeting will give Hoover residents an opportunity to meet the Hoover Legislative Delegation and Hoover City and County officials. We hope that everyone will come out and participate in the meeting and look forward to seeing everyone there.
Thank you, Representative Paul J. DeMarco
3/13/07 - The Birmingham News has a story about the Bluff Park Neighborhood Watch program in today's paper. You can read it
here. It should be noted that the majority of statements we made were completely taken out of context by the Birmingham News'
Roger Batson. While we
are promoting the Neighborhood Watch program, in no way are we discouraged about the progress it is making and in no way do we feel that it "fizzled" out. When we began bluffparkal.org it was about Bluff Park, not anywhere else in Hoover, thus the slogan
"For, About and By Bluff Park, Alabama" . When we had our first meeting, we did not invite the media, because we felt they would not be interested. Erin Stock of the
Birmingham News picked up on our meeting and did a story, which was very accurate. This lead to a local TV station contacting us and covering the meeting, again, in a accurate way. WIAT Channel 42 followed up by doing an accurate story the day after the meeting. Ms. Stock and Dawn Kent, also of the Birmingham News, continued coverage of the Bluff Park situation, always writing good, precise stories. Also in the mix, with outstanding coverage. is the Hoover Gazette, who make all quotes in context. After the sub-station opened up, the news out of Bluff Park became a little "boring" for the media, thus the coverage died down. The impression that this article gives is that the residents of Bluff Park have lost interest and thus things are starting to fizzle. The premise of the story should have been that we are slow to get started in the watch program, not that there is no interest. Although our survey showed that 38.8% of respondents
were less likely to start a group, it also showed that 55% were undecided or likely to start one. Our biggest stumbling block is getting past the "knowing your neighbor" objection, which is something that we are working on. But don't let this story discourage you from continuing what we started last year. No other neighborhood in Hoover has the backing of its residents like Bluff Park. The story also implied that only one person is responsible for the Bluff Park Neighborhood web site. While it is true that only one person types in the characters, if you were at any of the meetings we had and looked around you, you would know that everyone is involved.
03/07/07 - We want to thank everyone who participated in the Neighborhood Watch survey. We hope you found it easy to use. The results are interesting. Here they are, one question at a time:
Question
Results
Are you aware of the Hoover Police Department Neighborhood Watch program?
Yes
83.33%
No
16.67%
How likely are you to talk to your neighbors about starting a Neighborhood Watch Group on your block?
Less Likely
38.89%
Undecided
22.22%
More Likely
33.33%
What's holding you back from having a meeting with your neighbors about starting a Neighborhood Watch Group?
I don't have the time
21.74%
I don't know enough to get started
13.04%
I don't know my neighbors well enough
47.87%
I'm just not interested at this time
8.7%
Other
8.7%
An interpretation of the survey would be that almost everyone is aware of the program, with over half being undecided or likely to start a Watch Group. The number one factor holding people back is that they don't know their neighbors well enough. This is an understandable reason. We're going to forward the results to Ofc. Foreman. Look for further information soon. In the meanwhile, the next time you see your neighbor outside, walk over and introduce yourself and have a chat. It doesn't matter what the subject is. It could be about the weather (a popular topic when at a loss for anything else), the kids, how good the Bluff Park web site looks or starting a Neighborhood Watch Group. If you have some tips on how people can get over the "fear of meeting their neighbors", send us an
e-mail and we'll post your suggestions.
02/28/07 - We have added a new feature to the web site: surveys. With the surveys, which are anonymous, we hope to find out what you want out of your web site, what the general feeling about Bluff Park is, and what the views on certain topics are. We'll do multi-question surveys (Up to 10 questions) and we'll also have mini-surveys (1 question). Since the topic over the past couple of weeks has been the Neighborhood Watch, why don't we start with a brief survey on how you feel about it. Simply click here to begin. Remember, it's totally anonymous and the only information we receive are the answers to the questions, which we will post here in about a week.
Note - If you are having problems with the survey, drop us a quick
e-mail letting us know what went wrong. Thanks.
02/27/07 - A Neighborhood Watch meeting is scheduled for all residents of Ashford Town Homes and Autumn Village Apartments on Thursday, March 1 at Shades Mountain Independent Church. The meeting will begin at 6:30 pm. Management has distributed flyers and refreshments will by served courtesy of Piggly Wiggly. Contact HPD Ofc. Brian Foreman for more details at 444-7700 or call the Management Office at 823-9778.
