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October 2024 | Volume 12 | Issue 6
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Election Day
What you need to know ahead of the election.
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Extra 20% off in Store only. Valid only in Vestavia and Birmingham Shoe Station stores. Cannot be combined with additional discounts or coupons or used on prior purchases, refunds or exchanges. Excludes Doorbusters, Accessories, Apparel, Socks and Gift Cards. Excluded Brands: Crocs, Asics, Reef, Nike, Under Armour, New Balance, Sperry, Chaco, Birkenstock, Timberland, Timberland PRO, KEEN, OOFOS, HEYDUDE, Guess, Frye, Jack Rogers, Seychelles, Antelope, Chocolat Blu, Dolce Vita, Rainbow, Hoka One, Brooks, Dansko, Alegria, Naked Feet, Steve Madden, Koolaburra by UGG and UGG. Other exclusions may apply. To redeem present coupon at checkout. One coupon per transaction. Offer subject to change without notice. Valid 10/01/2024-11/01/2024 11:59 pm EST.
BROOK HIGHLAND PLAZA • VESTAVIA CITY CENTER
The art of Halloween
Vestavia grad puts the face to one of season’s iconic events By TIM STEPHENS
See page A6
Home and Garden
Discover area businesses that specialize in keeping your home and garden at their best.
See page B1
INSIDE Sponsors........... A4 City......................A6 Schoolhouse.... A10 Business........... A12
Real Estate........B4 Events.................B6 Sports............... B10 Community...... B14
W
hen Isabella Marie Gordon was 15, she found herself in an after-school theater program at Vestavia Hills High School — which, in hindsight, she says was strange because she didn’t like to act or sing. But at that point in her life, she was experimenting with something theater-related: makeup. Little did she know that seven years later, she’d be making a living as a makeup artist in California at 22 years old and putting the scary faces to one of October’s iconic national attractions: Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. This is the second consecutive year for Gordon to work her makeup magic at Universal, a highlight on a resume that now also includes work on more than 20 small-budget films. “It’s a big haunt event, and there are different haunted mazes that you walk through and a bunch of different characters who jump out and scare you,” she said of Halloween Horror Nights, which attracts tens of thousands of fans each night to scream their way through Hollywood-inspired scare houses. “As you walk through the park, there are characters who chase you around and do all of those things.”
See MAKEUP | page A18
Vestavia Hills native Isabella Marie Gordon puts makeup on the face of Sam Jays as part of a creative personal makeup project she was undertaking. Gordon also for the second year was chosen to do makeup for Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood this year. Photo courtesy of Isabella Marie Gordon.
City’s 2025 budget heavy on infrastructure, training, quality-of-life initiatives By LOYD McINTOSH
facebook.com/vestaviavoice
Men work on a stormwater and median improvement project at the corner of Dolly Ridge Road and Pumphouse Road on Sept. 10. Photo by Loyd McIntosh.
Infrastructure may not be super sexy, but it’s crucial in operating governmental services, Vestavia Hills City Manager Jeff Downes said. And that’s why the city’s record $73.2 million general fund budget for fiscal 2025, which was approved in September, includes significant funding and attention to the city’s stormwater drainage system, information technology, cybersecurity initiatives and roadway improvements, Downes said. The 2025 budget earmarks just over $2 million for repaving up to 8 miles of roads
in Vestavia Hills, a 9% increase over fiscal 2024. This does not include roadway improvements from other funding sources, such as a federally funded resurfacing project for Massey Road, and an improvement project at the intersection of Columbiana Road and U.S. 31, in collaboration with the Alabama Department of Transportation and Jefferson County. “We’re going to see well over our targeted eight miles just by collaborating with others, so that’s important infrastructure -wise,” Downes said.
See INFRASTRUCTURE | page A16
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