The Homewood Star | October 2011 |
www.TheHomewoodStar.com
neighborly news & entertainment for Homewood
Volume 1 | Issue 7 | October 2011
HHS Football - pg 16
West Glenwood Halloween - pg 9
Miss Patriot - pg 9
Red Mountain Park to open Homewood entrance By VICKI JOHNSON Homewood will soon boast a sprawling urban park in its vicinity. Red Mountain Park will showcase the area’s rich mining history and iron ore production, which propelled the founding of the city in 1871. The 1200-acre park, which spans some 4.5 miles from Homewood to Bessemer, sits atop the ridgeline where it all began. The eastern portion of the park, located in Homewood with an entrance off Sydney Drive and Lakeshore Drive, will be completed and open this fall. This 500acre section will provide areas for historical education along with miles of hiking, mountain biking and ADA-accessible walking trails that will connect throughout the rest of the park. David Dionne, executive director of Red Mountain Park, hopes that the urban park will help define the character and quality of life of Birmingham like other urban parks have done nationally. He also hopes that it will make the surrounding communities even more attractive. “We’ve designed a beautiful park, a knockout facility that people are just going to be absolutely astonished by and that will tell the story of how Birmingham
October Features Editor’s Note
2
Mayor’s Minute
4
City Council
5
Houses Divided
8
Lauren Denton
10
Trike Mike
13
Business Spotlight
14
Restaurant Showcase
15
Sports
16
School House
19
Calendar of Events
22
Homewood Happenings
23
South aerial view of Red Mountain Park. The park’s eastern segment is scheduled to open this fall. Illustration courtesy of Wallace, Roberts, & Todd.
was formed and the impact we had on the United States and world history,” Dionne said. “The city of Homewood is very fortunate to have all kinds of diversity in the
economy,” Dionne said. “Draw in (nearby attractions like) the zoo, Botanical Gardens, Vulcan Park, The Civil Rights Museum and Sloss Furnaces, and it really creates a multifaceted package that everyone can benefit
Pre-Sort Standard U.S. Postage PAID Birmingham, AL Permit #656
See RED MOUNTAIN | page 10
Cycling across America
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from.” “This area has such a strong historical link to the minerals that really made
Homewood resident Janet Holloway arrived at the Pacific Ocean in August after biking from Virginia. Photo courtesy of Janet Holloway.
By RICK WATSON At a time in life when most women her age are busy scrapbooking and chasing grandchildren, Janet Holloway of Homewood got on a bicycle and set out on a quest to see America—not the asphalt
and concrete America that most people see from the interstate but back-roads America with animals, birds, flowers, and scenery that takes your breath away. “I got a chance to see the America that I
A Father and Sons Operation Mon-Thur: 7-7 Fri: 7-6:30, Sat: 9-4 1915 Oxmoor Rd. • 871.6131 hunterscleaners@gmail.com
remember from my youth,” Holloway said. On May 21, a few days before she turned 60, Holloway dipped the rear wheels of her Trek 520 Touring bicycle in the icy waters of the Atlantic Ocean at Yorktown, Va. and headed west. Eightythree days and 4,200 miles later she and eight others touched their front wheels into the Pacific Ocean at Florence, Ore. Planned by Adventure Cycling Organization, the route took her along parts of the same path Daniel Boone traveled when the pioneers crossed the Appalachians and some of the track that Lewis and Clark took during their celebrated expedition. A mobile art teacher for the Birmingham School System, Holloway kept a sketch journal of her trip across America filled with vibrant watercolors of barns, churches, flowers and sunsets. In her journal she describes the day they first saw the Pacific: “When we reached the Pacific Ocean on August 12, we all joined hands and thrust them triumphantly skyward and shouted, ‘We did it!’ We’d used our legs, hearts and minds to achieve an amazing feat… We crossed rivers, deserts, plains, and pastures—weathering heat, rain, lightning, cold, mosquitoes, and gorgeous days.”
See HOLLOWAY| page 21
Fabric of Homewood