Billy Hammock/He Said What?

It may be a toss-up as to which local election is the most heated, but certainly the race with the most candidates is that for Lauderdale County license commissioner. We’ve recently run a short platform from Tony Cox. Today we present Billy Hammock’s:

I am a lifetime resident of Lauderdale County and a 28-year business owner, commercial property owner and homeowner. I am married to Brandi Clark Hammock who has been a resident of Lauderdale County for 26 years. We are members and attend Eastside Church of Christ. 

I have been a jeweler for 31 years of which I have owned my current business Creative Jewelers for 28 years. I am a graduate of the Gemological Institute of America, and have thirteen certificates in the jewelry industry. In 2010, I won an international award from one of the world’s largest jewelry manufacturers for innovation in the jewelry industry. I am a supporter of our local university UNA by being the title sponsor for the Miss UNA Pageant, among other events at the university.

To date, I have had the opportunity to leverage a relatively high profile as a Historic Downtown Florence business owner (seen and heard often over the years on television and radio) to the service of the community, acting as Board Chair of the Florence Main Street business development non-profit; Chapter President of the BNI business networking group; Board of Directors of Downtown Florence Unlimited (DFU); Board of Directors of Attention Home; and a longstanding member and participant in a number of other civic organizations.

Over the decades, I’ve seen how attentive and committed city and county officials can inspire robust commercial development and position our residential communities as desirable alternatives to larger, high-cost cities in adjacent counties.

To that end, I am seeking to become an even more active and deeply involved participant in the county’s future growth – and feel that the position of County License Commissioner would allow me to become part of the team moves Lauderdale County into a bright and vibrant future.

*****

There’s an old saying—“consider the source.” Most of us do that in many ways almost every day. We expect more of a teenager than a child, just as we expect more of an adult than we do of the adolescent. What about those who present themselves as role models? Those who lead large numbers of students? Don’t we expect more from them, especially those who present themselves as qualified educators?

Certainly we all make mistakes from time to time when we speak off the cuff, but not all mistakes are equal. A noted local educator was quoted in the TimesDaily recently. This is what he said:

 Not too long ago, me and my son had some work to do

We felt like that old movie ad with Nathan Lane in La Cage aux Folles (How do you think I feel? Betrayed, bewildered...); this is the principal of Mars Hill Bible School speaking?



Shoalanda