02/24/07 - The
Neighborhood Watch section has been updated with important information. It is time to get busy with this, so read the changes and also
Heather's story.
Ed. Note:
We started BluffParkAl.org because of a
letter written by Ben Shelton. He wrote the letter after witnessing an armed robbery at the Piggly Wiggly. This community came together and we were successful in having a
police sub-station open in Bluff Park. Well, this is only half the battle. Just because we have a sub-station doesn't mean that the criminals avoid Bluff Park. It may be a deterrent. but that's about it. We
met on November 14th for a very informative meeting with Ofc. Foreman of the Hoover PD. We said we would form Neighborhood Watch Groups. With the exception of a couple of blocks, we haven't done it. And the businesses who were very vocal about crime have also not formed the Business Watch. What are we waiting for? Another robbery? Since the site was started, we have received a number of calls and e-mails from just outside our community about crimes, including burglaries, asking us to post the information. We have to explain that we only post information about Bluff Park, but this just goes to show that the criminals are still working. We have received many compliments about the web site and we thank all of you that have e-mailed us for the compliments. Now we are asking that all the blocks in Bluff Park get their act together and form the Watch Groups. It doesn't take much time and can benefit you a great deal.
Contact Ofc. Foreman TODAY via e-mail (
foremanr@ci.hoover.al.us
) to tell him you are ready to get organized and you need his help. Would you rather call him? Well, you're in luck! He can be reached at 444-7700. Let's get busy and make Bluff Park #1 in Neighborhood Watch Groups in Hoover!
02/21/07 - Bluff Park resident Michael Sharpe noticed his January water bill was higher than normal. This lead him to contact the Birmingham Water Works Board to question the bill. It seems that Mr. Sharpe's bill was not the only one that may have been wrong. Other Bluff Park residents might also be affected. Read the entire story by Mike Cason in the Birmingham News by clicking
here.
02/21/07 - The Birmingham News is reporting that the Town Hall Meeting scheduled at The Preserve for next week (the paper states Feb. 26, but State Rep. DeMarco's e-mail stated Feb. 27) has been postponed until March due to a special legislative session called by Gov. Riley. We'll confirm with Mr. DeMarco and update on this site as we get the information.
Update - We received an e-mail from Mr. DeMarco confirming the cancellation. He will let us know the new date when he has it.
02/21/07 - Local business and BluffParkAl.org sponsor, Hoover Fitness was featured in the Birmingham News. Read the story
here and stop by Hoover Fitness, located in the old CVS building.
02/21/07 - Hoover PD Officer Brian Foreman, who handles the Neighborhood Watch program and has been patrolling Bluff Park since last year, was named as a finalist for Hoover Police Officer of the Year. Read the story
here.
02/14/07 - Cub Scout Pack 321 had their annual Pine Wood Derby at Bluff Park Elementary School, which was attended by Mayor Petelos. Read the story
here.
The
Hoover Chamber of Commerce and I are holding a town hall meeting and reception at The Preserve to allow the public to have the opportunity to meet the Hoover Legislative delegation.
The event will take place on Tuesday, February 27th from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. at the
Town Hall(click for directions and contact information). This will be an informal reception to give all Hoover residents an opportunity to speak with their legislative delegation before the Alabama Legislature convenes on March 6th. Hoover city and county officials will also be invited to attend.
Let's make every effort to be well represented at this town hall meeting with State Rep. DeMarco, so mark your
calendars.
01/26/07 - In a story published by the Hoover Gazette, Councilman Jack Wright uses Bluff Park as an example of Hoover City Council's ability to work together. Read the story
here.
01/24/07 - A very good story about Tony Barber, the new pastor at
Bluff Park Baptist Church, appears in the Birmingham News. Click
here to read it.
01/18/07 - We want to welcome a new sponsor to bluffparkal.org,
Hoover Fitness, located on Clearbrook Road. Stop by there today for some pre-grand opening specials they are offering or check out their
web site. Remember, our sponsors are what keeps this web site going, so visit them often and thank them for supporting Bluff Park.
01/15/07 - Heather's Corner has been updated with a story about the sidewalk project in Bluff Park.
