Lynn Greer/Florence Zoning

Rep. Lynn Greer or Rogersville is proposing eliminating tax on 401K profits. Great, but wouldn’t it be nice if he proposed eliminating tax on groceries? Alabama is one of several states which still tax the food that its citizens consume, it being such a luxury and all that.

Then there’s the bill to eliminate the Certificate of Need for new medical facilities in the state. Apparently it’s still lying about on Lynn Greer’s desk covered in Little Debbies.

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Florence is getting rid of several blighted properties. Kudos to those who are making it happen.

However, some of these properties are located next to each other, and that could present a problem. A few years ago, two or three homes were razed downtown to make way for an apartment complex. The area was previously zoned for apartments, so that wasn’t unexpected. What was unexpected was the shabbiness of the new edifice. Can’t Florence do better than that?

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Props to Katrina Simmons and Michelle Eubanks, two of Florence’s new council members, who’ll be writing updates on news from their districts. These updates will appear regularly in Pen-N-Sword; Ms. Eubanks has already published her first. Don’t you wish all local council members were as forthcoming?

While it’s early in the game, we haven’t seen any publications from Steve Holt on current activity in Florence. We will say that former Mayor Mickey Haddock was prompt at tooting both his and the city’s horn via the Florence One-Stop page…even to the point of occasionally touching on topics of real import. Let’s hope Mayor Holt continues that tradition.