10,000 LIkes/Followers!

A few weeks ago, our Facebook page hit 10,000 followers. Earlier today, our page racked up 10,000 likes. 

According to Blogger stats, in 11 years of publishing, we have just over 6,303,000 page views. Thanks to each one of you who reads our blog!

Unrest in Sheffield City Schools

Subtitle: What Is Keith Davis Thinking?!!!

When Gov. Ivey closed brick and mortar schools for the term, we (silly us) thought that she meant the schools were closed. Apparently Sheffield Superintendent Keith Davis didn't quite see it that way. He almost immediately introduced plans for a "day camp" for children aged 6 to 12 whose parents were essential crisis employees.

Official policy has stated that sick children will not be allowed. We have to ask: If most children are asymptomatic of the "plague," how will anyone know who is infected and who isn't?

Yet, this is not the reason for the most recent Mt. St. Sheffield eruption of irate teachers. No, it seems Supt. Davis now wants all teachers in place in their rooms to teach remotely. Again, silly us, have we misunderstood the meaning of the word "quarantine" all these years?

According to an informed source, the AEA has been called in. Good! If ever any teachers needed backup, it would seem to be the ones in the Sheffield system. 

What in the world is Davis thinking? Ah, political posturing...you gotta love it!

Veterans Park to Host Tent City for Homeless

Crossroads Community Outreach, Room in the Inn & Sunrise Center Executive Directors came up with a great proposal that was presented to the homeless care council & approved by the mayor, city council in coordination with FPD & Florence Park & Rec. The ladies worked out the logistics (see attached) & It is now in full effect.

Crossroads Community Outreach is the only full time day center that the homeless will go to during the day for showers, clothing & connection to other services like assistance with housing, employment & applications to other available benefits & services.

Room at the Table & other churches & community members are helping the agencies coordinate to-go meals & sack lunches.

Tents, sleeping bags, supplies etc is coordinated by the agencies.

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Ashley Smith <hccnwal@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Mar 25, 2020, 3:13 PM
Subject: RE: Proposal
To: Room in the Inn Shoals <roomintheinnshoals@gmail.com>, Dale Cohen <dcohen@umcna.org>
Cc: <crossroadsagencyllc@gmail.com>, Courtney Mckinnon <SunriseCenterSheffield@gmail.com>

Hello all,

Great news. The Mayor and City Council have approved this proposal.  The old campgrounds at Veterans Park can be available for tents for the homeless, starting as early as today.

A few details:

This will last 2 weeks, from March 26-April 9 (they may go today, but official date is tomorrow, so that the 2 wks goes through April 9)

Tents will be provided by your agencies, the community, etc, as outlined in the proposal

The City will provide a dumpster at the location

The City will provide a few port a potties at the location

The showers are not functional

Lots of hand sanitizer needs to be provided!

A few questions we have:

Will food be provided? COORDINATED EFFORT THRU THE AGENCIES & COMMUNITY PARTNERS

How will the homeless guests get to the campground? CROSSROADS IS TRANSPORTING

As far as getting word out to the homeless population, I assume the best way is through your agencies and people. I am more than happy to also post on the HCC facebook page, or any other means of communication that would be helpful. Let’s keep this email thread open and going, so we know what steps happen next.

Great idea to do this. Please let me know what else I can do to help.

Ashley

Ashley Smith

Executive Director

Homeless Care Council of Northwest Alabama

Actual Photo of Camp - Florence Doing Something Right!

Lauderdale 24-Hour Curfew Next?

Marion County has now initiated a 24 hour curfew on non-essential travel. We had somewhat expected Lauderdale County to announce such restrictions at its Friday morning news conference; however, as of now, there are few restrictions for citizens...only for businesses.

How such a curfew would be enforced or what punishment would be for those who flouted the curfew is unknown. How would the Shoals react?

We're hoping the majority is already remaining at home in the interest of everyone's health. What about non-health issues? Here's an interesting article on what intrusions society may be facing:

Coronavirus and Civil Liberties

April is going to be an interesting month...

