Return to Tuscumbia & Lexington

We've previously endorsed Sandra Killen-Burroughs for mayor of the uber small Lauderdale town of Lexington. We're also going with the gals for the two contested town council seats. Peggy McGee and Carla McGee are sure winners!

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Tuscumbia? Similarly we've previously endorsed Kerry Underwood for mayor. The small Colbert County town has a number of council seats up for grabs. Choose wisely.

District 1 – Katherine Logan, Robert Polk: We endorse Katie Logan. She has what it takes!

District 2 – George Johnson, Geraldine Tompkins: No recommendation

District 3 – Dave Couch, William Foster, Tom McCormack: Dave Couch has the business acumen. A winner for everyone!

District 4 – Richard Coates, Paul Haley: Paul Haley.

District 5 – Mike Isom, Terry Willis: This election has already been decided since the Ethics Commission barred Terry Willis from running. Congrats, Mr. Isom!

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A comment about comments: Comments with profanity or vulgarity will not be published either here or on Facebook. We also refuse to publish comments which encourage violence. We had one of those in support of Ashley Reaves, but it was removed before we could delete it. We're happy to publish comments not in support of our views, but please remember our guidelines.

Important: On extremely rare occasions, a comment will unfairly hurt a bereaved person or family and we will not publish for that reason. We received such a comment a few days ago from someone we believe to be L.V. We will be happy to speak with you via our e-mail: Shoalanda.Speaks@gmail.com. 

Criminal...Or Just Unethical?

We usually, during any campaign season, receive documentation concerning the past exploits of various candidates. This year has been no exception.

Many it would seem don’t understand the difference between ethical lapses and outright criminal behavior. If you’re the mayor and you hire your brother-in-law to perform work that is in excess of a certain amount, you may be subject to certain ethical violations since you didn’t bid the job out.

Hiring one’s shiftless relatives is not quite the same as robbing a bank, nor is a financial judgment. Many individuals have judgments and/or garnishments due to medical bills not being paid in sixty seconds or simply because they are in dispute. These are out neighbors, family, and sometimes even ourselves.

Many argue that those who need money can be bribed. We’re sure this is true in some cases, but we refuse to paint all such people with the same guilty brush.

Research your candidates well. Alabamians are not noted for intelligent decision at the polls. If you do have concerns, ask the candidate. We will give Lexington Chief Augie Hendershot props on this issue since he has proclaimed he answers every call and every question from Lauderdale County citizens.

Your vote, your choice, and your onus for four years once elected.

We’ve had more e-mails concerning what may or may not be an unethical situation in the Lexington Municipal Court. The “good” news is that municipal courts don’t handle felonies; the “bad” news is that one convicted in municipal court may still be subject to hundreds of dollars in fines.

We advise anyone with questions about a previous conviction in Lexington Municipal Court (after the marriage of Chief Augie Hendershot and Clerk Jennifer Sledge) to contact an attorney. If he/she thinks you have a case, rest assured you won’t be the first to sue that Lauderdale County town. It would seem Lexington may have the same “above the law” attitude of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame?

Shoalanda

Lexington? No Business/Cherokee? Monkey Business

Lexington, Your Lexington

A Guest Commentary By

Bailey Quarters

I've never been to Lexington, Alabama, and I don't feel I've missed that much. Do I think Lexington has no worthwhile citizens? No, I'm sure it does. I just think there's nothing in Lexington that would make it a veritable tourist mecca.

So why am I writing about Lexington? The town tries too hard and makes all the wrong decisions for all the wrong reasons.

Some time ago I worked with a woman from Lexington. She told me of a new "biker shop" in Lexington and how the people in that town would make short work of it, send it packing so to speak. When I asked her about it some months later, she replied that everyone in Lexington loved having it there because of all the tax dollars it generated.

Was the biker shop bad to begin with? Probably not. Was it less bad because it produced tax dollars? Definitely not. Money doesn't change something from bad to good, but it does seem to change the way some people in Lexington look at it.

