Ouida Fritschi

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Ouida Fritschi (born January 23, 1945 in Toledo, Ohio) is a community activist, best known locally through the Homewood Citizens Association.

After growing up in Ohio, Fritschi met her husband, Bruno, at Colorado State University. The couple moved to Homewood in 1969. Fritschi earned her B.S. in psychology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in 1975. She later worked for the Drug Abuse Program at UAB and as a medical psychologist with the Child and Youth Program. The couple now have three adult children.

In writing the newsletter for the Homewood Citizens Association (HCA), founded in 1979, Fritschi asked a Homewood city councilor about an issue and was given the wrong information, which she later discovered by doing more research. At that point, she decided to get correct information about what was going on in city government, she had to personally attend the City Council and committee meetings. She did so for about 30 years, letting others in Homewood know what was going on through the HCA newsletter.

In 1988, Fritschi ran for City Council, advancing to a run off which she lost.

On December 6, 1998, Fritschi began hosting a show called "On the Hot Seat" on WEDA-FM that discussed issues affecting Homewood residents. Fritschi was a partner in Homewood Radio, which started the station.

Fritschi has been involved in many organizations, including presidency of the Alabama Environmental Council in the 2000s. She served as Homewood's representative on the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority from 2002 to 2005 and is currently the chairman of the Birmingham Metropolitan Planning Organization's Transportation Citizens Committee (since at least 2005). She also serves as a citizen representative of the Progress 280 Task Force.

In February 2010, Fritschi sent out the final HCA newsletter. The group's founders had moved on and she was planning to spend summers in Vermont each year. With no one stepping up to take her place, she decided to sign off.

References

  • "Metro Briefs". (December 16, 1998). The Birmingham News, page 2-S .
  • Scales, Tom. (May 5, 1999). "Homewood's Ouida Fritschi airs local issues Sundays on WEDA". The Birmingham News, page 1-S.
  • Haden, Courtney. (March 3, 2010). "About 31 years, as the gad flies". Birmingham Weekly.

External links

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