01/07/07 - One of the exciting projects going on this year will be our own Heather writing about the rich history in Bluff Park. We already have a
History Section on the web site. You can find it at the bottom of the
Information Page. Heather is going to take the history a step further by taking a journey through Bluff Park and profiling some of the historic homes, areas and districts located in Bluff Park. She will also be listing books about Bluff Park history and where to find them. If you would like to submit a site or a home that Heather should visit in her journey, send her an e-mail to
heather@bluffparkal.org . Heather also has a new article in
Heather's Corner, so check it out.
01/07/07 - Happy New Year from everyone at bluffparkal.org! 2006 was an exciting year for all the residents in Bluff Park. We banded together after an unfortunate event and were able to get something that we were told could not be done:
a police sub-station in Bluff Park! Let's keep the momentum going! This year we will outline other projects that Bluff Park residents have brought to our attention that may need to be looked at. Do you have a concern about Bluff Park that we can bring up on the web site? Send your ideas to
info@bluffparkal.org and we'll post it. Other plans that we have are to continue the
Neighborhood Watch program. We have it started. Some neighborhoods have already become organized, but others have not. Let's get busy with this, folks. It's important. Another project will be for the parents school children in Bluff Park. We'll be organizing a meeting with Hoover Police School Resource Officers to give some of you an education on what to look for in your children's ventures on the internet. The internet is a great thing. But it can also be a dangerous thing, especially for children. We'll post information here when it becomes available.
12/30/06 - The Hoover Gazette, in their December 27 issue (now in newsstands), has the headline that reads
"YEAR IN REVIEW Hoover's Top 10 Stories of 2006". Here they are, from 1 to 10 (with headlines as they read in the paper):
#1 - The President In Hoover "Bush praises alternative fuel use"
#2 - Williams gets axed
#3 - They're back: 'Two-A-Days' returns to Hoover for new season
#4 - Spain Park Band marches in NYC Veteran's Day Parade
#5 - Prattville shuts down Hoover's 'Drive For Five'
#6 - TAYLOR-MANIA Will Hoover Idol's fame rub off on his hometown?
#7 - Princeton Baptist will offer hospital-quality care at vacant Hoover property
#8 -Bluff Park residents get needed police substation Click here for PDF file of article with picture (the complete text of the article can be seen here).
#9 - Parisian sale may mean loss of Galleria anchor
12/30/06 - Hoover Gazette reporter Hunter Ford, who has covered all of our community meetings, recently wrote a column entitled If I were Santa this is what I would give. In it he mentions "presents" to many people in Hoover. Bluff Park residents were also mentioned as "recipients" of a present:
The residents of Bluff Park got the substation they wanted. I’ll just send them Christmas cards with a message of cheers. Kudos to the Bluff Park folks for being well organized and well mannered in the way they handled town hall meetings with the city council and police department.
12/30/06 - Bluff Park residents instrumental in making Hoover a nicer place with fewer eyesore properties. Check out the Birmingham News story here.
12/29/06 - The Birmingham News has the story on the closing of Bert's on the Bluff and the opening of the Bluff Park Diner. To read it, click here.
12/28/06 - For
those of you interested in what will be going into the old CVS building
on Clearbrook Rd., it is going to be called "Hoover Fitness", a full
service fitness center, which, according to owner Jason Cerniglia,
should be open by February 2007.
12/21/06 - Heather's Corner has been updated with a story about the tennis court restoration at Shades Cliff by an Eagle Scout
12/14/06 - The Hoover Gazette has a story on artist and Bluff Park resident Kristin Mathis who will be featured in a 2007 episode of HGTV's "That's Clever". Click here to read the story.
12/07/06 - The Bluff Park Sub-Station had its official opening today. For complete details of the event, including photos, click here.
12/07/06 - OK, it has been a couple of weeks since we launched the Christmas Contest on BluffParkAl.org. We've seen a whole bunch of really nicely decorated homes, so send those pictures in! For more details, click here.
12/05/06 - We received a call from Hoover Police Department today to announce the official opening of the Bluff Park Police Sub-Station on Thursday, December 7, 2006 at 2:30 pm. Bluff Park residents are encouraged to come by and take a tour of the facility. Hoover Police officials will be on hand to answer any questions. Lets have a great turnout!
