Hoover

City of Hoover
Incorporated	1967
Population	84,978
Mayor	Frank Brocato
School district	Hoover City Schools
Government	Hoover City Council Hoover Fire Department Hoover Police Department
Web site	hooveral.org
Locate with Google Maps

Hoover (incorporated in 1967) is a city of 84,978 located in southern Jefferson and northern Shelby counties. A suburb of Birmingham, Hoover is now one of the three primary cities in the Birmingham-Hoover-Cullman Combined Statistical Area.

Hoover is home to the Riverchase Galleria, which, at around 2 million square feet, is one of the largest mixed-use shopping centers in the Southeast. Regions Bank, BE&K, BellSouth, and Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Alabama all have large operations in Hoover. The Birmingham Barons baseball team, which traces its history to 1885, played its home games at the 10,800 seat Hoover Metropolitan Stadium (formerly Regions Park) from 1988 to 2012.

History

The earliest white settlements within the present city of Hoover were at Bluff Park, Patton Chapel, and Rocky Ridge.

In 1944, William H. Hoover, founder of Employers Insurance of Alabama, purchased 160 acres of land along Tyler Road and built a home there for his family. In 1953, when the Alabama Highway Department began widening U.S. Highway 31 between Shades Mountain and the Cahaba River, Hoover began purchasing land along the highway south of Vestavia Hills. He founded the South Jefferson Company as a holding company of Employers Mutual Insurance to handle the real estate transactions. Hoover subsequenty moved his company to the area and began purchasing additional land to build homes for his employees. The community he built became known, therefore, as Hoover.

1962 saw the formation of the Hoover Volunteer Fire Department, which purchased its first fire truck from Birmingham. In 1964, an attempt was made to incorporate the Hoover and Green Valley developments as the town of Hoover, but residents rejected the proposal.

In 1967, another attempt was made, this time only including an area four blocks long and one block wide containing 406 people, and passed, creating the City of Hoover as an independent municipality on June 16. Don Watts was elected to a one-year term as Hoover's first mayor.

In 1968, Green Valley elected to incorporate as well. Hoover's city attorney uncovered a flaw in their voter registration and filed suit. The lawsuit went to the U.S. Supreme Court and resulted in the State of Alabama nullifying Green Valley's incorporation. Later a state law was passed stating that a Jefferson County community within three miles of an incorporated city could not incorporate itself, preventing Green Valley from incorporating again.

Regions Park, the Hoover home of the Birmingham Barons

Hoover began to annex adjacent areas in 1969, although negotiations to annex Riverchase fell through at that time. Hoover's first city hall, which included a jail, was constructed in 1971 along Highway 31 on land William H. Hoover donated for that purpose. Hoover continued to grow and, in 1980, the Riverchase community was annexed into the city. By 1989, Hoover had extended to include Bluff Park, portions of Rocky Ridge, the Trace Crossings industrial complex, Altadena Woods, Southlake, and other residential areas. By 1992, Hoover annexed Inverness and Greystone.

As of the 2010 U. S. Census, Hoover has a total area of 48.21 mi². 47.16 mi² of which is land and 1.05 mi² (2.18%) is water.

In 2023 Hoover commissioned KPS Group to develop architectural design guidelines for the city's commercial districts.

Government

The municipal government has operated under the Mayor-Council form of government since incorporation. The mayor and city council are elected on a non-partisan basis to concurrent four-year terms of office which begin on October 1st of election year. Policy-making and legislative authority is vested in the City Council, which consists of seven "at-large" elected members (prior to 2004, the council consisted of five at-large members.) The city council is responsible for, among other things, considering local resolutions and ordinances, adopting an annual budget, and appointing members to local boards and committees. The Mayor is responsible for carrying out and enforcing the city's policies and ordinances. Day-to-day functions for the city are managed by City Administrator Ken Grimes.

The current Mayor is Frank Brocato. Current Council members are Gene Smith III, John Greene III, Kurt Posey, John Lyda, Mike Shaw, Derrick Murphy, and Casey Middlebrooks.

