It was a milestone ribbon-cutting for the City when we joined the State Highway department and Governor Kay Ivey to open the new main line overpasses on South Memorial Parkway. The opening celebrated the fastest construction timeline in the state’s history – two and a half years of expedited roadwork, versus the traditional 10-12 years for a project of this magnitude. Reed Contracting is finishing up the access roads, and all the orange cones should be gone by fall.
The South Parkway project is #2 in our Restore Our Roads campaign, a $250 million cost-sharing package with ALDOT that includes eight major state road projects in Huntsville. Up next is Cecil Ashburn Drive and the overpasses and service roads on North Memorial Parkway at Mastin Lake.
These projects are actually roads the state should be fully funding, but the state says it doesn’t have the money, and we can’t afford to sit around and wait. To remind the Governor we are paying half of the cost, I presented her with a large construction cone decorated with our Restore Our Roads logo, City of Huntsville logo and the ALDOT seal.
The White House invited mayors and commission chairs from Alabama and Louisiana to meet with President Trump and staff, and I decided it would be worthwhile to attend and squeeze in some other visits that we wanted to make on the Hill. We met with the Secretary of Interior, undersecretaries, and our own Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The administration spoke about what they are doing and what their functions were, and in turn, we were able to ask questions and provide input on topics of importance to us. Later in the afternoon, I broke away to meet with Senator Shelby’s office and other congressional folks.
Sound Diplomacy released a music survey as part of the music audit the City has commissioned to figure out how we can make Huntsville a more dynamic music market. We’re asking musicians, music industry stakeholders and music lovers to make their voices heard and be part of developing the first music strategy in the state of Alabama. You can take the music survey from now through Sept. 10 at sounddiplomacy.com/Huntsville.
I had the pleasure of welcoming bestselling author Tayari Jones to Huntsville for a community fundraiser to support the new North Huntsville Library. Jones’ mother, Dr. Barbara A.P. Jones, is a retired Professor of Economics at Alabama A&M and now sits on the library capital campaign committee. Tayari spoke at a luncheon to celebrate her monumental bestseller and Oprah Book Club selection, An American Marriage.
The week also included a lot of meetings and greetings. Of note was the first board of trustee meeting for the new Alabama School of Cyber Engineering. I was able to highlight Huntsville’s successes related to cyber and engineering. Could have talked all day!
The Convention and Visitor’s Bureau announced their plans for the annual Restaurant Week on August 10-19. The timing is good. Kids go back to school on Monday and families can go out and celebrate all the dining specials, without their children during the day and with the whole gang at night. There’s some delicious cuisine out there so please head out and support our local restaurants.
As always I welcome your thoughts and comments at 256-427-5000 or by email at contact@huntsvilleal.gov.