That brings me to the new Internet service in Lexington. Is it a good thing? I've always thought competition was a great thing, so Francisco Guerra's new business is certainly not bad in itself. It's just that if all I knew was what Guerra's press release stated, I would think there was no real Internet in Lexington. There is. Will Guerra's Internet be better than anyone else's? We doubt it, but it will produce tax dollars for Lexington and that seems to be what matters most to them.

As for Francisco Guerra himself, he stated that he moved to his Lauderdale County location because so many people need jobs and they are willing to work hard. You could call that statement either good or bad, depending on how Guerra uses his workers.

Guerra seems to like to do things for himself. It would be good if both Guerra and Lexington could hire a professional to promote them. Then their attempts at making the news wouldn't look so shallow.

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From Lexington, we travel southwestward to Cherokee; here's C. R.'s report:

Opposites do not Attract

The Cherokee Town Hall is located in the old Cherokee Middle School. By the actions of the Town Council and Town Clerk the Town Hall should be moved to the Cherokee Elementary School. A few weeks ago the Town Council changed the locks of the Town Clerk’s Office and Mayor Chuck Lansdell later changed them back. The Mayor hired a part time secretary and the council refuses to pay her salary. The mayor fires the mother-in-law of Councilman Steve Glover because she turned in her resignation and was never hired back properly. The council illegally hires the mother-in-law back and at a later Town Council meeting the council had to fix their mistake. I could go on and on about the misdeeds of the council.

Refuses to Take Orders

On several occasions the mayor has given Town Clerk Melinda Malone items to put on the Town Council meetings agenda and she failed to include the items. The mayor has asked Melinda to work on the grant paperwork or make a copy of the town’s minutes and nothing is ever done in a timely manner.

Monday was a holiday so all agenda items had to be put on the agenda by the close of business Friday. The mayor sent an e-mail addressed to several people Friday. The e-mail addressed to the town clerk, town attorney, mayor’s secretary, mayor’s attorney, and the mayor himself instructed the Town Clerk to put several issues on the agenda. Everyone received the e-mail except the town clerk. Even the town’s attorney stated he received the e-mail.

Consequences

A few months ago the Mayor of Cherokee decided he would stand up to the misdeeds of the council and he would undo anything done improperly or illegally. The mayor hired a part time secretary to work on the town’s grants because the town’ clerk stated she is so busy and does not have the time to work on them. The secretary’s job would also include reviewing the town’s minutes and finding anything done improperly or illegally.

When Melinda Malone decided to not open the mayor’s e-mail the mayor decided to not play the council’s game anymore. At the beginning of the Town Council meeting the mayor decided not to call the meeting to order. The mayor informed the crowd that the town clerk failed to put his agenda items on the agenda and he was not going to call the meeting to order. Councilman Steve Glover asked the town’s attorney could he call the meeting to order. The mayor informed the town attorney to make sure he knew what he was going to speak about because he already done the research. Glover was informed by the town attorney that if the mayor is present he could not. When the council got up to leave the room the crowd clapped loudly.

Sources close to the situation state that the mayor’s attorney has given the mayor a green light to fire Melinda Malone. Melinda is failing to obey the orders of her boss and can be fired for it.

Work Session

Before each council meeting there is a work session. All agenda items are addressed and talked about. During the agenda item concerning the town’s bills the town’s attorney fees were addressed. The $240.00 bill paid by the town was just not for a 10 minute council meeting. It seems that the council has been calling the town's attorney concerning their ethics issues and other things. The mayor informed the council members that they would have to pay back the taxpayers of Cherokee because it is not their responsibility to pay for their attorney.

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Role Models

We don't usually touch on national politics or events; there are bloggers who do it so much better and have so much more influence. We're going to make an exception today and comment on role models. Why?

Yesterday we found the time to read last week's USA Weekend, the Sunday supplement supplied to TimesDaily readers because, we suppose, Shelton Publishing already had a contract with the mag when they purchased the TD. In this particular issue were two very telling articles.

