What's Going On in Tuscumbia?

From a Tuscumbian:

The City of Tuscumbia refinanced bonds to get money for much needed things such as infrastructure and paving of streets. That’s all well and good but just a few questions for our Super Six…

Would you truthfully tell us where the money is really going please?

Since taking office:

1) The mayor and council had to borrow $400,000 from a local bank to pay the city’s bills.

2) The mayor and council approved a deal with Sheffield Mayor Sanford to spend six thousand dollars, (yes that’s $6,000 dollars) for a corridor study on Hook Street to benefit Sheffield’s proposed Inspiration Landing (which is there but you can’t see it).

3) The mayor and council hired a Mr. Edwards to maintain the city website supposedly at $600 per month. Edwards has now convinced the Super Six to allow him to hire 2 PAID, (yes PAID) interns to help him. Either local college could have provided a website director and interns at NO COST to the taxpayer. What’s really going on here? Isn’t Mr. Edwards the man who was the mayor’s campaign manager in 2016? So now, we as taxpayers, are having to pay him back. Shameful! 

4) The mayor and council have now hired a firm to attract business to the city for a nominal fee of $40,000 per year. When campaigning for the mayor position, Mr. Underwood touted his ability to bring businesses to the city. Well, where are all these new businesses? 

5) The mayor and council just voted to purchase 11 vehicles for the police department from State Troopers. Last time I checked we only have 3 or 4 officers and that number can change depending on whether a sister city is hiring. So what are we going to do with 11 police cars? Does each officer get 3 vehicles to interchange so the mileage is kept low.

6) We still have some of the lowest paid city employees in the area!

7) No streets have been paved!

8) No new infrastructure! Although, the mayor did have brick crosswalks at some intersections, so maybe that could be counted as infrastructure.

9) The mayor and council have purchased a bus for the city to transport the hundreds of daily tourists who flood the streets of Tuscumbia. Those elusive tourists are as invisible as the “Inspiration Landing”.

10) The mayor and council have now voted to give $2500 for a Music Cities Study that will benefit a development in Huntsville known as Mid City Huntsville.

Mr. Mayor and Honorable City Council, where are your priorities? We have a spending problem in our quaint little town. This 2.4 million you have garnered from the bond issue will soon be gone so what’s your solution then? It’s embarrassing to say the least how you SIX are handling the finances and needs of our city. We expected more from your Mr. Underwood. We expected more from you Mr. Foster. We expected more from you Mr. Smart. And we definitely expected more from you Mr. Isom. For the other two, oh well…

Thank goodness our dear friend Mayor Bill Shoemaker is not here to see what you Super Six are doing to this town. Bill was a man who cared about the needs of the people but he was also an honest man who would tell you that the town just didn’t have the funds to blow on foolish things such as a city website director, paid interns, studies to benefit other towns, buying more police cars than you have officers when you can’t pay the officers a decent wage, buying a bus or paying $40,000 for a recruiting firm who says it can bring business to your city. Sad but true and to say we are truly disappointed in the mayor and the council is a gross understatement. Have you forgotten who you were elected to serve? 

We’ll remind you in 2020 if things don’t change!