Service Care Blog

From the Shelby County Reporter

Don't get too excited, there are restrictions. But it's our hope that this will filter out to all Alabama small businesses and help keep our state growing and reduce unemployment.

Read the entire article here.

Labels: Alabama, business, Shelby County

From the Shelby County Reporter

University of Alabama women's golf coach Mic Potter announced the signing of Spain Park High School senior Hannah Collier to a national letter-of-intent on Friday.

Collier won the Alabama High School Athletic Association Class 6A individual championship in 2009.

Read the rest of the article here.

Labels: Alabama, Shelby County, Spain Park

From the Shelby County Reporter:

Area youth will get a chance to take to the skies for free Nov. 14, as pilots at the Shelby County Airport will be volunteering their aircraft to share the flight experience.

Pilots will be taking children ages 8-17 into the air from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. as part of the Experimental Aircraft Association’s Young Eagles program.

“It’s definitely a fun deal,” said Johnny Ward, the local EAA chairman. “We just do this to introduce young people to aviation.”

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Sounds pretty cool to me. I imagine this might inspire a few of the young aviators to pursue a career in the skies, or at least dream about it.

Read the rest of the article here.

Labels: Shelby County

Eric Williamson, director of Shoal Creek Golf Club, finished fourth overall and the first alternate for a national tournament Thursday at the Dixie PGA Professional Championship at Limestone Springs Golf Club in Oneonta.

Read the entire Shelby County Reporter article here.

Labels: Shelby County

ALABASTER — Though some had not returned to Shelby County for nearly 20 years, a group of about 90 Thompson High School alumni Oct. 2 cheered as if they had not been gone a day.

The Thompson High School class of 1989 celebrated their 20th reunion by gathering and cheering at what some alumni described as the “Iron Bowl of high school football.

Read the entire article here.

Labels: Alabaster, Shelby County

From the Shelby County Reporter:

HELENA — Helena residents could have curbside recycling available by Dec. 1, after a year-and-a-half long process is drawing to a close.

Helena Mayor Sonny Penhale is this week signing a contract with Allied Waste for twice-monthly curbside recycling for the city.

Councilmember Cris Nelson said the recycling service, which will be optional for residents, would cost $6.79 per household monthly.

Read the whole article here.

Labels: green, Helena, Shelby County

From the Shelby County Reporter:

HELENA — Helena's Jane B. Holmes Public Library will take a historical turn starting Oct. 6, when the library will begin showing an exhibit of 10 iconic Abraham Lincoln portraits.

The free exhibit, which came courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian Institution, is intended to mark the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth in 1809.

Library director Daniel Dearing said the Jane B. Holmes Library is one of only 10 in the state to receive these exhibits.

Read the whole article here.

Labels: Helena, Shelby County, things to do

From the Shelby County Reporter:

A Shelby County organization is partnering with county schools and law enforcement officials to crack down on teen drinking and drug abuse.

The Shelby County Drug Free Coalition is seeking to publicize existing county drug and alcohol tip lines to combat illegal teen behavior and adults who sanction it.

“Many people within the coalition didn’t realize that there were already tip lines available through the sheriff’s office and schools,” said Carol Williams, the coalition’s project coordinator. “The coalition then partnered (with the schools and sheriff’s office) to promote those available resources more thoroughly.”

Read the rest of the article.

Labels: Shelby County, things to do

In Shelby County, the city of Chelsea has a neat program where the provide a vehicle and radio to pairs of local citizens and have them patrol residential and commercial areas looking for criminal activity. This is known as the Citizen Observer Patrol, and this group of volunteers provide more eyes and ears on the street to help keep Chelsea safe.

They're not armed, nor will they pursue criminals, as they are only patrolling to observe and report. But that's very, very useful for the prevention and detection of crime. As volunteers, they reduce the greatest expenditure of patrolling city streets... personnel. Of course, you still have to have a qualified police force to respond to their reports.

I like the idea, and I hope it spreads to other communities.

Read more about it here: Chelsea Citizen Observer Patrol

Labels: Chelsea, Shelby County

What a provocative title, eh?

It's actually much nicer than that title makes it sound.

This weekend and next month, the American Red Cross is holding blood drives at four locations in Alabaster and Columbiana. The fun part is, in a show of thanks for donors, there will be prizes given away to a few lucky donors.

They are pretty good prizes, and you can read about them here:

Red Cross to offer prizes to blood donors

Labels: Alabaster, charity, Shelby County

Yep, it's the "Taste of Shelby County" event raising money for schools by feeding you delicious foods. Actually, it sounds really good. Mmmmm.

Read more here: Get a taste of county, support schools

Labels: charity, events, Shelby County, things to do

From the Shelby County Reporter:

"HOOVER — The city of Hoover, along with the Hoover Fire Department, held an open house Sunday to show off the new Fire Station No. 9.

The station, located on Legacy Drive in Greystone, serves Greystone Legacy, portions of Greystone Founders and provides backup for the rest of Greystone, the U.S. 280 corridor and Inverness."

Hoover celebrates new Fire Station No. 9

Is the baby in that picture the Fire Chief or the Mayor? (cute picture)

Labels: Greystone, Highway 280, Hoover, Inverness, Shelby County

Shelby County Reporter | Hoover Police looking for credit card thief (alleged)

Although I think the title of their article is legally dangerous, I wonder... do you recognize this guy?



Shared via AddThis

Labels: Hoover, Shelby County

Alabaster, Calera and Helena were listed, along with Madison, Alabama, in Money magazine's top 100 places to live. Not too shabby, Shelby.

Read about it locally.

Labels: Alabama, Alabaster, Helena, Shelby County

Looks like they're going to do it again, many cities in Alabama to eliminate sales taxes August 7th through the 9th for back to school shoppers.

Read about the tax holiday here.

From the al.com blog entry:

"Some of the participants in the 2009 sales tax holiday, according to the Alabama Department of Revenue

Alabaster
Bessemer
Birmingham
Calera
Center Point
Chelsea
Columbiana
Fultondale
Gardendale
Helena
Homewood
Hoover
Hueytown
Irondale
Kimberly
Pelham
Springville
Tarrant
Trussville
Vestavia Hills
Warrior
Wilsonville
Shelby County
Jefferson County (will exempt the regular 1 percent sales tax but not the 1 percent education sales tax that took effect in 2005)"

Labels: Alabama, Alabaster, Bessemer, Birmingham, Center Point, Chelsea, Fultondale, Gardendale, Helena, Homewood, Hoover, Irondale, Jefferson County, Pelham, Shelby County, Trussville, Vestavia Hills

An encouraging read, if you would like to find out what is being done to remove violent and dangerous criminals from Jefferson, Shelby, and Walker counties.

Operation Falcon Makes Arrests

I'm proud that this initiative is in action, sends a good message and has an immediate effect on the safety of local citizens and businesses.

Arrests were made for "murder, assault, sexual offenses, robbery, narcotics, property of theft and probation violations." They also verified 1,000 sex offenders were located where they claimed to be, and arrested them if they were not.

Congratulations to the officers and planners who made this happen. Keep it up!

It would do nothing but good for all of us to send thanks somehow to our law enforcement community for their efforts. Think about it.

Labels: Alabama, Jefferson County, Shelby County

This is a handy article which lists four local groups that recycle old electronics.

Recycle your electronics in Alabama

Here's another article from the Shelby County Reporter about Technical Knockout, a Birmingham company that specializes in electronics recycling:

Technical Knockout

Labels: Alabama, Birmingham, electronics, green, Shelby County