First was an article written by Anderson Cooper, the CNN news presenter of wealthy parentage and uncertain sexuality. We'll inject here that we don't care what his sexual orientation is--we just get tired of Cooper straddling the fence on the issue in order not to alienate viewers. In his article on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Cooper mentions "an ugly reminder of the city's segregationist past," the name Francis T. Nicholls etched in a cornerstone.

We'll be the first to confess having only the foggiest idea who Nicholls was. A quick Google search proved him to be a Confederate Brigadier General and later in life a governor of Louisiana who, per Wiki:

...believed in having less government through lower taxes and fewer official functions. During his first term, he battled political corruption...

Nicholls chaired the Louisiana Constitutional Convention of 1879, and returned the state Capitol from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. He also accepted an appointment from President Grover Cleveland to the Board of Visitors for the U.S. Military Academy.

After his tenure as governor closed, Nicholls became Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court in 1892, a post which he held until 1911.

Well, his later years certainly sound uneventful and not worthy of emulation. We in 2010 need real role models who will encourage us to strive for the worthwhile things in life. Let's flip a few pages and find one--Heidi Klum.

Here we can find out how she "eats, shops and diets." Yep, role model central right here in print coming to us every week courtesy of the TimesDaily.


Shoalanda



Get Connected in September!

The Keith McGuire Rape Case - Part II

"He stated he had a problem." - Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely speaking of Keith McGuire

It was early in 2002 when Robin Greene’s 12 year-old daughter came to her with a story of being touched by her physical education teacher. Coach McGuire had touched her breast while they were playing one-on-one basketball and she knew it wasn’t right. Soon a 16 year-old girl came forward with a similar story concerning the Clements coach.

Clements, a rural school in western Limestone County, was a tight knit institution. Such things didn’t happen at the sprawling school where Keith McGuire had access to girls in the 7th through 12th grades. The school board called a special meeting and convened behind closed doors on March 7, 2002, to accept McGuire’s resignation.

The board stressed that McGuire, who had not retained an attorney, had taken a polygraph with inconclusive results. No charges were filed against the teacher even though according to Sheriff Mike Blakely, McGuire stated that he had “a problem.” The board also agreed to take no further action on the Clements coach’s teaching license on the condition he agree to counseling. Keith McGuire attended one session.

McGuire soon returned to the hamlet of Lexington where his father was a member of the town council. The town’s water department was in need of a meter reader, and Bobby McGuire made sure the job was offered to his son. Keith McGuire’s salary at the financially strapped water department was barely enough to meet his basic needs, and he began searching for another teaching position.

Without any official black marks on his record and a still valid teaching license, McGuire found work in the nearby Haleyville school system. He began coaching at the Winston County school in September 2002, but the problem of his mounting debts remained. Not eager to give up his job with the town of Lexington, but unable to fulfill his obligations on his free weekends, he sought an assistant to help with meter reading and related duties. Soon his friend Lloyd Hayes, a former Florence City Fire Marshal and convicted sex offender, joined McGuire in the field. It wasn’t long before residents realized the two men spent an inordinate amount of time working around one local entity--Lexington High School.

To be continued...

The Keith McGuire Rape Case - Part I

"He stated he had a problem." - Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely speaking of Keith McGuire

We expect those in the teaching profession to care for our children as their own and we should expect no less. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. There is always the John Mark Karr or Debra Lafave. When any teacher takes a sexual interest in his or her student, we are just that more wary of them all, sometimes judging them wrongly.

How do we know the difference between an innocent touch and something more sinister? How can we judge the intent of a teacher we barely know? More importantly, what happens if we're wrong? When there's two, or perhaps three, sides to every story, how can we discern the truth from fiction?