Complaints About Non-Essential Medical Treatment

Two readers have sent us questions about non-essential businesses remaining open, mainly the therapeutic massage emporiums which would be considered a luxury by many. Perhaps Gov. Ivey's most recent edict on non-essential businesses will take care of that.

Do establishments which remain open show little regard for human life? We think these businesses are not fully understanding the risks of COVID-19. Unfortunately, we know some businesses will defy any order to close. It's Amurika!

We've also gotten quite a few complaints/comments about the new day care service initiated by the Sheffield City Schools System. Is this putting school personnel and perhaps children in danger? Send us your thoughts.

Why Sheffield Won't Take Them Till They're Six

No More Teachers' Dirty Looks, No More Legislative Crooks?

It's official: Alabama children are out of traditional school for the year. Our sympathies to all parents...

And you can't say our legislature is wasting any time adjourning for a month. From the Montgomery Advertiser:

The Alabama House of Representatives adjourned to a date uncertain on Thursday after failing to muster a quorum.

Sen. Tim Melson has said the session is probably "doomed." He didn't elaborate if that's a good thing or a bad thing...

You may have noticed that we have a new sponsor. We'll have more on Free At Last later, and while we hope you don't have to use their services, we highly recommend them.

We still have our link to donate to Room in the Inn. It's now located at the bottom of our page.

Where is the Utilities Assistance?

If it's any consolation to readers, April is one of the two months of the year with the lowest utility bills; the other being October. If we're hearing any panicking at this point, it's over utilities, especially in Florence.

There are agencies set up to help, at least with past due bills. At this point, we don't have a definitive list. We believe many sites will publish the names of these agencies, but we would also like to have them here, along with your opinion of them. Did they really help you? What can others expect?

Feel free to start sending us any information on these agencies. It's obviously going to get worse before it gets better, so let's get started.

Healthcare workers. They're invaluable at this time. Contact us and tell us what you need. Obviously, there's not a great deal we can do to assist you in your actual job, but how about in other ways. Would a group or club sending hospital staff lunch or dinner each day make a difference? Perhaps you have more ideas? Let us hear what would really help you as you're called to do more in the next few days.

Where Are Homeless During Health Crisis?

So we're all sitting here feeling sorry for ourselves because we can't (you fill in the blank). How do those without a home in which to shelter feel? We received this from a regular contributor:

Sunrise Center homeless day center had decreased to 3 x's weekly only about 2 months ago & now today they have closed their doors effective immediately they say due to the virus. Crossroads Community Outreach will be the only full time day center in the Shoals Area & the only full time street outreach program despite not having city support & funding. They are still standing. They need the support of the city & community especially during this time. Salvation Army is full. RITI season ended.

Instead of buying that useless whatever it is on Amazon because you're bored, why not make a donation to Crossroads Community Outreach?

Donate to Crossroads

Is Florence Mall Now Officially Dead?

Today the largest mall in the state announced it was closed until further notice. The Galleria in Birmingham did say that restaurants with outside entrances would remain open for take-out orders. 

Like Florence, the Galleria has some tenants with one foot in the retail grave and the other on a Coronavirus covered banana peel. The difference is that the Galleria has enough thriving businesses to wait out this ordeal. We do not believe the Florence Mall has.

Local Store Closings

Make no mistake, the coffin nail hammer is hitting more than just the Florence Mall. Most of our readers have seen the latest Quad-Cities-Cuisine:

Logan's Closing

A source has told us that a crew has been taking inventory and photographs in the two local Logan's. That doesn't seem to jive with only a 60 day closing, but it does speak of a plan to auction off assets.

In Sheffield, a well-placed source tells us that it's been almost three weeks since any work was done on "Phase II" of Inspiration Landing. The cessation of work occurred well before most local or national closings; however, the current health crisis will give John Elkington a face-saving way out of what many have always felt was a total debacle. 

