Mayor’s Minute By Stewart Welch III - October 2021

Do you know? There is so much that goes on in our city that it is hard to keep up.

I’ll often ask a resident, “Why didn’t I see you at the (you name it) event?”

Often their response is, “I didn’t know about it!”

When I was elected mayor in 2016, one of my primary goals was to significantly increase communications to our residents. One major initiative was a total revamping of our website with the specific mantra, “Four clicks or less to any information you need about our city.”

Our city website connects you to bill paying, city services, the O’Neal Library, our Chamber of Commerce and much more. I hope you have had an opportunity to visit the website and discover just how user-friendly it is.

Today, if you want to be proactively ‘in-the-know’ about all things Mountain Brook, we have two outstanding tools for you: City text-alert system.

When you sign up for text alerts, we will text you regarding just about everything of importance that is going on in our city. It might alert you to an upcoming road closure due to repairs; our city calendar of events such as regular city council meetings; other city committee meetings such as Board of Landscape Design; Board of Education meetings; census results (did you know our city has grown over 10% during the past 10 years?); updates on issues that matter to you, such as an update on Waste Management services.  To join this text alert system, simply text the number 91896 (where you would normally type in someone’s name or phone number) and then type ‘MountainBrook’ (where you would normally type a text message).  That’s it!  You’ll be ‘In the Know’ for all things for the City of Mountain Brook.

Mountain Brook Police App. Chief Ted Cook and his colleagues have recently delivered a very useful app to keep our residents informed about many police matters and other services. For example, you can access the weekly crime report. It is always a great reminder to lock your cars.  Probably our greatest number of crimes involve theft from unlocked cars.  There is a “Tips for Crime Prevention” section and links to many useful sights such as suicide prevention, SANE crisis center, JCSO Sex Offender Registry. To get the app, go to your App Store and search for ‘Mountain Brook PD’. Download the app…it is free and be sure to turn on “Alerts.”

With these two tools, you will be in-the-know of what is happening in our great city.  And be sure to visit the city website often at mtnbrook.org.