Residents report on city meetings on ‘Homewood at Large’

With changes in the local news landscape, Homewood resident Liz Ellaby saw a hole in coverage of Homewood’s city government.

“We needed something because city meeting minutes were not getting posted for a really long time, and there was no way of checking to see what happened,” she said. “People didn’t know that an issue was in the works when it was.”

Last fall around the time of city elections Ellaby, a former reporter for The Birmingham News, and several other residents decided to try reporting on city meetings themselves and record what happened online.

By November the first homewoodatlarge.wordpress.com post went public. Since then a group of residents has attended every major city meeting, about five a month, and posted notes from it on the site.

 “It’s going well, but it’s hard to get enough people lined up especially early in the month,” Ellaby said.

The job is not a simple one, according to Ellaby, especially when they try to get their records posted the night of the meeting.

“My biggest concern is that we get things right, and with the council that is very difficult because issues come in and out of committee,” she said. “There are lots of meetings and minutes, so we need more people.”

Ellaby said they are looking for a pool of volunteers to report on meetings.

To learn more or get involved, contact Ellaby at homewoodatlarge@gmail.com or 617-3275.