Such is the case of Brian Keith McGuire, a Lauderdale County native, now free on bond of $125,000.00 and facing a 1st Degree Rape trial in December. The son of Bobby and Jo McGuire of Lexington, Keith attended Lexington School for 12 years. By all accounts he was an average student and better than average athlete. His parents had helped establish the Lexington Rescue Squad, and his mother was held in high esteem by the community. Bobby, the current mayor of the small Lauderdale County town, was a strong presence in both the town and his own home. Those familiar with the family generally acknowledged that the soft-spoken Jo deferred to her husband.

Keith, as his parents called him, also deferred to his father, but adolescence brought changes in the youth. Physically resembling his mother, Keith boasted a shock of red hair and an outgoing personality. Sometime after elementary school, Keith began to call himself Fox, a name that still follows him. Whether because of his auburn coloring or his fancied desirability to the opposite sex, Keith was well-pleased with this new persona. Many in the Lexington community describe him as the all-American boy, but others began to see a darker side as McGuire grew to manhood.

Graduating from Lexington High School in 1978, Keith McGuire seemed at loose ends. No longer the high school jock, he began a career as a barber, but was always dissatisfied away from the lime light of athletics. Ending one's education after high school was not unusual in the rural atmosphere of Lexington, but other things about McGuire troubled some in the small town. Still others saw nothing wrong with boys being boys or sewing a few wild oats.

In the autumn of 1992, McGuire returned to college at Athens State University, receiving his teaching degree two years later. Now married to a young woman from a well-respected Greenhill family, McGuire used family influence to secure a coaching job at Clements High School, just across the county line in Limestone. Here Keith McGuire taught Physical Education, but some students began to report that his style of teaching was just too physical, especially where young women were concerned.

To be continued...

Murder in Lexington - Part II

"I couldn't think of a better place to raise children. We have no crime in this town." - Clint Freeman

Lexington sits in the northeast corner of Lauderdale County. A town of less than 800 citizens, the rural community boasts only four residents describing themselves as non-Caucasians, none of them black. For someone like Shaun Shapley, Lexington must have appeared the perfect community. Older residents have no trouble remembering when outsiders made sure they left the town before sundown, but Shapley's good ol' boy persona ensured him a measure of acceptance.

The family rented a small home on County Road 51, just two miles southeast of the building that houses both the Lexington Town Hall and the Police Department. Two blocks to the east of Town Hall sits Lexington High School where Jennifer enrolled and quickly made friends. Both Jennifer's classmates and teachers relate that she did well and was enrolled in the Upward Bound Program, requiring her to take classes at Shoals Community College in Muscle Shoals. Lexington Principal Will Joiner commented that Jennifer knew where she wanted to go and was determined to make her dreams come true.

If her days in school were full and rewarding, her home life was less so. One of three children, Jennifer had been forced to move often, first with her mother Kimberly and then with Shaun Shapley after her mother's marriage. Her father's family had lost track of the three youths, only learning of their whereabouts after Jennifer's murder. Jennifer's older brother had joined the military to escape life with Shapley, but her older sister remained in the household. At age 19, the sister was the unmarried mother of two small children, a situation that had already garnered much community speculation. Only days before her death, Jennifer had told friends at Lexington High School that she had made plans to leave her home, but not before she reported her stepfather's unwanted advances to the proper authorities.

On the night of February 7, 2008, while her classmates were enjoying time with family and making plans for the upcoming Valentine's holiday parties, Jennifer Bragg found herself alone with her stepfather in the master bedroom. Shaun Shapley is the only living individual who has knowledge of the events that took place in that bedroom, but the vibrant, healthy teenage girl who walked into that bedroom left it on a gurney, her trachea collapsed and her hand and stomach bleeding from the gunshot of a .44 calibre weapon. Jennifer Bragg died at ECM Hospital later that night.

To be continued...

Murder in Lexington - Part I

"I couldn't think of a better place to raise children. We have no crime in this town." - Clint Freeman

When Jennifer Helen Bragg and her family moved to Lexington, Alabama, friends say she finally felt she had found a home. On the night of February 7, 2008, 17 year-old Jennifer died at ECM Hospital, ostensibly the victim of her stepfather, Shaun Clovis Shapley. The 44 year-old Shapley is currently being held on $500,000.00 bond in the Lauderdale County Detention Center; his trial is scheduled for February 9, 2009. At his arraignment November 13th, Shapley pleaded not guilty.

