Brookside Town Clerk Debbie Keedy works at her desk at the new complex. Keedy said she appreciated having more room at the new location.

By Adam Smith

The North Jefferson News



Most of Brookside’s old town hall is now gone.

With the exception of one mobile home, the rest of the trailers that made up the town’s government facility have been removed.

The trailers were brought in after a May 2003 flood left most of the town devastated.

Houses were destroyed, forcing families to find shelter elsewhere. In addition to town hall, the few businesses in the town were also forced to close after Five Mile Creek overran its banks.

After the flood waters subsided, a new day began to dawn in Brookside, once known as a rough and tumble mining town. Recovery funds began to trickle in from Jefferson County, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and insurance companies. The town also aggressively sought out grant money from sources like the United States Department of Agriculture.

Last December, work began on Brookside’s new municipal complex, located on Brookside-Coalburg Road. More than nine months later, the complex was completed. Brookside’s nine full-time employees reported to work at the new facility on Sept. 29.

The town will hold an open house ceremony on Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. to celebrate the grand opening of the complex.

“Everybody’s excited, but it’s a little bit sad to move out of old Brookside,” said Mayor Roger McCondichie. “It’s a new beginning. I don’t know what’s coming down the road, but it has to be good.”

The new town hall was patterned after Brookside’s own Russian Orthodox Church. The town hall houses McCondichie’s office, in addition to the council chambers, pre-council meeting room, water department, police department and two jail cells.

“We have so much more room,” said town clerk Debbie Keedy, a 24-year employee. “I actually have places to file things without having to put them on the floor.”

Chairs in the council chambers and other furniture and paintings throughout the civic complex were donated to the town from a State Farm office on Lakeshore Drive in Birmingham.

The interior walls of the mayor’s office and council chambers are a crimson color. McCondichie said the color choice was not lost on one of his fellow council members, Dennis Cordell, a Tennessee Volunteers fan.

“He told me, ‘I’m going to get one of these walls painted orange,’” McCondichie said. “I told him, ‘You don’t have enough votes for that.’”

Other structures that comprise the 10-acre complex include a community center and a building that was designated to be the town’s new post office.

However, McCondichie said it’s not certain if the post office will be able to relocate to the new site because of the national economic downturn. However, he said he’s optimistic that a compromise can be reached.

Another building yet to be built is the town’s new $425,000 fire station. The project went out for bid this month and the winning bid will be announced at an Oct. 28 Jefferson County Commission meeting.

The civic complex structure that McCondichie is the most proud of is one that sits below the other buildings — a tornado shelter. The town received $600,000 from FEMA in 2006 to build the shelter, which can accommodate up to 300 residents and includes restrooms and generators for emergency power.

McCondichie hopes the next phase for the complex will bring a new Boys and Girls Club and possibly some retail development.

“I think everybody’s pleased with what’s going on,” he said. “The flood was bad, but you can put a positive slant on anything negative. I never dreamed we’d have anything like this.”