Price Gouging in the Shoals

If you've been online at all, you're read complaints of price gouging by a small local grocery chain. Now someone has filed a complaint with the attorney general's office against a Russellville store. So, what is price gouging? From the BBB: 

Price gouging is a term referring to when a seller spikes the prices of goods, services or commodities to a level much higher than is considered reasonable or fair and is considered exploitative, potentially to an unethical extent.

Most states specify that this is during a time of national emergency and refers to food, medicine, and gasoline. States also differ in the minimum amount of increase to create gouging.

In California, 10% is the legal limit. This may be the lowest amount of increase in any state to count as gouging. Alabama attorney general Steve Marshall recently used 24% as a guideline.

With some products that's not that great a markup. In other words, a normal dollar product couldn't be sold in California for more than $1.10. In Alabama, the same product would have to sell at $1.25 to be considered gouging.

We're guessing the grocery products that have experienced a recent price increase are marked up much more than that. It's sad stores take advantage at a time like this, but obviously some will.

If you've seen price gouging, please take a photo and share with us. 

COVID-19 Pushes Lauderdale Schools Closer to Consolidation?

A Real Test for Lauderdale County Education

It will be interesting to watch the Lauderdale County Board of Education and its executive management scramble to cope with the economic impact of an extended COVID-19 quarantine. Obviously, sales tax revenues are going to decline precipitously as many stores, shops, and restaurants close their doors in an effort to slow the contagion. The layoffs that will continue as economic activity contracts will doubtless have a significant impact on state income tax revenues as well. The bottom line - significantly less sales tax collected locally and deep proration of state education budgets.


As challenging as it would have been to navigate this situation under ideal conditions, the task will now be exponentially more difficult because the school system's leadership has lately chosen to squander huge sums of public funds on highly speculative ventures. Most notable among these blunders being a completely unnecessary $610,000 expansion of the Board's administrative office campus, but at least that was a one-time, lump sum waste. Compounding the looming financial adversity, Senator Tim Melson's favorite hand maiden, board member Ronnie Owens, continues to be the chief proponent of draining $250,000 annually from school system revenues to help fund the Ag-Center boondoggle, a project whose viability was already highly dubious under the best of economic conditions.


Lauderdale's citizens should not be surprised when layoffs cut even into the ranks of tenured staff, and school consolidation will become far more likely than ever before, a virtual certainty I believe. But as I have always said, the segment of the Lauderdale citizenry that continues to elect these glad-handing, duplicitous sphincters richly deserves these adverse outcomes. Unfortunately, the fully literate among us must suffer alongside the morons, because they apparently outnumber us. The dumbassery against which we contend is profound and pervasive indeed.


Humbly submitted for you considerations by,

Justitia Adventus, Sic Semper Mendaces

Readers Comment on Lexington Events

Reader No. One sent the above meme. Hey, you needed a new keyboard, didn't you?

Reader No. Two on Todd Davis: Parents love him like a toothache. Ole Willie got complained on...ended up promoted ...they sent Davis as his replacement...

Reader No. Three: He dared to Tweet this? "Lexington will move on & survive."

Reader No. Four: Who gets custody of the smoker?

There were others, but many weren't publishable due to language. Quite frankly, we probably wouldn't have published anything else on the situation, but the hubris of Davis' tweet left us speechless. 

If Lexington School has survived two world wars, the loss of Larry Smith, and the reassignment of Will Joiner, we think the school will survive two years of total incompetence. 

Jigsaw to Steve Hargrove: Want to Play a Game?

A reader writes to Steve Hargrove:

Mr. Hargrove,

Citizens would like to know what to expect in services, billing, outages, and other essential services we expect.

Perhaps you can elaborate on what “game” you are talking about. For us working people and older citizens, we take this coronavirus serious and certainly don’t think of it as a game.

Maybe you need a PR person to handle your public notices, cause this article was either written by an elementary student intern, or you aren’t qualified for whatever it is you do at Sheffield Utilities.

