Yesterday Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato celebrated the 50 year anniversary of Hoover’s incorporation by burying a time capsule full of treasures.

What Goes in a Time Capsule?

The City of Hoover, the Hoover Historical society, and each school in the Hoover school district contributed items to the time capsule.

Items included newspapers, personal items from previous mayors, Hoover Public Library brochures, original renderings for Riverchase Galleria, a Chick-fil-A menu, pictures of the first City Hall, artwork by students, programs for school events, yearbooks, and school t-shirts.

To commemorate the special day, Mayor Brocato invited Paras Ahuja and Anna Claire Johnson, students at Spain Park and Hoover high school, to speak about the influence Hoover has had on them.

They did a great job!

Who knew the mayor could be so cool?!

Before Mayor Brocato was elected last August, he was Hoover’s longest serving firefighter. He served for 42 years! (Round of applause)

When I asked him how he planned to use his years of experience in his new position as mayor, he answered

Now that I’m the mayor [I realize] that…so many of the things I’m dealing with today I had the opportunity to deal with in the fire department. I use that every day…It’s about managing people, it’s about having good relationships with individuals, and just working as a team…It seems to be a good formula to me.

I was curious so I asked the mayor what makes a good leader. He stated,

You have to be responsive, be able to communicate with people, to make hard decisions and see how those decisions affect the big picture and the individual. You have to accept that you can’t do everything. Build a great team around yourself with people who know what they’re doing and let them do their jobs.

One of Mayor Brocato main goal’s in office is to make Hoover a better place to live. He’s hired a city planner to help make Hoover more walkable and to give it more green space.

His other big platform is education. He said Hoover school district’s biggest challenge right now is their growth. Schools are reaching their maximum limits. They will have to focus on keeping up school infrastructure and are looking into building another school.

Mayor Brocato has lined up several events to celebrate Hoover this year and plans to make its future even brighter.