Mayor’s Minute

Dear friends and neighbors,

The City of Homewood continues to be blessed. At the end of January, I had the opportunity to present my Annual State of the City Address at The Club. I thought you might find some of the things I discussed interesting, so I wanted to recap some statistics from the past year along with discussing some upcoming projects.  

I’m pleased to announce that since becoming mayor in 2008, our city has finished with a surplus every single year, meaning our expenses have NEVER exceeded our revenues. The pre-audit results show we finished 2017 with a $360,000 surplus AFTER transferring $500,000 to Capital and paying over $323,000 to employee bonuses. Over the past nine years we have totaled just over $6.7 million in surpluses and we currently have $9.2 million in our Debt Service Fund, just over $9 million in a General Public Investments Fund, and just north of $11 million in our Rainy Day Reserve Account.

Our fire department received 4,215 calls this past year. Of those calls, 87 were actual structure fires and 2,827 times we responded to Emergency Medical Services. The men and women of the fire department averaged a response time of 6:14, an incredible achievement considering the busiest time for them is between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. They spent a total of 62,044 hours conducting training in EMS operations, technical rescue operations, and hazardous materials. 

They also performed maintenance on and painted 697 fire hydrants and tested over four miles of fire hoses.

Our Police Department received 39,395 calls this past year and stopped over 16,000 cars last year for various reasons, resulting in 12,307 tickets. That number is a 7 percent increase from 2016 and a 34 percent increase from 2015. I expect that number to continue to increase until we gain the reputation of not tolerating speeding in our neighborhoods. 

Arrests were up 33 percent and as a result, every major category was down statistically, including burglary, robbery and unlawful breaking and entering vehicles (UBEV). Our police and detectives have done a great job this year and we owe them a huge debt of gratitude for the protection and service they provide.

I don’t have room in this article to specifically mention all the statistics from every department. But I want to say how proud I am of every department we have and all the employees who work so hard.  It’s really easy to be an average city, but it takes a great deal of effort, dedication, and determination to be a city above average.  

We expect this upcoming year to bring more positive change including revitalization of Spring Park, a new aquatic center at Patriot Park, road repaving, the diverging diamond interchange and new sidewalk construction.  

I truly appreciate the opportunity to serve this city along with some of the greatest people in the world, the Homewood employees. With kindest regards I remain,

Sincerely,