Your Town Alabama: Designing Our Future

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Chief Billy Hewitt of Tarrant, 2005 Your Town Alabama Graduate

What did you learn from the workshop that you’ve used?
I suppose the biggest thing I got out of the workshops was networking. Being able to talk with people from other municipalities who had already gone down the roads we’re facing in Tarrant. Hearing the success stories—those models helped me to keep from reinventing the wheel. Knowing something had worked in another community really helped us to convince people that it would work for us.

What did you think the best part of the workshop was?
I think that certainly the quality of the presentations was outstanding and up-to-date. Having experts in the field was great. I’d also say again that the networking and the team working were so helpful. In our project, a diverse group that didn’t know each other before the workshop, we all were able to work together. Everyone had insight and input. To be successful and produce something to be proud of was very valuable.

What didn’t you find useful or thought could be improved?
I couldn’t really find anything—I like the fact that the workshop was isolated. We could focus on why we were there. I don’t know of anything—it was a good experience—the food, the learning, everything was good.

What brought you back to Tarrant?
It was an opportunity to come home. I felt I could make a difference in a small city. After I completed a master’s program at Birmingham-Southern College in 1995, I wanted to put the education I got to work. The old saying that “If you aren’t the lead dog, the view doesn’t change a lot” was feeling particularly true. My wife at the time had 22 years in the Tarrant school system (she has since retired) and my daughter was a sophomore in high school. I was able to move my career ahead and not move my family from the community I loved. Instead, I was able to work in the community I lived in.  I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished in the years I’ve been here. All the firefighters have worked hard—our fire department has gone from a rating of class 5 to a rating of class 2 (that’s a good benchmark—they aren’t any class 1’s in Alabama. The ratings are used for lots of things—for instance, they help to lower insurance costs.

What are some of the projects you’ve been involved with since coming back from the workshop?
It was great to go to Your Town—our mayor attended with me. We learned from others and we’ve now got several ongoing projects. One is the Five Mile Creek Partnership—this partnership is important to the area, and to Tarrant. It crosses through multiple municipalities. The goal is a twenty-eight mile greenway along Five Mile Creek. The creek was once nicknamed creosote creek. Now, the designation has changed from industrial to fish and wildlife—we’ve built a park and are building the greenway. This park/greenway project has provided excitement and spurred some economic initiatives. We now have a Downtown Redevelopment Authority. We’ve done a historic survey to preserve the historic areas. We’re working to remove some of the blighted areas.

We’re actually bringing the greenway through the center of town. Although Tarrant has several ball fields and other parks, we’ve never had something like this. The connectivity to the center of town is tremendous. The final park will be a linear park that connects City Hall, our public library, the middle school, elementary school, senior center and high school. We acquired an aqua duct that had been held by the Birmingham Water Works for over 100 years. It runs parallel to Five Mile Creek. During one of the annual cleanups in the area held in conjunction with lots of partners (CAWACO, Alabama Power, the surrounding communities and so many volunteers, just to name a few) we worked in the city of Brookside. That day, we collected 14.5 tons of debris—all in one day. Then, last May, the cleanup came to Tarrant. Because this is a multi-jurisdictional project, Birmingham sent workers and equipment to Tarrant. Having more than one community working together can make so much more happen. This Saturday, we’ll go to Birmingham at Huffman High school There is a wetland development there. There is a cross walk to be constructed. We’ll do cleanup from Huffman High to Grayson Park—that’s about a 1.5 mile stretch that we’ll clean debris from. On the 14th when all the volunteers converged on Tarrant last year, we did what was basically an extreme makeover on the park. The mayor and city council were part of the cleanup and afterwards, they named the park the Chief William C. “Billy” Hewitt Park. My 80-year old mom and 84-year old dad were here that day—it was a really good day for me. It wasn’t necessary, or something I expected, but it was certainly appreciated. This project was, though, never about me. Tarrant had gotten into a downward slide. This project has provided the stimulus for hope, really. People are beginning to buy in and volunteer.

We’re working on the greenway and hope to eventually connect with Fultondale via an abandoned railroad.
In addition to that, we’re working to revitalize some brownsfields properties that are eyesores. Hope to clean those up and improve those.

There are always naysayers—the park will be trashed. It will bring more crime. We’ve all heard the negative things said about plans like these. But, now that it is done, everyone is enthusiastic about the park and the greenway.

What would you like to see Your Town do in the future?
For one thing, I’d really like to see Your Town reach out to the school boards across the state. We have an independent school board. The school board folks are great people and want to do great things, but some of them haven’t been exposed to the concepts that Your Town provides. For instance, it isn’t always better to have huge schools. I’d like to see school boards targeted more to be a part of the planning that happens in the community. Have an opportunity for the education. Then, they can make choices based on best practices.

What do you want Tarrant to look like when you’re done?
Actually, I have some design folks that have created my vision of Tarrant. We’ve had recreational parks in our city—we have some ball fields. They are isolated and were placed on property that maybe wasn’t useful for anything else. To have a community park that is visible. To do streetscaping. Revitalization. The linear park. To be able to showcase the economic benefits of having a livable city. If we can do that, then I’ll be very happy.

If you got a chance to tell the world about Tarrant, what are the top 5 things you’d tell them about?

1. I’m proud of our Fire Dept. and public safety in general. The city invests a good portion into public safety. We get lots of thank you cards and few complaints as a result.
2. The Five Mile Creek Greenway project and park project. So important to the area. Important to Jefferson County.
3. We have historically had a fine school system—a blue ribbon school in the recent past. We have excellent teachers and I’d want to brag on them.
4. The administration that we currently have in Tarrant—I’m so pleased that they are not just supportive but truly helpful. They’ve allowed us to pursue every avenue for improvement. Acquisition of property for linear parks, etc. All those things—they’ve really been supportive. As an employee I can only do what I’m allowed to do. As a team, we’re doing comprehensive planning and so much more. We‘ve done downtown redevelopment. We’re in the implementation phase.
5. We currently are working with Freshwater Land Trust and private investors on a water quality and flood mitigation project. Very important. With the creek, there is the danger of flooding. We have an opportunity to do something truly tremendous in Tarrant and that’s very exciting.

Above and Immediately Below: Cleanup and Work on the park that became the Chief William C. "Billy" Hewitt Park.

Below: The park before the cleanup. What can't we accomplish with a little vision!