What facts support your “strong feeling” we have it (Coranavirus) in our community? Are you speaking from your Helen Keller Hospital Board position and we are not given all the information we need to be safe, or did you form your opinion based on social media diagnosis like the other fear mongers?

You have a duty to answer to the public with facts that help us plan not just feed the chaotic frenzy.

They Can't Deny Their Feelings

From Bibb Graves to Lexington

First, a reader writes from inside Bibb Graves on the UNA campus:

(Administrators) have been very last minute on making decisions concerning this virus. Of course that’s normal, our president has always drug his feet on making decisions with dangerous weather or traveling conditions. But FINALLY, we were told that “certain” departments had different options. Working from home, and employees alternating days of being on campus for work. 

That may apply to some but not the ones in Bibb-Graves. Not only were we told no, but we had our windows shut, doors shut, and signs hanging just directing people to call, email and leave all paperwork, just to try & limit contact as much as possible. The signs were ripped down, we were told to open all doors & windows and continue business as usual. When confronted on how some of us are concerned for our health, and the health of our families, it was apparently almost humorous to them. We were also told that if we wanted time off, we could gladly use our vacation time. So many employees are scared, and angry. Now we have parents upset because Once again our president hasn’t even canceled all studies abroad for our students, I’m sure that will come last minute like everything else.

Do we have new big doings in Lexington? Nothing official yet. We'll be sure to notify our readers when we do.

Are These COVID-19 Cells Or Confetti?

New Lauderdale County Tech School

A missive from Zar:

I am so glad that the new season of Project Ag Center is finally back online. I know a lot of people originally complained about the casting, but you were right! They really are starting to grow on me.

I am also looking forward to the new upcoming spin-off show - L.C. Tech - A dramatic comedy based on the new technical school on the campus of the Ag Center.

Question: who will play the main role of Lauderdale County B.O.E. Superintendent?

One would think that the job of superintendent will include, but not be limited to, overseeing the planning and construction of the new school in the best interest of students, teachers, and community.

Is it also safe to assume that if the BOE was okay with spending almost $2 million on a field house (how they received the money is beside the point) that a new state-of-the-art tech facility will probably cost about as much as the Ag Center?

Ag board members have dangled this new tech school idea over our heads for far too long. They even took money away from our schools via TVA funding. Now it is time to elect a superintendent who will grab the ring and run.

Who will it be? Hill or Williams? I really do not know, nor do I understand why either candidate has yet to address this issue.

Until next time. Take care.

Your good bud, 

Zar

Colbert Commission Meets on Sex Offender Halfway House Laws

The next Colbert County Commission meeting is important to all citizens of the Shoals. From the Colbert County Corruption site:

Please join us Tuesday night March 17th @5pm at the Colbert County Courthouse!

The Colbert County Commission will be discussing/voting on a resolution for HB393 REAGAN’S REENTRY PROGRAM FOR SEX OFFENDERS CHILD PROTECTION.

February 2020 Andrew Sorrell, State House, District 3 had gotten verbal commitments (in favor of a resolution) from four commissioners:

Tommy Barnes
Darol Bendall, Commissioner, Colbert County District 5
David L. Black (quoted in person to Rep. Sorrell and on his re-election campaign Facebook page)
Jimmy Gardiner for Colbert County Commissioner District 3 (quoted in Times Daily saying he would support the resolution)

After Rep. Sorrell had gotten those verbal commitments, he introduced HB393 in the House and it passed on March 12th. HB393 was co-sponsored by Rep. Jamie Kiel. To be clear, this bill ONLY applies to sexual re-entry programs in Colbert County. Drug rehabilitation and other similar programs are not covered by or included in this bill. This Bill (addressing sex offender halfway houses) is a mighty step in placing safety measures in place for our children!

In case you missed it, sex offender activist Derek Warren Logue is fighting against the legislation. He's come out slugging in his usual dirty manner against both Andrew Sorrell and Edward Bowman.

Putting an End to Derek Logue?