Public safety

In 2006, the police force of the city of Hoover began using 104 Chevrolet police Tahoes. With this change, the Hoover police department became the largest law enforcement fleet in the nation that runs on E85, a fuel that is 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. The change caught the attention of President George W. Bush, who visited the city in September 2006 to see the fleet and fueling facility.

Hoover operates its own 911 call center which has eight operator positions and is staffed 24/7.

Additionally, Hoover offers updates within the city on AM radio (1610 kHz) of traffic, severe weather, disaster information, and details on special events. It is a very low power station, however.

Demographics

As of the census of 2010, there were 81,619 people residing in the city. The population density was 1,693.0/mi². There were 35,474 housing units at an average density of 735.8/mi². The racial makeup of the city was 75% White, 15% African American, 5% Asian, and 3.2% from other races. 6% of the population was Hispanic or Latino of any race.

In 2000, there were 25,191 households out of which 33.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.4% were married couples living together, 7.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.9% were non-families. 25.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.47 and the average family size was 3.00.

In the city the population was spread out with 24.8% under the age of 18, 7.9% from 18 to 24, 32.6% from 25 to 44, 23.8% from 45 to 64, and 10.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 95.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.5 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $61,982, and the median income for a family was $79,912. Males had a median income of $55,660 versus $34,836 for females. The per capita income for the city was $33,361. About 2.1% of families and 3.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.7% of those under age 18 and 3.9% of those age 65 or over.

The Jefferson County Board of Equalization evaluated 12,386 homes in Hoover and determined that their average market value for 2007 was $256,730, a 6.4% increase since 2006.

Education

Hoover's city school system consists of ten elementary schools, three middle schools, and two high schools, Spain Park High School and Hoover High School. The 2005-2006 school year saw 11,433 students in the Hoover City School system. Hoover High School is the largest high school in Alabama by area. The Hoover High Bucs Football Team was the number one ranked football team in the United States for a time in 2006 and is the focus of the reality television program Two-A-Days, of which the first season aired on MTV in the fall of 2006. The second season of Two-A-Days began airing on January 30, 2007.

The Berry High School campus on Columbiana Road, which served as the city's first high school before the present Hoover High was constructed and then converted into a middle school, was closed after the 2005-2006 academic year, with students moved to a new Berry Middle School constructed near the site of Spain Park High School. Simmons Middle School and R. F. Bumpus Middle School are the city's other middle schools, whose students move on to Hoover High.

Media

The studios of ABC 33/40 lie within Hoover's city limits. WENN-FM is licensed to Hoover, but its studio is located in Birmingham.

Hoover is served by The Birmingham News, the state's largest newspaper. The portion of Hoover which lies in Shelby County is also served by the Shelby County Reporter, a weekly newspaper based in Columbiana, the county seat. During the 1990s another newspaper served the city of Hoover, the Hoover Outlook; this publication lasted only about 18 months. From June 2006 to August 2007, the city was served by The Hoover Gazette, a weekly newspaper.

Former Mayor Tony Petelos joined with Hoover business owners in a series of commercials that aired during news segments on WBRC 6, and he became known for using the slogan "Hoover's Happening!". His successor, Gary Ivey, continued the promotion, but replaced Petelos' slogan with his own, "Hoover is exceeding your expectations" tag line.

Points of interest

The Riverchase Galleria.

• Aldridge Gardens
• Moss Rock Preserve
• Regions Park
• Riverchase Galleria
• Patton Creek Shopping Center

References

• "Hoover, Alabama" (February 21, 2013) Wikipedia - accessed March 3, 2013
• Honea, Vadie. (n.d.) "Then & Now: A History of Hoover." City of Hoover - accessed February 6, 2007
• Anderson, Jon (March 2, 2013) "'Hoover's Happening' gets replaced with new city slogan in commercials." The Birmingham News
• Van der Bijl, Hanno (May 13, 2021) "Hoover, US Steel agreement would spur future growth." Birmingham Business Journal

External links

• City of Hoover
• Hoover Library
• Hoover City Schools