Chelsea turns 25: How the city has grown, flourished in the last quarter century

March 1 is an important day for the city of Chelsea. It is the anniversary of the city’s incorporation in 1996. The second incorporation, that is.

Many residents may not know the story of how the first incorporation in May 1995 was reversed due to a technicality, and that ruling was declared null and void.

Jay Jerman moved to Chelsea in 1992 and has lived in the city ever since. He, along with eight others, were at the forefront of the process of incorporation.

Jerman said he remembers when Fire Chief Norman Poe called a meeting on Jan. 28, 1995, to try to generate funds to build a second fire station on Shelby County 69. The last item on the agenda was “the future of the community.”

“We had the meeting and a lot of people showed up,” Jerman said. “At the end of the meeting, he said if anyone was interested in talking about it, they could meet afterwards.”

After he spoke, 70 people signed a list entitled “people interested in Chelsea incorporation.” Those who volunteered to serve along with Jerman were Rita Smith, Bob Wanninger, Leonard Griffin, John Mooney, Chuck Lewis, Hal Midkiff, Harold Roberts and Tim Crawford. They came to be known as the Vote FOR Chelsea Committee.

In the Chelsea High School auditorium, nine people showed up for that meeting. All of them were concerned with other cities moving in Chelsea’s direction and wanted to figure out what to do about the then unincorporated community. Jerman said after that, the group agreed to meet the following week for more discussion.

“One of the things we did was look at city boundaries of Hoover, Pelham and Birmingham,” he said. “It scared the heck out of us. Their boundaries were marching toward the Chelsea community. If we did nothing, we were going to be divided up parts of those three cities, mostly Pelham.”

After several weeks of meetings and research, the group made the decision to start the process to incorporate Chelsea to become its own city and control its destiny. Indian Springs had recently been through the same process, so its mayor, Hub Harrington, also an attorney, provided his assistance.

“They [Indian Springs] were formed based on not having city property tax and we took the same approach,” Jerman said.

Signatures were needed for incorporation petition forms from registered voters living within the mapped-out addresses. The first person to sign the petition was Lloyd Chesser, founder of Lloyd’s restaurant.

After all the incorporation paperwork was complete, more resources were needed, so the group grew from nine to around 20 then to around 40. The August 1995 election was 87% favorable and those who would be good candidates for mayor and city council were identified.

However, a group who opposed the incorporation hired lawyers to go through the incorporation documents where the petition was inadequate, as it was not signed by at least four qualified electors in each quarter-quarter section and therefore did not meet the requirement of the law.

After a survey was done, one error was found on a boundary line and so on Dec. 11, 1995, an order setting aside order of incorporation was issued, which led the probate judge to disqualify the election.

The committee got back to work and the quarter-quarters were reduced from 39 to 34 to delete the problem found after the first time.

“There was a lot of disappointment, but it did not dissuade anybody,” Jerman said. “We redrew the map where it would work, went back and got signatures again and had another election. Four or five months later, we went back to the polls and that time it was 93% successful.”

Another election was held on Feb. 27, 1996. In that one, 278 voted in favor and 24 voted against incorporation. (At this time there were 906 people living in Chelsea in 326 homes in the proposed municipal limits).

On March 1, 1996, an order of incorporation of Chelsea was signed by Judge Patricia Fuhrmeister and the dream finally became a reality.

A second election of town officials was held, and Earl Niven was unopposed to become the first mayor of the city. The first members of the city council were Bob Combs, Col. John Richie, Shelby Blackerby, Erlene Isbell and Glen Autry.

Once the new leadership was in place, committees were established and annexation was one of the priorities and an extensive effort was made to continue to grow the boundaries and add more terrain to what was defined as the city.

Annexation is still taking place today. In January, more than 5,000 acres of property was annexed into the city, extending the city limits down Shelby County 47 toward Columbiana.

Mayor Tony Picklesimer is now serving his second term as the second mayor of Chelsea. After serving two and a half terms on the city council, when Mayor Niven announced his retirement in 2015, he said he knew the city needed someone who would give it their best.

“Nobody will ever replace Earl, and he will never get the credit for what he did in that 20 years as far as building the city and its financial base,” Picklesimer said. “I knew Chelsea needed someone to pour everything into it and keep it moving. That’s what I’ve done is kept it moving.”

In an interview with 280 Living in 2016, Niven said that borrowing $2 million to build city hall helped establish Chelsea as a city with plans for the future. Chelsea also borrowed $3 million to put in a water line down U.S. 280 to the Chelsea Park subdivision.

“Taking out $5 million as a city that was less than 8 years old was no small task,” Niven said.

Picklesimer said some of the things he is most proud of during his tenure is how the fire and rescue department has been intentionally grown and how much better the citizens can be served today than even five years ago; the upgrades made at the existing ballparks and construction of new ones; the Nick Grant Program that gives all the money from the one cent tax increase back to Chelsea schools; the infrastructure that has been done along with signalizing intersections.

“Also, the construction of the Weldon Pavilion,” he said. “In 2017, I made a promise I wasn’t knocking it down and that it would be repurposed, and I’m proud we were able to get that done.”

The Weldon Pavilion now sits atop the hill at the Chelsea Sports Complex off Shelby County 11, where work continues on phase two of the project. When complete, there will be seven baseball and softball fields to go with the walking track and lake on the property.

The Community Center currently has 1,675 members and the parks and recreation program continues to grow. The new playground at Melrose Park opened in 2020. Coming soon will be a splash pad, which is currently under construction set to open this summer, and will later be followed by an amphitheater.

The Chelsea Public Library moved from the old Crane House into a former bank building on U.S. 280 in 2018 continues to grow by leaps and bounds.

The Chelsea Historical Museum moved from City Hall into the Crane House after the library moved out in 2018 and is full of historic items dating back many years. It is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The city continues to host annual events including Fire at the Foothills barbecue competition (April 17, 2021), The Big Kaboom Independence Day celebration (the Saturday before the 4th of July) and the annual Chelsea Christmas parade.

Looking back, Jerman said the time has flown, but it has been amazing.

“As I look at my life, what are the things most important that I’ve accomplished and that’s one that really sticks out because it’s permanent,” he said. “It was the right thing to do for our community. If we had not done it, it would have disappeared as a unique community in its entirety itself and I’m very proud of it.”

Picklesimer said that instead of being an incorporated city, Chelsea would literally either be Pelham or Hoover if this group had not done what they did to incorporate.

“I really think it was very forward thinking by these early folks to go ahead and get Chelsea established, and I’m so glad they did. The growth has been remarkable over the last 25 years. I really feel like we’ve been able to maintain our hometown feeling, even though we’ve gotten so big. That’s an incredible feat in itself. The next 10 years will be pivotal as we continue to grow through annexation.”

Picklesimer believes that at the end of this term, it will be time to pass the mayoral baton on to someone else. He said it will take that amount of time to get the business park sold and developed, and believes that could be his legacy.

“If we can get the intersection redone in front of City Hall and the business park filled up by 2024, and Melrose Park finished with the amphitheater, I would feel pretty good about those eight years of work,” he said.

There will be a birthday party celebration for the city during the Fire at the Foothills event on April 17. Those who helped incorporate the city and their family members will also be recognized during the event around 2 p.m. The event will last from 1-5 p.m. at Chelsea City Hall.