11/30/06 - The Hoover PD Sub-Station is up and running! It is located next door to the ArmorSafe Storage in the Bluff Park Village shopping center. They still have to put up signs, but the furniture is in and everything is "good to go"! We spoke to one officer who was in the building when we went by and he was thrilled to have it. He indicated that just the fact that the officers can write they reports in Bluff Park keeps an officer from having to drive all the way to city hall (which would take them out of Bluff Park). Check back soon for an announcement regarding an Open House at the Sub-Station.
11/23/06 - A story in the Birmingham News regarding two proposed housing developments in Bluff Park.
11/20/06 - A complete story on the Neighborhood Meeting, from Bluff Park's perspective, can be seen here.
11/15/06 - We had a terrific turnout to the meeting last night. Thanks for everyone that attended. BluffParkAl.org would also like to thank Mayor Tony Petelos, City Council President Gary Ivey, Councilmen Gene Smith, Brian Skelton, Trey Lott and Jack Wright, as well as State Representative Paul DeMarco, for attending the meeting. We would also like to thank Officer Brian Foreman for giving a terrific Neighborhood Watch presentation. It is now up to each block to contact Ofc. Foreman to organize their own blocks. A complete write-up of the meeting is forthcoming. We will link to stories done by
the local media as they become available. The Birmingham News covered the meeting and their story can be read here. The Hoover Gazette also covered the meeting.
11/14/06 - Don't forget about the meeting tonight. The Birmingham News has a preview. Wow!
11/12/06 - Heather's Corner as been updated with a story on the Bluff Park sub-station and Mr. Ken Harden. Check out Heather's story.
11/07/06 - We've had requests for meeting flyers. If you want a flyer to post at your place of business, or in places that people will see it, click here to download a copy of the flyer. Please print a copy of the flyer and distribute them. We want a large turnout for Tuesday's meeting.
11/06/06 - We attended the Hoover City Council meeting tonight. Resolution No. 3773-06 - Authorize Mayor to execute a shopping center lease with Harden Properties, LLC, - Bluff Park Village. Motion to approve. was approved by all council members. This resolution will allow the city to place a police sub-station in the Bluff Park Village shopping center (where Delchamps used to be and were Armor Safe Storage is now). After the vote, Councilman Trey Lott recognized Mr. Ken Harden, the owner of the complex, thanking him for extending the vacant store, which will become the sub-station, at a very favorable rate. On behalf of bluffparkal.org, we would also like to thank Mr. Harden. If you have an opportunity to go by Armor Safe Storage, please take a minute to thank him also. Also present at the council meeting was State Representative Paul DeMarco, who said he
would be at next week's neighborhood meeting. Besides the announcement of the sub-station, there will also be other important announcements given by Mayor Petelos. It is important that we have a turnout like we did on September 12. Please make it a point to attend the meeting, and make it a point to tell your friends and neighbors who live in Bluff Park to attend the meeting: 7:00 pm , Tuesday, November 14, 2006 at the Bluff Park Community School Cafeteria. For further information on the council meeting, watch the local news tonight, as several stations were present.
11/02/06 - Well, it has happened again! Following is a letter addressed to Robert's Discount Pharmacy customers and Bluff Park residents from Robert:
On Tuesday, October 31, at 12:10 am, I was burglarized for the 6th time. The Hoover police tell me the statistics do not warrant a need for an officer just for Bluff Park. I disagree. I know many of you do as well, because you have told me of your cars being broken into, or lawn equipment stolen, or concerns stemming from the Piggly Wiggly robbery. Bluff Park merchants and I need your help to keep this a great community. Obviously, the police disagree with us, so we need to go above them and talk to Mayor Petelos. I am asking all my customers to flood his phone line with your concerns. Examples of what you might say or ask, “Why is there not a full-time police officer for Bluff Park?”, “Robert’s Pharmacy has been burglarized 6 times in 4 yours, Piggly Wiggly has been a victim of armed robbery several times, Baker’s Pizza and Little Ceasars have also been victims of armed robbery – What is it going to take to
get a full-time officer for Bluff Park?”, “I hope someone is not killed before we get a full-time officer in Bluff Park.”, “What are you and Chief Derzis going to do to keep Bluff Park a safe community?”
