For several years, we have heard complaints from Colbert County citizens concerning the quality of their law enforcement. Citizens from adjoining counties have also voiced displeasure with the current sheriff and his department. Now Colbert Countians have a chance to remedy that situation.
Lyn Gregory has promised to be a working sheriff, one who listens to the needs of those within his jurisdiction. We believe that Gregory is sincere in his promises for better law enforcement and endorse him in the June Democratic Primary.
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Democratic candidate for governor Ron Sparks is in favor of revamping Alabama's antiquated constitution one article at a time, via the legislature. We're happy that Sparks has taken the time to include a second item to his agenda of gambling, gambling, and more gambling, but one article at a time?
We admit we had to look it up; there are 18 articles in our state constitution. Assuming our legislature could actually rewrite one article each yearly session, it would take almost two decades to finish the task. With the history of the Alabama Legislature, does anyone think that Sparks thought this brilliant plan through before announcing it to the electorate? The only way it would work would involve the restriction of bathroom breaks, but we're afraid too many of our legislators already have a jug handy.
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The new fountain at the corner of Seminary Street and Mobile Plaza in Florence is now open. We hope to publish some photos soon. Thanks to Andy Brown of Visionary Art and Design for his wonderful addition to our hometown.
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Last June 8th, we changed counters for our blog. Today we should arrive at 100K unique hits, with over 150K page hits. Thanks to everyone who supports us.
Shoalanda
The fountain at the corner of Seminary Street and Mobile Plaza is not what most citizens of Florence would call attractive. Constructed in 1972, the three tiered structure falls under the category of "what were they thinking?" Thinking? Perhaps we give the city fathers entirely too much credit.
By 2002, all three levels of the fountain had been filled in with dirt and the edifice converted to a flower bed. Hester Cope of the Florence Mainstreet Project headed an effort to restore the fountain, an effort made easier by the fact that the fountain's plumbing miraculously still worked. The Mainstreet Project paid off-duty Florence Water Department employees to do any required maintenance and local artists to paint the inside of the fountain with images of water lilies and frogs. Voila--a Florence landmark was saved--or was it?
In 2006, inspections of the cobble stoned plaza found the unique pavement to be crumbling. The repaving project was considered a priority, and a new fountain was among the budget items included in the Mobile Plaza renovation project even though it had been renovated only four years previously.
By 2007, the City of Florence still had not begun renovations to the fountain or the one-block plaza, but had hired the third architect to oversee the job. After paying two Florence architectural firms a retainer, the city finally decided to offer the job to the Birmingham firm of J. K. Terry and Associates. While, Lynn, & Collins and Robert Whitten had already been paid $18,970.00 when Terry was contracted at a cost to the city of $47,500.00, a fee that did not include any physical renovations to the fountain or the plaza. Mayor Bobby Irons called the hiring of the previous Florence architects a matter of miscommunication among city officials. As of today, no actual work has been done on either the surface of Mobile Plaza or the fountain.
Now, according to Florence Councilman Dick Jordan, the city is ready to hire a fourth architect to design an entirely new fountain at the busy city corner. Florence will be paying Andy Brown $17,500.00 for his fountain design, a design that will be highly influenced by the architecture of Wilson Dam.
If the current fountain has any fans, we're not aware of it. The new fountain sounds like a dramatic and much needed asset to the downtown area. We're not sure what the first three architects hired by the city think of the latest version of the project. Perhaps as long as they were paid with taxpayers' money, they smiled all the way to the bank.
Photo by Jim Hannon
What's up with this: Councilman Barry Morris is opposing the $225,000.00 resurfacing project of Mobile Plaza. We're not sure if he is genuinely concerned about the cost or simply wants to keep his opposition record at 100%.
Shoalanda 
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