Have You Heard about the Cherokee Gym?

From a Colbert County reader: 

The gym suffered a water leak in the summer of 2021. The board refused to do anything about it. They wanted to “wait to see what happened.” While waiting, the leak turned into the floor buckling to be almost 4 feet in height. The school was told to put caution tape around it and carry on with daily activities. When a fit was pitched about not having anywhere to have graduation for the class of 2022 the board came in and pulled the floor up and put down plywood with red duck tape to cover the nails. The class of 2022 had to graduate on that! 

The gym has been unusable for sports teams for 2 years. The basketball teams have had to play at the old middle school gym that has been closed since 2007 and is run down and a rat home! Parents and community members have sent 100s of emails, called over and over, went to board meetings, etc. and they have gotten nowhere.

The board has spent $1000s on engineers to come out and look at the structure of not only the gym but the rest of the school. When looking at the rest of the school they found a crack in the wall in the auditorium. The board shut the auditorium down “for further testing.” This caused all formal events awards ceremonies, coronation, the beauty pageant, etc to be moved to the gym on the plywood floor that is duck taped together. 

This has gotten completely out of hand and something has to be done! Recently they sent out another engineer to dig holes around the school to see if water would fill up in them. Out of 6 holes only 3 were found with water and they are in a low area where water would be found. 

The engineer giving the report stated there was no reason found to not fix the gym. But still we have no plans in action to fix it.

*****

 Do Not Be Wise In Words, Be Wise In Deeds...

Teachers Come and Go...Especially at Cherokee High School

 

Every town has its downside. Every school has its problems. Look at Cherokee. Over the years, there have been fist fights at council meetings, abused K-9s, pedophiles working at school ball games, a police officer Tasing a Baptist deacon at a church service, and the occasional teacher DUI.

Now a problem has been reported that makes a teacher DUI look like saying "darn" in front of a class of high school seniors. Since there have been no arrests as yet, we're not naming names or crimes. Just stay tuned and ask why Cherokee can't do better...

You've probably heard that the Dollar Tree base price will rise to $1.25 by the end of December. Will they now call the stores W2s?

Roger Creekmore/Threats at Cherokee High School

When casting a vote, it's always a great feeling to know that even if your candidate doesn't win, the office will be in good hands. We've stated before that will be the case if James Hall should become the next Lauderdale County Probate Judge by defeating our pick William Smith.

Apparently that is also the case in the Colbert County District 5 Commission race. We endorsed Tommy Oswalt on the basis of the man we know him to be. We'll certainly admit that those of us who write for Shoalanda were not that familiar with the kind of man Roger Creekmore is. Readers have taken it upon themselves to inform us of Roger's character and to make us aware of what he has done for the citizens of Colbert County. Here's one recommendation from someone we admire greatly.

I agree with you that Mr Oswalt is a good man, is a successful businessman and has no hidden agenda but the same can also be said about Roger Creekmore.

As a resident of district 5 I believe it would be extremely bad to lose him.In 2007 a company located in Colbert County and began importing Human Waste—from New York City— to be spread on land and used as “fertilizer” in our County. The pathogens present in this waste had the potential for significant health risks to our residents. We were told nothing could legally be done to stop this practice. Roger Creekmore took office, took action, and working with our legislative delegation and the voters of Colbert County passed a constitutional amendment banning this practice. Our public health was protected.

In 2008 our Sheriff’s department was suffering from a lack of adequate patrol cars, Cars dedicated to patrol duty were being run 24 hours a day. Working with the Sheriff other low mileage, state surplus patrol vehicles, at a fraction of the cost of new vehicles. Today the Sheriff’s department has a patrol car assigned to every Deputy and due to the accrued mileage being spread out over more vehicles, overall maintenance costs for the fleet has actually decreased.

In the 10 years prior to 2008, over 25 persons had lost their lives at the “Rock Cut” section of U.S. Hwy 43 north of LIttleville. Roger Creekmore got involved and partnering with the Coroner’s office, Littleville Fire Department and elected officials, directed public attention to the issue. Roger personally went to Gov. Bob Riley and asked for his assistance. Within months this section of the state highway was upgraded, paved and center and outside guardrails were installed. Since completed in 2010—no loss of life in this section of highway.

Roger Creekmore believes in responsibility in government; over the past four years of his service in office, while our national government accumulates trillions in debt and our state government must borrow from its “rainy day’ reserves to meet its obligations, your Colbert County Commission has operated within its means and returned money each year to its general fund reserves. All in the middle of a recession. That’s responsible government taking care to spend your tax dollars wisely.

It would seem in the end, that no matter your choice, District 5 will be in great hands. Don't you wish all offices could boast those kinds of candidates?

*****

Sources say Shoals schools were in lock down this past Friday due to threats involving Cherokee High School. Apparently parents and guardians were not informed of this as it was happening, and many have questions. We have no further knowledge of the situation and appreciate all info from the public.

*****

D.K. has reminded us that the maximum sentence for Manslaughter in the Autumn Wood case could be 20 years, not 15, since a weapon was used. If this should be the final sentence, Wood would be eligible for parole in approximately seven years. Also, we assumed if Wood is convicted of Felony Murder, the judge would sentence her to Life. As D.K. pointed out, while the maximum sentence is Life, the minimum is 20 years. As with the Manslaughter verdict, there is no Correctional Incentive Time for sentences over 15 years, but one could expect a parole hearing in approximately seven years in this case.



Shoalanda