Think Phillip Pettus Got You Those Fire Dept. Grants? Think Again...

 

During the recent election, we saw several in the eastern end of Lauderdale comment on how Phillip Pettus had secured state grants for their volunteer fire departments when Greg Burdine never had. Is this true? Only partially and in a manner of speaking.

We decided to look into the truth and discovered much what we had surmised. There were NO state grants until 2016, and Pettus took office in 2014. So obviously the educated and erudite Mr. Burdine could not have secured something that was not there.

Here's another kicker: the grants are applied for by the fire departments themselves. Oh, we're sure Pettus made a big show of personally handing out checks to each department in his district that was awarded one, but that's the extent of his involvement.

Whom should you thank? Gov. Kay Ivey announced the grants in September 2016 in connection with the Alabama EMA. You could start with thanking those two entities.

Not only is much in Lauderdale County a pig in a poke, the pig itself is pretty rotten.