As I write this the football world is anxiously awaiting the Final Four announcement. Regardless of their choices, congratulations to all our Alabama fans for their impressive win!
We had a very busy couple of weeks in the City of Madison, here are a few of our highlights.
- We kicked off our Polar Express Christmas Friday night with a fantastic tree lighting and Wassel fest downtown.
- Our Madison Chamber led our ribbon cutting for the new and improved Kids Kingdom playground. Madison Visionary Partners, working side by side with MCDAB, helped fundraise over $600,000. The playground is seeing a great volume of use. Staff is cleaning Restrooms and emptying trash twice a day. Thanks to the recreation and public works teams for their enormous contributions!
- Building shared that the permitting division created 147 permits, issued 148 permits, and the inspection division performed 318 inspections last week.
- Several of us attended the Redstone Arsenal Update at the VBC. Speakers at the event included NASA, the FBI, SMDC, and Lt. General Mohan of AMC.
- Our Madison Public Works team stayed busy cleaning out multiple drains and ditches, clearing out multiple beaver dams, fixing trench failures, and they added sidewalks at the Mill Road Millstone entrance. In addition, our CIP team framed and poured over 100’ of sidewalk on Lime Quarry Road.
- Code Enforcement performed 18 inspections/re-inspections, created 21 cases, and picked up 19 signs in the R.O.W. last week.
- Our Facilities and Grounds team stayed busy transitioning the Wellness Center over to city management. In addition, they managed repairs at City Hall, Fire Stations 2 & 3, Sunshine Oaks, and they helped Trident Security get ready for Monday.
- Starting Monday, we will have added security at City Hall. Metal detectors will be manned downstairs from 7-4 and upstairs from 8-5.
- Madison Police shared that they responded to 1463 calls for service, made 46 arrests, issued 134 citations, and they gave 289 warnings last week.
- IT received 86 work orders this week, as well as multiple calls and in-person requests.
- We closed on the purchase of the former Hexagon Wellness Center last week. Staff is in the process of converting the facility to City management and we trained staff and converted computer software to be able to open on Monday, December 4th from 6:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. to city personnel. Recreation is in-process of developing a city-wide usage plan for all our facilities and we hope to have this ready by the first of the year.
- Our Court team shared that they opened 133 cases, closed 83 cases, and they issued 28 warrants last week.
- The Madison Fire Marshalls office completed 82 fire inspections last week.
- Madison Fire and Rescue responded to 117 incidents last week, 92 of which were EMS related.
- Congratulations to John Gallaway and Matt Rodgers on their promotion to Captain in Madison Fire and Rescue!
- MARS completed 166 trips last week, Dublin had 340 users, and our fall pickleball league has 24 participants.
- Recreation, along with a large volunteer group, will be spreading out new mulch at the Mill Creek Dog Park in the upcoming weeks.
As I close, I again want to thank all of you for everything you do for our Madison community. We are blessed to have such a strong, focused team! Let’s have another strong week.
Respectfully,
Mayor Finley