1: Clean sweep – keeping out city clean
2. The City of Alabaster absorbs the Alabaster Water Board
3. Coach of the year – Judy Green
4. Alabaster Downtown Redevelopment Authority
1. Clean Sweep – Keeping Our City Clean
Clean Sweep 2026 is all about cleaning up and cleaning out
Clean Sweep Alabaster celebrates its 13th annual community wide shredding and Protec electronic recycling event on April 11 from 8 a.m. – noon at the Alabaster Senior Center by City Hall. Residents are encouraged to bring unwanted electronics for disposal and excess paper for shredding (visit cityofalabaster.com for details on what can and can’t be recycled). The cost is $25.00 for each TV and $10 for hard drive shredding
With the idea and innovation of city council member Stacy Rakestraw, she started planning and coordinating an annual volunteer litter pickup event for businesses, schools, organizations, and residents in 2012. Over the years, with the support of the Council, Mayor, and many city departments, that effort evolved under her leadership into Clean Sweep, a combination of electronics recycling, paper shredding, and road litter removal. In 2025 over 20 volunteers helped collect 4,400 pounds of unwanted electronics and 9,000 pounds of paper to shred. Another twenty volunteers collected twenty one bags of trash, plus 10 tires along the right of ways.
Volunteers help make this event a success from Beautification Board members, Thompson High School football players and ROTC cadets to City Council Members and more. “Our community is wonderful,” Rakestraw says. “So many volunteers with servant’s hearts.” Keller Williams Metro realtors Ashlee Springer McLaughlin and Tami Boyd are once again offering their support as sponsors. “Being a Realtor is so much more to me than selling a house. It’s selling a community and to me, community is everything,” Says Boyd. “I take as many opportunities as I can to be there and give back to the community.”
Community Service Program
The City of Alabaster Municipal Court supports Clean Sweep with a community service program which allows individuals to fulfill court-ordered obligations through supervised service like picking up litter. The court initiative alone helped remove 1,920 bags of litter in 2024 and 1,811 bags in 2025.
Safety
Safety is an important issue at all times. Litter gatherers are protected by an Alabaster police officer, and at times the fire department will send a battalion chief or fire truck to follow them. Volunteers commit to cleaning one mile of roadway on each side of their designated area. The city provides trash bags, gloves, safety vests, and water.
Litter Gitter and Litter Boom
The city has a Litter Gitter and a Litter Boom in Buck Creek which traps trash and debris flowing down the waterway. In 2024 and 2025 the city removed 2,700 and 3,549 pounds of muck from the creek.
Free Landfill Day and Recycle Event: Saturday March 28th 7:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m at 401 Landfill Road, Columbiana 35051
Recycle Materials
- Cardboard
- Aluminum
- Plastic
- Scrap Metal
Extra Junk and Rubbish Dates
Additional junk and rubbish pickup dates this spring are on 4/6 and 4/20. Alabaster residents can sign up two weeks in advance of the Monday they choose at https://cityofalabaster.com/460/Household-Junk-and-Rubbish-Information or simply drop by City Hall at 1953 Municipal Way to register in person.
Paper Shredding Limits and Accepted Items for E-Recycling
Paper shredding limit: 5 file-box-size limit per resident (15″ x 12″ x 10″). Paper documents can be put in plastic trash bags. Documents are securely shredded on-site. To watch documents be shredded, park and watch the screen on the side of the truck as they are shredded. Otherwise, drive through, and volunteers will unload items to be recycled.
Electronic Recycling is free for electronic devices, wires, metal shelves, and filing cabinets. Visit cityof alabaster.com for more details.
2: The City of Alabaster absorbs the Alabaster Water Board.
By Barry Wise Smith
Fred Hawkins came to Alabaster in 2019 as city engineer—he has a civil engineering degree from Auburn—to oversee the city’s engineering and zoning department. With
decades of professional experience on the design and construction of transportation, water, sanitary sewer, storm drainage, and site development projects in Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee, Hawkins quickly had things added to his plate—city services like sewer, garbage, and large municipal construction projects—and his title changed to Director of Environmental, Building and Engineering Services. But in January, when the city of Alabaster took over Alabaster Water and the Water Board, Hawkins added another title to his business card—interim General Manager of the Water Board.
Since its inception, the Alabaster Water Board has operated independently of the city with the City Council appointing its members, including three councilors who also served on the board. In late 2025, the Executive Director of the Alabaster Water Board resigned to take a job in another state, prompting Mayor Scott Brakefield to request that the City Council and the Water Board consider allowing the city to take over the Water Board and make the utility a city department. On January 12, the Water Board voted to approve the city taking over, and the City Council subsequently approved the action.
After Hawkins was appointed as the interim general manager, he began to focus on finding efficiencies to streamline processes and be advantageous to customers. “My job is to find out how we can save money for the rate payers,” Hawkins says. “We saw immediately that we could consolidate certain services (like IT, HR, and others) that the city already has so that we could save money and stabilize water rates. We think in the near term, we will see substantial savings in operating costs while optimizing service to the citizens.” With the new system and the takeover, there will also be adjustments made to the leadership structure of the city affecting both Hawkins and the city administrator.
While Hawkins was already overseeing the city’s sewage treatment plant, he had a learning curve associated with taking over a new utility. “The good news is that we’re taking over something that’s not broken. The service to the customers has been good,” Hawkins says. “We have great people here. This is new to me, but I know that we can get this done.” Alabaster Water has 35 employees who will remain once the city takeover is complete.
The next deadline for the transition is on March 1 when a transfer agreement has to be signed by the Water Board and the City Council agreeing to the terms of the transfer. Alabaster Water is also in the middle of a water meter change out that is about 60 percent complete. “We’re shifting to more modern meters that provide leak detection and are more accurate than the old meters,” Hawkins says.
Hawkins is excited about the new professional challenge for himself but also for the rate payers. “The reason I can do all of this successfully is because of the team that I have at the city,” he says. “I think when it’s all said and done, this will be a win all around.”
3. Coach of the year – Judy Green
Thompson High School head volleyball coach Judy Green was named the 2025 Shelby County Coach of the Year after leading the Warriors to their first-ever state championship appearance. Green, who took over the program in 2015, guided the team to a dominant 2025 season and a return to the state tournament.
4. Alabaster Downtown Redevelopment Authority
There have been so many awesome success stories since the Alabaster Downtown Redevelopment Authority was founded a few years ago to support the city’s existing businesses!
If you own a business in Alabaster, we want to help you with grant funding!
The Alabaster Downtown Redevelopment Authority is seeking applicants for its facade grant program. The program is open to businesses within a 3-mile radius of the future recreation center (near the intersection of Highway 119 and Thompson Road), and helps cover the costs of renovating/beautifying existing businesses in the city.
Businesses can learn more about the program and apply online at: www.cityofalabaster.com/624/Alabaster-Downtown-Redevelopment-Authori