Submitted
Jennifer Andress
Homewood mayor Jennifer Andress
Greetings, Homewood! 2026 is off to a productive start, with a lot of activity throughout Homewood. Thank you to those who came to our public meetings for our comprehensive planning sessions at city hall and the senior center. We will have more opportunities for input, so stay tuned to the city’s social media accounts, our website and The Homewood Star. This plan is for your vision of Homewood’s future, so we want to hear from you.
We are well underway with our search for our permanent city manager. We had dozens of applicants from across the country, and we are looking forward to making an appointment in the next few weeks.
The Homewood Chamber of Commerce hosted the annual state of the city address in January, and it was a wonderful opportunity to recap the last impactful year and celebrate our Homewood police officer of the year, firefighter of the year and employee of the year. I was honored to award the first-ever Mike Kendrick Award for Service to the City of Homewood to Janie Mayer, founder of the Homewood Witches Ride. Janie threw her first Witches Ride in 2013 in memory of her mother, Paula Stringfellow Ford. What Janie started has grown into one of Homewood’s most beloved annual traditions. Hundreds of creatively adorned women ride our streets to the delight of our children, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for cancer research and spawning similar events across the South. It is truly a remarkable achievement; we are so grateful to Janie for her spirit and her service.
Construction is underway for Andrews Sports Medicine, at the former Belk location, and for the new Piggly Wiggly on U.S. 31. These two projects are going to be absolutely iconic for Homewood. Look for the Pig to reopen later this year with a new green space and beautified entrance at our Shades Cahaba Elementary tunnel.
It is an incredible opportunity for us to look to our future during our comprehensive planning process while celebrating our extraordinary past this year — our 100th. Our centennial celebrations will kick off during We Love Homewood weekend, set to continue until our 100th birthday in November.
How lucky are we to live in a community with such a rich history — so dynamic in our strengths yet maintaining our small-town charm? Homewood is a magical place, and I am so proud to live here with you, my neighbors!