10/30/06 - Update on the 10/27/06 post: Mayor Petelos called us today. Since we are already having a meeting scheduled for Tuesday, November 14 at 7:00 pm for the Neighborhood Watch Program, the mayor would like to use the first 30 minutes of that meeting to give a follow up to the September 12 meeting. Mayor Petelos, along with several council members and police representatives, will be on hand to deliver information as to what is being done by the city in Bluff Park. There will be a short Question and Answer session for the mayor, council members and police representatives. The mayor did not want to disclose the contents of the follow-up at this time. In order to save
from having two meetings on two separate evenings, we felt it would be better to have the follow-up prior to the Neighborhood Watch meeting. Please let your friends and neighbors know about the meeting. Having a turnout like we did on September 12 will show the solidarity that we have in Bluff Park. Please check back on this page for further updates, which we intend to post.
10/27/06 - We received a call from Mayor Petelos' office today. Mayor Petelos and Councilman Gene Smith are scheduling a follow up meeting for Monday, November 13, 2006 at the Bluff Park Community School cafeteria. We will post more details as they become available. Please make a note of the date and notify your neighbors regarding this meeting. We also realize that this meeting is one day before the Neighborhood Watch meeting (Tuesday, November 14 at 7:00 pm at the Bluff Park Community School), so please make an effort to attend both. Again, the Mayor's office scheduled the Nov. 13th meeting. Check back here for more details over the next few days.
10/27/06 - Heather's Corner is now open, with bluffparkal.org's Heather covering local events in Bluff Park.
10/12/06 - It has been one month since our neighborhood meeting. What changes have you seen? What have you noticed? We want to know, as we're sure all other Bluff Park residents would also. Send us your comments, short or long to
info@bluffparkal.org
with the Subject "1 Month Later". We are going to create a page with all of your comments. If you want your comment to be anonymous, just let us know by writing "Please don't post my name", and we'll only use your first name. We'll have our own comments to post as well, and we'll make sure that the non-Bluff Park residents who attended the meeting see them also. If you have praise, then let it be known. If you don't, then let that be known also. Click here for the responses.
10/12/06 - Although Hoover High School is not in Bluff Park, many of our children attend the school. In case you you didn't hear, HHS has a pretty good football team, and CBS News was there this week with their Early Show program. The story they did was a very fair and objective piece and deserves mention. To view the video, click here . To read the story, click here.
10/02/06 - The Bluff Park Art Show is this weekend. For more information, click here.
10/02/06 - We would like to welcome Heather to the writing staff at BluffParkAl.org. Heather, a resident of Bluff Park, came to the web site after seeing the many media stories following our neighborhood meeting. "After hearing about the robberies in the shopping center I wanted to do something to help the community. I grew up in the Hoover/Bluff Park area and after I got married my husband and I bought a house right in the heart of Bluff Park. I was so sad to hear the things happening in our nice community. This is an area where people move because they feel safe here. When my husband and I were looking for a home we noticed that a lot of young professionals were moving into the area and updating some of the older homes, " Heather said. Heather's writing and layout design skills comes from her background as Editor-in-Chief of her college newspaper, the Jefferson State Pioneer,
her time writing for the Over the Mountain Journal in the late '90s and Hoover High School's student newspaper. Heather has a major in Broadcast and Journalism and she will be telling your stories on BluffParkAl.org. "Our area has a lot of history and a lot of fun, I want to get those stories out for the citizens of Bluff Park to read on this site", Heather said. If you have any story ideas that you would like to pass along to Heather, please e-mail her at
heather@bluffparkal.org
. Here are a few future stories she is working on: Bluff Park New Home Development, Historical Homes of Bluff Park, Why do you like Bluff Park (round up at the Bluff Park Art Show).
10/02/06 - The Birmingham News does an article about neighborhood web sites, which includes mention of bluffparkal.org . Click here to read the article.
09/27/06 - The Neighborhood Watch section is now online. Please take a moment to look at this section, which includes meeting information, contact information for Hoover PD's Crime Watch Unit, downloads and links.
09/27/06 - Ben Shelton has an article in the Hoover section of the Birmingham News about Bluff Park. It can be seen here.
09/20/06 - The Hoover Gazette newspaper posted their article on the Neighborhood meeting on their web site.
9/20/06 - The Birmingham News article regarding police presence in Bluff Park is now online. There are some good quotes from residents and businesses. One of the most interesting paragraphs in the article is: Rector said last week that he and Derzis soon will discuss splitting up beat 30 - the police coverage area that includes Bluff Park - so that more officers are assigned there. Reducing the size of 30 Beat would help us very much and reduce the response time to Bluff Park. The last two paragraphs are probably the most perplexing: But he doesn't expect the increased attention to wane anytime soon, partly because police are writing a lot of speeding tickets
there. "We'll continue to do those types of things because they've been fruitful," Rector said.
