By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Incumbent Ward 1 Alabaster City Councilwoman Sophie Martin cited a desire to continue progress in the ward and the city over the next four years when announcing her re-election bid to the seat.

On June 1, Martin said she plans to qualify to run for re-election once the candidate qualifying period opens on July 5.

“Tremendous progress has been made in Ward 1. I want to continue to work hard for the residents to continue that progress,” Martin said during a phone interview. “This is not my seat. It’s the peoples’ seat, and I don’t take that for granted. It’s an honor for me to have the opportunity to represent them, and it’s something I take very seriously.”

Martin has been serving on the City Council since 2008, and currently serves as council president pro-tem, as director of the Alabaster Water Board and as a member of the Alabaster Arts Council.

She is on the board of directors for Easter Seals of Birmingham, serves on the United Way of Central Alabama’s Shelby County Campaign Cabinet and is president of the Alabaster Lions Club.

She currently works as the corporate communications media manager for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama.

Martin said during her tenure on the council, the city has demolished about a dozen abandoned and dilapidated houses in Ward 1, has solved multiple flooding issues in neighborhoods in the ward, has improved the Shelby County 11 corridor and has completed phase one of the Alabaster Boulevard repair project.

Martin said she was proud to work with the council to form the Alabaster City School System in 2012.

“As a city, starting our own school system was the best decision we could have made,” Martin said.

She said several Ward 1 projects currently are in the planning stages, including constructing bus stop shelters, completing phase two of the Alabaster Boulevard repair project and establishing a Christian community outreach center off Shelby County 11 serving all of Alabaster and Shelby County.

Alabaster’s municipal elections will be held on Aug. 23 at the Alabaster First United Methodist Church’s Restore building.