Shaun Clovis Shapley, sometimes referred to as Shaun Glouis, was no stranger to the judicial system. Before moving to Alabama, Shapley lived in the Polk/Hardee County metropolitan area of Florida. The oft-married Shapley was regularly in court as both defendant and plaintiff.

While still living in Florida, Shapley had been in prison three times for various crimes including felony assault, the victims usually women. On the night of May 8, 2000, Shapley was intoxicated and began to follow a black couple who managed to contact police. Having been informed that the pair was being pursued by "a crazy man," police gave chase and attempted to arrest Shapley when he pulled into a parking lot. Shapley, whose pickup was adorned with Confederate symbols, told arresting officers that he was chasing his girlfriend and another man.

Doubtful of his story, officers attempted to arrest the obviously intoxicated Shapley, who resisted. Shapley, already married to Jennifer's mother, claimed numerous violations of his civil rights and sued the arresting Polk County officers. A judge subsequently dismissed the suit as frivolous.

The next year Shapley brought suit against the State of Florida for violations of his civil rights in conjunction with several child support cases that had been filed against him. He included ex-wife Kathleen White of Winterhaven, Florida, in the suit for sixty-four million dollars. This suit was also dismissed, and Shapley told sources at the local NewsChief that his record had worked against him. The Polk County paper stated at that time, "Shapley admits he has married his own cousins in the past."

In late 2001, Shapley and Jennifer's mother Kimberly left Florida for Huntsville, Alabama, where they hoped to find jobs. After more arrests in Huntsville, the Shapleys decided to move again, this time to Florence, where they found Section Eight housing. Mary Kennedy, director of the Section Eight program for the Florence Housing Authority has declined to discuss the reasons for the Shapley family's eviction, but Shaun Shapley again saw an opportunity for some quick cash and filed suit for two million dollars against the Authority and HUD. This suit was also dismissed as frivolous, leaving the family broke and looking for a place to stay. They soon found a new home in Lexington, Alabama.

To be continued...

High Speed Chase on Sheffield's Hatch Boulevard

Some Sheffield parents picking up their children from school on Wednesday afternoon were met with more than the usual traffic jam. According to sources in the area, five or six Sheffield Police cruisers were involved in a high speed chase on Hatch Boulevard shortly after three o'clock.

For those unfamiliar with the area, Hatch Boulevard is a highly patrolled residential street extending from downtown Sheffield to what is commonly called the TVA intersection. Speed limits on Hatch are 35 and 25 mph.

Witnesses to the chase reported the car being pursued was traveling at such a high rate of speed as to make it unidentifiable. There were also conflicting reports as to the number of cars in pursuit, but five or six was the most reported number.

Were Sheffield Police chasing a dangerous criminal? Was the miscreant apprehended? We the general public may never know since the police have stonewalled on the subject. We the public can and should object to these sort of chases for petty crimes.

Why? After all, the police are chasing criminals, aren't they? Yes, but in doing so they are endangering the lives of innocent citizens. Hatch Boulevard is a two-lane thoroughfare leading to various residential communities and often congested during morning and evening drive time. The police contend such chases deter crime. Most chases are initiated by speeders or other petty criminals whose identity the authorities already know (that's what license plates are for). It hasn't been that long ago that a Lauderdale deputy killed an innocent teenage girl in an attempt to pass her car while en route to a domestic dispute in Lexington. No one was hurt in the dispute, but the young woman left grieving parents and an unfulfilled future.

Now is the time to write or call the Sheffield Police Department and complain about this cowboy behavior that is all too common among today's law enforcement. You may just save a life.


What's up with this: What new area Doc-In-A-Box clinic may soon be closing due to lack of customers? It must not be better than Botox.