09/19/06 - It has been one week since our Neighborhood Meeting and we'd like to bring you some updates and observations. Ben Shelton wrote a letter to Chief Derzis thanking him for attending the meeting. A copy can be seen here (you will need Acrobat Reader to access it. Use one of the above links to download it). As most of you have seen, the amount of police officers present in Bluff Park has decreased substantially since the 12th, mostly in the traffic enforcement portion. Speed indicators have been put up on Alford Avenue, Patton Chapel Road and Sulphur Springs Road. After speaking to businesses, they still indicate they are seeing police vehicles on a regular basis. The next stage of the process is to have Neighborhood Watch meetings so that this program can be implemented. We have contacted Officer Foreman of the Hoover
Police Department, who is in charge of the program, in order to post contact information on the site. We are still seeking non-profit organizations to
contact us
so that we can post their information on the Bluff Park Information page. As mentioned in the 9/15/06 update, we have added a Lost and Found section to the Information page. If you have lost something or found something, we'll post it, including animals. Just let us
know
. We also want to thank our business sponsors who are helping keep this site going. Check them out on the Bluff Park Business page, visit them and don't forget to thank them for their support. Remember, these are businesses based and located in Bluff Park, not big chains. On a media
update, the Birmingham News will be running another story on Wednesday about Bluff Park and we will post a link to it when we have it. The Hoover Gazette will also be running a story, which we will also provide a link for. We want to thank those of you that have sent us e-mails regarding the site. Our commitment to Bluff Park did not end last week. This site is just in its infancy stage and we hope to expand it tremendously over the next few months. But we can only do it with your input. So
send us suggestions
as to what you would like to see on the site.
09/15/06 - We thought we'd give you some stats about the web site and how effective it has been so far. As of 9/15/06, 511 separate computers have viewed the site, generating 14,238 hits. The highest traffic comes between 10 pm and 11 pm. The busiest day so far was September 13. The average stay on the site is 6 minutes, 41 seconds. These stats are for the month of September only.
09/14/06 - Channel 42 has updated the "Digital Neighborhood" story by adding video.
09/13/06 - Channel 42 has posted the story about the Bluff Park Neighborhood website, which Channel 42 has dubbed "Digital Neighborhood". Read the story by clicking here.
09/13/06 - Channel 42 WIAT advised they would be doing a story today at 5 pm about the Bluff Park neighborhood and the efforts to increase police presence.
09/13/06 - The Birmingham News coverage of the 9/12/06 meeting can be seen by clicking here.
09/12/06 - The Bluff Park Neighborhood meeting took place at 7:00 pm at the Hoover Community School, with approximately 225 people filling the cafeteria. The meeting opened with the invocation by Pastor Dennis Faust of Shades Crest Baptist Church. Ben Shelton introduced the representatives of the City of Hoover, which included Mayor Tony Petelos, Councilman Gary Ivey, Councilman Gene Smith, Councilwoman Mari Morrison, Councilman Jack Wright, Councilman Brian Skelton, Police Chief Nick Derzis, several police officers. Also present was State Representative Paul DeMarco. Media representatives present included a local television station, the Birmingham News and the Hoover Gazette. The meeting led into a town hall style meeting with Bluff Park residents given the opportunity to ask questions directly to the city officials present, with a majority of the questions directed at Chief Derzis at first. The chief fielded many
questions including opening a sub-station in Bluff Park, making 30 Beat (the police zone that Bluff Park sits in) smaller (currently it spans from Hwy. 31 from Tyler Road to Patton Chapel Road into Bluff Park) and increasing police presence in Bluff Park. Several council members and the mayor answered questions. The meeting closed with Hoover PD Ofc. Brian Foreman discussing Neighborhood Crime Watch. The meeting was a success in that it made the city officials aware of the concerns of the residents of Bluff Park. But this is not the end of the mission, but just a beginning. Many promises were made at the meeting by city officials. We will continue to update this page with updates from the police department and from the city. More updates will be coming on Wednesday.
09/09/06 - Ofc. Foreman of the Hoover Police Department provided some crime statistics for the Bluff Park area. The stats are broken down by incident type and a comparison is done between 2005 and 2006. In addition, some specific incidents are broken down for the Shades Mountain Plaza and finally, a comparison is done between all the "Beats" in Hoover. A beat is a specific zone that is patrolled. There are ten beats in the city of Hoover.
