COMMENTARY —  

I really want to see you on Sept. 27.

Please mark your calendar now to join me and the entire north Jefferson Community as we turn out to learn more about the Northern Beltline. According to Brian Hilson of the Birmingham Business Alliance, “opportunities like this (educational meeting) do not come along very often and are even more rare when it involves one of the business community’s top priorities.”  Any level of participation that you could give will be sincerely appreciated. The meeting is from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m. with community comments from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. Community comments will be limited to two minutes.

The Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) has scheduled two public hearings to allow the public to be heard on the issue of the Northern Beltline.   While the meeting for our community is next Tuesday at the Gardendale Civic Center, there will be a second meeting which will take place on Sept. 29 at the Bessemer Civic Center.

This important public meeting is for just that: The public. This is your time to speak publically on your opinions and to become fully informed on the information to date surrounding this important regional project. In advance of the meeting please seek out information by visiting the dedicated website of www.finish422.org for more insight.

As we have discussed here before, the idea of a beltline dates back to the 1960s. Through the unified voice of ALDOT and the Coalition for Regional Transportation progress on the Northern Beltline project is being made.

Paul Vercher is the Chairman of the Board for the Directors of the Coalition for Regional Transportation. Board members include Applied Research Center of Alabama, Birmingham Business Alliance, Brasfield & Gorrie,

Drummond Company, Energen/Alagasco, Greater Birmingham Association of Home Builders, Saiia Construction, Thompson Tractor, US Steel and Vulcan Materials. Vercher works for US Steel and joined the company to fill the newly created role of manager-state governmental affairs and will manage the company's governmental affairs activities at the state and local levels in Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

There are dozens of official resolutions of support from our area to include Gardendale, Fultondale, Graysville, Adamsville, Brookside, Kimberly, Warrior, Tarrant, Morris and more. “These tangible signs of support are evidence of the broad and diverse coalition the Northern Beltline has garnered throughout our region,” said Vercher.

Like the economic and jobs growth spurred by I-459 in the southern and eastern parts of the Birmingham metropolitan area, I-422 (Northern Beltline) will do the same for the western and northern areas of Birmingham and Jefferson County according to their website.

And don’t forget I-22, which we can all clearly see coming right along. This multi-level stack interchange is planned for the location between the current U.S. Hwy. 31 Fultondale trumpet interchange at Exit 266 and 41st Street interchange at Exit 264. Upon completion of I-22, Fultondale will be the only city other than Birmingham, Montgomery and Mobile to be served by more than one two-digit interstate highway (I-65 and I-22).

Please mark your calendars now to join your neighbors at this important community education event. Ask your questions. Get your facts. Understand what this means not just to our area, but to you.

Teresa works for Sanofi, US Pharmaceuticals and supports the Fultondale Chamber of Commerce. You can find additional readings on her blog at http://businessadvise4u.blogspot.com. Contact at visemedical@bellsouth.net