~ COMMENTS ON VILLAGE CREEK ~

Birmingham and Jefferson County, Alabama

by R. S. Woodruff

     During the past 50 years, generally though the media, I became quite aware of this creeks continuing floods and their disastrous effects on people and industry. It is right in the middle of an urban community that developed on its banks. It is, of course, the natural drainage way and is of major importance to the area.

     My long time experience, now retired, as a civil engineer in the planning and designing of dams and power plants on the river of Alabama for the Alabama Power Company might be of some help to the city and county in the "taming" of this creek.

     As a child I was fascinated by my uncle's home made paddle wheels turning in a farm creek on a Sunday afternoon. In the mid 90's I began to visit and study this creek. It was a "natural" that I became associated with a group working to improve its people problems. So, the Village Creek Human and Environmental Justice Society came into existence and of my pro bona life.

Article on the First Major Donor & Technical Director

     In 1978, Woodruff retired from Southern Company Services as manager of hydro plant planning. Semi-retired, he now provides planning and engineering services to Hendon Engineering Associates Inc. in Vestavia Hills [Birmingham]. The company provides waste water and water supply consulting services.

     For the past 11 years, Woodruff has volunteered with ASCE's program to introduce civil engineering to school-age children.

     He also volunteers his engineering services to the Village Creek Human and Enviornmental Justice Society. He serves as the nonprofit organization's technical director. The society's purpose is to reduce the periodic flooding of Village Creek, which extends from Roebuck to Ensley, passing through the Birmingham International Airport and industrial dowtown.

     As an ASCE volunteer, Woodruff is involved in a coloring contest for fourth-graders in Jefferson County schools. the ASCE judges the projects, and the winning class gets a field trip to an engineering project.

     This past year, Woodruff escorted the children to Logan Marin Dam in Talladega, which he helped build. The children are awed by the field trips, Woodruff said. "They are impressed by the size of the equipment and the huge turbines and how the power gets to their homes."

     Growing up in Binghamton, N.Y., he said he always wanted to be a civil engineer. "I liked structures, especially power lines, steel structures and towers," he said. "They fascinated me. They were becoming a prominent part of the landscape, and i liked the lattice framework of towers."

     Woodruff had hoped to enter Cornell University but could not afford it. Instead, he headed south for The University of Alabama, where he graduated in 1937 with a civil engineering degree.