County manager provides fiscal year 2017 recap

When recapping the successes Shelby County saw in 2017, County Manager Alex Dudchock had a lot to say. During his annual State of the County address at the Greater Shelby County Chamber of Commerce luncheon, Dudchock highlighted growth the county had seen and gave updates on projects.

In fiscal year 2017, which ended on Sept. 31, Shelby County’s population grew by nearly 2,000, its unemployment rate dropped from 4.6 to 2.4 percent and its growth in real and business personal property value was at 3.37 percent.

Dudchock said that while the county is still recovering from the recession, conservative spending habits have put Shelby County in great financial shape.

Capital improvement projects were also a large part of FY17, Dudchock said, and included water services improvements, the construction of a new 12-plane hangar, new park equipment at county parks, two new firing ranges and several road and bridge projects.

The improvements at five county parks —Almont, Beeswax Creek, Shelby, Heardmont and Cahaba River — as well as projects at Oak Mountain State Park will have a variety of positive impacts on the county, Dudchock said. One benefit is the additional revenue from the lodging tax when individuals come to events and stay in local hotels, and another is the creation of safe activities for families and teenagers.

A big highlight at Oak Mountain State Park is the new mew at the Alabama Wildlife Center, Dudchock said. The mew will hold a Eurasian eagle owl and bald eagle, making AWC one of only a handful of locations where people can stop by to see a bald eagle rehabbing.

“We will actually have a permanent bald eagle on display, which has an unfortunate injury that makes it to where he cannot be released in the wild,” Dudchock said. “… So what does that mean to us? We’ve got a lot of people traveling through our state, going to the beach. It’s another reason to pause and go to the state park.”

The last several months were also a time for progress with two county initiatives — Compact 2020 and 58 Inc.

Compact 2020, an initiative geared toward battling addiction in Shelby County through education, prevention and intervention, had an eighth city — the city of Montevallo — add on as a partner at the start of fiscal year 2018. The initiative also made contact with 136 juveniles and 41 sets of parents as a way to intervene before drug use or possession had to enter the justice system.

“The answer to a majority of them is to get them early, to get them help, so they’re not just a symbolic [statistic],” Dudchock said, citing that there have been 36 in-county overdose deaths since Jan. 1, 2017.

The economic development initiative 58 Inc. has also hit the ground running, Dudchock said, and its new managing director was announced during the luncheon. Yvonne Murray will start in her new role on Nov. 6.

Time toward the end of his presentation was also set aside so that Dudchock could recognize two county employees set to retire this year — Chief Financial Officer Butch Burbage and Manager of the Regional Juvenile Detention Facility Debra RouLaine, who have 22 years and 19 years of history with the county, respectively.