Montevallo city leaders and residents met last night at the Orr Park building to discuss the city&8217;s future.

The meeting was hosted by the Shelby County Development Service Department and the City of Montevallo for public input on updating the city&8217;s comprehensive plan.

The goals of the meeting were to discuss the results of earlier public involvement efforts, future public involvement meetings and a time frame for upcoming project milestones.

Montevallo Chamber of Commerce President Ben McCrory encouraged everyone to attend the meetings, saying they were extremely important to Montevallo&8217;s future.

And Mr. McCrory is correct: Montevallo is at a crossroads right now. Development and growth are proving a challenge at times. The city leadership is charged with handling the growth while still keeping the Montevallo&8217;s small town charm and appeal.

Just last week, an engineer for the Montevallo Water and Sewer Board, told the board that the city is only 600 sewer connections away from reaching 90 percent of its capacity. This comes at a time when the city&8217;s Planning and Zoning Board has approved the construction of 1,600 homes; houses that once built will have to connect to the city&8217;s sewer system.

Obviously, Montevallo leaders are going to have to get innovative in managing this growth. It&8217;s great that the leaders value their resident&8217;s opinions enough to have public forums, so anyone and everyone can have a say in what direction the city will go. Now, it is up to residents to actually attend future meeting-not only in Montevallo, but also across the county. You shouldn&8217;t complain when you had the opportunity to give your opinion and chose not to.