Cherokee Tightens, Not Lightens, Up

From C.R. who was present at the Cherokee Council budget meeting last night:

Cherokee Council Meeting

At the end of the Cherokee Council Meeting I do not believe one person in attendance was happy with the outcome of the council meeting. The Cherokee City Council started to cut programs and showed no emotion while severely changing the lives of their employees and citizens of the city. This day could go down in history as the day the City of Cherokee buried itself.

The City Council members known as the Burger King Four, Mason, Glover, Malone, and Franks moved with precision to cut all health benefits to every employee. The Council voted to cut off the monthly payments to employees that decline health benefits, fuel for the rescue squad and fire departments, and cut two hundred and fifty dollars out of the city’s library monthly payments. The council put the police chief on salary and cut overtime to the police department.

Consequences

When a city starts to cut the benefits of its employees it normally does not take long to see good employees leave and rejects show up in their place.

Representatives from the fire department have said that the fire department budgets are tight and losing the fuel funding could cause the department to sell a fire truck. This could cause the ISO Rating to go up and insurance rates to climb. It took a lot of hard work and years of sweat to get the ISO rating lowered and could take years to get it lowered back again.

With the library funds being cut back what will happen to the library’s hours? Will this have an effect on the children in the area?

Both Sides

One might say everyone brought on their own demise. The fire department should have learned to save fuel, not waste it, and should have never overextended its budget. If the city was not paying a fire truck payment, the city might be able to pay for the fuel. The police department should have written more tickets and someone could have discovered the fraud at the library sooner. The city council could have done more to bring more business to the city.

Special Called Meeting

The Cherokee Fire Department is calling a special meeting to discuss the cuts to funding by the city council. I encourage all city council members and the Cherokee citizens to attend the meeting and learn about this serious situation. I encourage the fire department to open up its books and let the citizens see what is going on and help them to see how devastating the cut is.

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Dawn Fountain has commented on J.J. Ray's recent post: The fire and rescue squad was observed meeting in a Tuscumbia restaurant on Monday without Mayor Señor De La Viagra. Something must be amiss in the quaint village.

According to Ms. Fountain: The meeting between 4 Cherokee Rescue Squad members including myself, Dawn Fountain, was with a East Colbert Rescue Squad member and was in reference to the State AARS meeting that the two squads will be hosting together in February.

We assume Mayor/Chief Lansdell is not connected to the planning of the festivities. Apologies to Ms. Fountain for the mistake. J.J. contributes many articles of interest to our blog and we will attest to any errors being innocent on his part.

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Speaking of J.J., we understand he's about to officially begin his blog at The Connection. If you haven't been reading the Internet mag's humor columnist Collette, you've been missing all too hard to find wit...we're already hearing her referred to as Alabama's Erma Bombeck.

Getting Older & Other Joys

You also might want to check out The Brown Recluse who's having a photo challenge. We're going to leave that to those more talented than we, but thanks to Margaret for a great concept.

Several commented they couldn't get the link to work to the new blog Ripples From Sweetwater Mansion. This should take you there: Link

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New video of the West Texas Waltz (first seven minutes--bet you can't watch without smiling):





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