Village Living Volume 5 | Issue 5 | August 2014
Boil n’ brag
neighborly news & entertainment for Mountain Brook
Food on the move
Kick off football season with an annual event benefiting Children’s of Alabama at Otey’s Tavern. Find the details inside.
City page A16
Fashion forward
Council considers food truck regulation ordinance By MADOLINE MARKHAM and SYDNEY CROMWELL
Find our picks for back-to-school cool for any age in this issue.
Business page B4
INSIDE Sponsors ...... A4 City ................ A6 Business ....... A9 Community .. A17
Faith ................A22 School House..B9 Sports ............ B13 Calendar ........ B18
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Shindigs food truck is a regular sight next to Mountain Brook Elementary on Tuesdays. However, the truck may not be able to sell its salmon burgers and specialty “L.A.” balls there
in the near future. A new ordinance being considered by the City Council would regulate where Mountain Brook resident Mac Russell parks his Shindigs food truck, and the latest version would disallow it from the spaces on Heathermoor Road it has occupied one day a week for the past two
Food trucks such as Shindigs could be affected by a new ordinance Mountain Brook City Council is considering.
years — or anywhere that’s not private property. This draft, presented on July 14, would exclude businesses such as ice cream trucks that don’t park for more than 10 minutes in one location. Russell said he was pleased with an earlier
See FOOD TRUCKS | page A23
New council members to assume office By MADOLINE MARKHAM For the second time in a row, Mountain Brook’s municipal election has been canceled. Only one person qualified for each City Council seat open for election, which was scheduled for Aug. 26. The qualifying period for candidates ended July 15. New on the council starting in November will be Alice Womack and Lloyd Shelton, who will take the places of Amy Carter and Jesse Vogtle. Both Carter and Vogtle are stepping down to pursue other commitments. Shelton and Womack both currently serve on the city’s Finance Committee and on the Mountain Brook City Schools Foundation Board. Shelton is the chair of the committee and the current
president of the foundation board. A 1980 graduate of Mountain Brook High School, he works as an accountant with Lovoy, Summerville & Shelton, LLC. Womack is the vice president at First Commercial Bank, where she is employed in the Private Client Group as a lender and relationship manager. Billy Pritchard’s seat was also open for election this year, but no one qualified to run against him, allowing him to remain for another four-year term. Council Member Jack Carl, Council President Virginia Smith and Mayor Terry Oden’s terms all end in 2016. The City Council is made of five representatives plus the mayor. Places are held at-large, not by district. There are no term limits, and the members are not compensated.
Lloyd Shelton
In 2012, incumbents Smith, Carl and Oden all entered the ballot uncontested, but in 2010 eight candidates applied and campaigned for three City Council positions. The election being canceled will
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Alice Womack
save both the city and the candidates money. An election usually costs the city between $25,000 and $27,000, no matter how many seats are open.