District 7 Residents Voice Concerns, Hear Updates at Town Hall Meeting
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WAKA) — Dozens of residents from Montgomery’s District 7 gathered Monday night at Hilltop Public House for a town hall meeting to voice concerns and hear updates about their neighborhoods, including Cloverdale Idlewild, Hillwood and Normandale.
John Wallace, a Cloverdale Idlewild resident who moved to the area two years ago from New York with his wife, Kersten, said the event was one of the most informative he has attended.
“This is the most informative meeting I’ve been to in years — community events, business. It covered a lot of topics very thoroughly with committed people that we didn’t know existed,” Wallace said.
Kersten Wallace echoed her husband’s appreciation for the community and also raised concerns about police response times, asking Montgomery Police Chief Jim Graboys why a 911 call she made last fall took 30 minutes for officers to respond.
“I love my neighbors — to the right, to the left, across the park. I live amongst some of the most wonderful people that I have ever met in this lifetime,” she said.
Another District 7 resident shared a similar experience and questioned what was being done to improve emergency response times.
“I lived in Elmore County in Wetumpka, and you call 911 and they were there in five, maybe nine minutes. But here, where we were the other day, my buddy had a wreck right by police headquarters, and it took 45 minutes for an officer to get there,” the resident said. “So we can call all day, but how are y’all going to improve response time?”
Graboys said response times in Montgomery are affected by high call volumes.
“Montgomery has an extremely high call volume that has to be triaged, so the call with the most human injury always goes first,” he said.
Dilapidated buildings were also a major topic during the meeting.
“A lot of the talk was about dilapidated buildings,” John Wallace said. “I think Montgomery has had a downturn and is on the rise. Addressing those problems and having neighborhood conversations about how to remediate that is super important. It can’t be done in isolation.”
City Councilman Andrew Szymanski, who represents District 7, shared updates on infrastructure improvements funded by Rebuild Alabama and the American Rescue Plan Act.
“Whether it be Decatur Street or areas like Bankhead, we’re working to make improvements to roads that are in need,” Szymanski said.
He also highlighted progress on the College Street and Carter Hill Road projects, aimed at making the area more walkable and pedestrian-friendly, as well as the Fairview Avenue project near the Capri Theatre.
Residents got a preview of potential plans for the old Floyd Middle School campus, a project Szymanski said was born from community input.
“The Floyd campus idea came out of a neighborhood that has been desperate to have a piece of infrastructure that would be a point of pride,” he said. “Something that would help create a spark so that the Normandale Shopping Center could have life again.”
Szymanski said part of his goal is to make residents aware of the progress being made across the district.
“The fact that Chief Graboys has 72 people ready to come on board with MPD, half of which are going to be patrol officers — that is a good thing,” he said.
Attendees also received information on how to better utilize the city’s 311 non-emergency line and how to report issues like litter, abandoned vehicles and junk to improve neighborhood conditions.