Decisions, decisions! Which is worse, 1) a man who places his hands all over an innocent girl or 2) the person who sends that information to the man's employer and a blogger or 3) the blogger who reports on it? As we all know, if you never mention evil, it will immediately go away and never come back. 

"Don't Gimme No Lines & Keep Yo' Hands to Yo'self"

We're not sure if there's a full moon or not, but within the past 24 hours, we've received several complaints from the eastern end of Lauderdale County. 


While we're not in COVID-19 outbreak mode just yet, this is the advice from the CDC: 

• During a COVID-19 outbreak in your community, stay home as much as possible to further reduce your risk of being exposed.

From Rogersville mayor Richard Herston:

I would like to announce that all our stores ,restaurants, walking trail, tennis courts , Joe wheeler golf course , Joe wheeler lodge , boat launch.. and the highways to get to Rogersville are all open.. come out and enjoy our great town and area.. not sure we still have toilet paper😂😂🤣., have a great day!

Is anyone else thinking of Nero?

From Lexington School, we have two separate complaints. The first involves principal Todd Davis' remark about having to supervise "other people kids." The person who sent this to us was rather irate over the Twitter post. We agree that such supervision is Davis' current job. If he's not happy, his contract is supposedly up March 31st; perhaps things will change at that time?

While the second complaint against Davis contained some very interesting comments, we're going to publish the Instagram shot by itself. The photo of Davis and two students after the prom seems self-explanatory. 

Now for your listening enjoyment and cultural edification:

State Runoff Still on Track Despite COVID-19

According to Secretary of State John Merrill, the March 31st runoff is still on schedule despite several state events being cancelled. Turnout for the March 3rd primary was low, and the number of those voting in the runoff is expected to be dramatically lower in most counties. Don't forget to do your civic duty.

Inspiration Landing? A reader writes:

If you were a potential investor in ANY project in ANY town, wouldn't you want to be able to travel to that investment WITHOUT having your vehicle shaken apart on unmaintained streets and without passing through depressed and unkempt neighborhoods? Apparently the City of Sheffield isn't too concerned.

The TimesDaily has finally published an article on Sheffield that mentions renovations and John Elkington, but doesn't once touch on the subject of Inspiration Landing. Interesting...

Pardon The French, But Too Good Not To Post!

COVID-19 & UNA/Lauderdale Schools

UNA issued a statement on Cornonavirus preparedness several days ago; however, some have reported to us that interstate travel to affected areas has continued. If you feel you've been unduly exposed, please send us your take on what UNA could have done to better protect you.

The Lauderdale County School Board has sent out letters to each school detailing its role in reporting the Coronavirus or any other health concern:

The letter seems pretty standard. It's the signatures that caught our eye. There are ten schools in the system. Presumably each school has a dedicated LPN assigned to it. Now, look at the signatures again. There are two nurse-supervisors listed for the system. We will assume that one works in the western end of the county, while the other oversees the eastern.

We're curious as to the job description(s) of these nurses. Then again, if COVID-19 hits the schools, they'll have just a tad more to do. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Doesn't Killen Have a Police Force?

There was a great deal of controversy yesterday over four Florence police officers speaking at an out of town school. In the interest of absolute transparency, we believe one of the officers only woofed. Still, he as well as the other three are employees of the FPD, not Killen.

What would have happened in Florence if a sudden influx of loiterers had arrived? Who would have protected the citizens then? 

We're glad that the four officers showed the Killen children a good time. We're just not glad that they did it while citizens of Florence were paying their salaries. Lest any think boundaries don't matter, remember it wasn't that long ago that Colbert County showed everyone just how those boundaries work. 

Speaking of Brooks school, a long time reader has informed us that it's the policy at Brooks for the band to use the physical education weight room located in the new field house. To each his own. When we were in school a few millennia ago, one of the drawing points of the band was that members didn't have to associate with the jocks in P.E.

The part that we find interesting is that other groups are not allowed similar time. If these groups don't object, fine. If they do object, then some changes need to be made by the new superintendent whoever he may be.