The Mayor Muscle Shoals Needs

Florence mayor? You have multiple choices. Sheffield and Tuscumbia? Ditto. But what about Muscle Shoals?

With slightly over one month until the mayoral elections in the Quad-Cities, it's time for choices. It should be extremely easy in Muscle Shoals.

Do you want four more years of spend, spend, spend, with a dose of "the money doesn't really belong to the taxpayers?" Or do you want a viable alternative?

The only alternative is Billy Hudson. You may not support him on every issue, but he's certainly much preferable to Mikey Lockhard and his sidekick Britony Walrus.

Vote Billy Hudson on August 26th!

Is Sheffield Shooting Range a Brownfield?

In 1979, the North Alabama Shooting Association leased property from Sheffield and opened a firing range in what was then a desolate part of the small Colbert County town. Ten years ago Ridge Pointe subdivision came into being and is now demanding the City of Sheffield shut down the range.

Unlike many people, we see little value in guns, but we also have common sense. Didn't those who purchased homes in Ridge Pointe know of the range when they signed on the dotted line. Why protest now?

Fancy subdivisions breed guess what? More fancy subdivisions. Obviously the property on which the range is located is now worth much more than in 1979. One of our readers who frequents the shooting range has heard the property called a brownfield. In the U.S., brownfields usually require a small amount of work to be turned into valuable property. We're not sure that a shooting range has left any contaminants to be removed. The property could more correctly be termed shovel ready.

Yes, things change, but it will be interesting to see who eventually purchases the property from the city. Damn the shotguns and follow the money.

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Colbert County Schools superintendent Billy Hudson is demanding the system build a new central office complex. If the current offices are so mold ridden, and we have no doubt they are, we're surprised Hudson wouldn't be happy with just clean and safe accommodations. Money to build an entire new complex could be better used in the not so wonderful world of Colbert County education.



Shoalanda

Jason Lyn Gasque--Pass the Trash

Jason Lyn Gasque is 31 years old and has already had more jobs than many of us do in a lifetime. Why? It's called "Pass the Trash."

The son of Bennie and Vickie Gasque of Leighton, Jason Lyn was a good student and better athlete. This is a combination often found in sexual predators (see Keith McGuire story). Growing up in Leighton, he was popular due to his athletic accomplishments, and few in the small town would have failed to recommend Gasque for whatever endeavor he chose to pursue.

Jason Gasque and his wife live on Berry Circle in Florence, an upscale neighborhood located between Greenbriar and Hickory Hills. It's a long drive from his home in Florence to his latest teaching assignment in Speake in Lawrence County, but apparently no one saw this as odd. Apparently no one was really looking at Jason Lyn Gasque until now.

In the autumn of 2005, Gasque was teaching at Richland High School in Lynnville, Tennessee. The next autumn, he was hired at Florence High School as a math teacher. Gasque lasted two years at Florence High before taking the position of Assistant Softball Coach at Colbert County High School, an institution located in his hometown of Leighton.

After six months on the job at Colbert County High, five female softball players came forward to complain that Gasque had made inappropriate comments to them. Not waiting for a hearing, Coach Gasque immediately sought an audience with Colbert County Superintendent Billy Hudson to tender his resignation. Rumors were rife in the community, but Athletic Director Steve Mask defended his friend--an action that allayed fears in much of the provential town. After all, Gasque was one of their own, and Mask wouldn't have defended him if there had been an iota of truth to the accusations.

The fall of 2008 saw Jason Gasque coaching and teaching math at Speake High School in Lawrence County. The small community of Speak is located just southeast of Moulton. Those who travel 157 to Cullman may not even realize they are passing through a town unless they are faithful observers of signage. Now after only five months in this position, Coach Jason Gasque is in trouble again, but this time his actions have led to an arrest.

Accused of inappropriately touching a 16 year-old female student in Speake High School's parking lot, Gasque has been arrested for sexual abuse. How did the school systems that employed Jason Lyn Gasque let down both their communities and the students in their charge?

It's called "Pass the Trash," and it has to stop.

What's up with this: If you don't know how to read your various utility meters, refer to online instructions at city websites; then you'll know more than many professional meter readers.