09/08/06 - A TV story about the community action in Bluff Park was done.
09/07/06 - A local stationwill be doing a story on the community action in Bluff Park tonight at 6 pm, so tune in.
09/06/06 - MSN Search has indexed Bluff Park Neighborhood web site and the site is now listed on their search page.
09/06/06 - The Birmingham News wrote an article about the Bluff Park area in Wednesday's (09/06/06) paper, and the efforts to get more police presence to the area. The article can be seen by clicking here.
09/04/06 - Ofc. Foreman, Hoover PD's Crime Prevention Officer, has indicated he will be at the meeting on Sept. 12, and will provide some valuable statistics regarding the Bluff Park area.
09/04/06 - The Bluff Park Information section of the web site is now online. Check out some general information about the Bluff Park area as well as a link to the History section of the web site.
09/03/06 - Yahoo has indexed the Bluff Park Neighborhood web site and the site is now listed on their search page.
09/03/06 - The Bluff Park Businesses section of the web site is now online. Check out some of the businesses based in Bluff Park today.
08/31/06 - We have received confirmation that Council President Gary Ivey will attend the meeting. We have also received an e-mail stating that Councilman Mike G. Natter will be unable to attend due to a conflict with a previously scheduled meeting.
08/30/06 - We have received e-mail confirmation from the Mayor's office that Mayor Petelos will be attending the meeting.
08/30/06 - A new e-mail address has been added for the web site. Any e-mails for bluffparkal.org can now be sent to
info@bluffparkal.org
.
08/29/06 - An invitation to the Sept. 12 meeting for the remaining council members and the mayor was e-mailed to the mayor's office. We will post any confirmed RSVPs on this page once we receive them. Ben Shelton also sent invitation letters to the council members via US Mail. A sample of the letters can be found here.
08/29/06 - A section about Bluff Park history will be posted on this web site under the Bluff Park Information section. Look for it soon.
08/29/06 - Councilman Brian Skelton confirmed that he will be at the meeting on Sept. 12.
08/26/06 - Flyers about the meeting have been posted. Please let you neighbors and Bluff Park friends know about the meeting. Also, if you see a business with the flyer, thank them for allowing us to put them up. Many business indicated they are excited about the meeting and plan on attending.
08/25/06 - We have secured a location for our meeting. The meeting will take place at the Bluff Park Community School Cafeteria, 569 Park Avenue, on Tuesday, September 12 at 7:00 pm. So far in attendance will be the Hoover Police Department (Chief Derzis confirmed via phone) and we are expecting Council Members Brian Skelton and Gene Smith and are working on others. If you know of a Council Member other than these two that will attend, please send an e-mail to
info@bluffparkal.org
indicating who it will be. Spread the word about the meeting. We would like a good turnout and this will be our first chance to voice our opinions, grievances, praises, etc. to those that can make things happen. Signs about the meeting will be going up this weekend in local businesses. For a copy of the flyer, click
here (Adobe Acrobat PDF file) If you need Adobe Acrobat Reader (free), click here .
08/23/06 - Linda Williams of the Bluff Park Community School has indicated that our meeting can take place in their facilities. We will fill out the paperwork and post the date and time of the meeting as soon as we know it.
08/18/06 - Hoover Police Chief Nick Derzis, in response to the e-mail to Mr. Skelton, contacts R. Schultz. Chief Derzis indicates that he is very interested in addressing the concerns of Bluff Park residents and would like to be well represented when the Bluff Park resident's meeting takes place.
08/16/06 - E-Mails begin to be sent to numerous council members, including one to Brian Skelton from R. Schultz, outlining the issues that Bluff Park residents have with the City of Hoover, including lack of police presence and slow police response time.
08/15/06 - The web site bluffparkal.org is registered as a domain and goes online to serve as a update site for events in the Bluff Park section of Hoover, Alabama. The site is designed and hosted by PC Medics of Alabama, a Bluff Park business.
08/13/06 - Ben Shelton writes letter to Bluff Park Residents regarding the robbery of the Piggly Wiggly on August 12, 2006. Bluff Park residents begin the first step in bringing the lack of Hoover Police presence in Bluff Park to the attention of the city council.
