The Real George Grabryan?

Before his appointment as director of the Lauderdale EMA, George Grabryan was a detective with the Florence Police Department. Does that fact make him immune to dishonest behavior? No, but in our experience police officers are either extremely honest, by-the-book individuals or of "the law doesn't apply to me" school of thought. Looking at Mr. Grabryan's record, we would consider him the former.

Several months ago, we began receiving e-mails, ostensibly from several readers, who had questions concerning Grabryan and his job performance. From the questions we tactfully asked our contacts, we gathered Mr. Grabryan had never been involved in anything more controversial than the selection of NorthStar as the county's ambulance service. Was there anything suspicious about his preference?

We think the answer to that question is no. Mr. Grabryan may have preferred a service that some felt was inferior, and was perhaps in fact inferior, but that has nothing to do with Mr. Grabryan's honesty or integrity. If indeed his judgment was flawed in this matter, is that grounds for dismissal?

Why then is Lauderdale Commissioner Rhea Tays Fulmer requesting that Grabryan resign? Her 90 minute barrage of charges offered little concrete evidence of malfeasance. We're sure that Mr. Grabryan, being human, has made mistakes on the job, but what would prompt Fulmer to engage in what many would deem a witch hunt? Did she just look at George Grabryan one day and decide she didn't like him? We doubt that.

Obviously someone has been more than willing to poison Fulmer's opinion of Grabryan, but why? Either someone has a very strong dislike for Mr. Grabryan or someone would benefit if the current EMA/911 director left the scene...or perhaps both.

If Mrs. Fulmer and the would-be puppeteer have no more evidence of George Grabryan's shortcomings than what was presented at the last commission meeting, the current EMA director should be lauded, not asked to resign.

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Melody Court? A reader suggested this mid-twentieth century Lauderdale landmark was located at Emerald Beach. A quick search of TimesDaily archives found a reference to the restaurant/dance hall as being eight miles east of Florence--or approximately the distance to Emerald Beach.

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Streit Dairy in Sheffield? Who knew those old bottles would be so valuable? Link

Shoalanda