Jeremy Britten to Leave UNA

Jeremy Britten has been a fixture at the University of North Alabama for almost ten years. Here's his online bio:

Jeremy Britten is an award winning marketing and digital communications expert with 18+ years of experience. Specialties include: digital marketing & design, social media strategy, content strategy, and search engine optimization (SEO). Jeremy and his wife, Christi, moved from Seattle to Florence in 2008 and have four children: Avery, Hannah, Emerson, and Margie. Jeremy enjoys studying Shoals history, trying new foods with his wife, and going on adventures with his children.

Now he's leaving the ivy covered halls of Florence's university. Why? We don't know. We are interested in learning more of this and doing a follow up. From what we know of Jeremy, this is the university's loss.

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Interesting fact: Did you know that counting bonuses, Dr. Ken Kitts was the sixth highest paid college president in the state. Yes, for all UNA's tales of financial woe, the university paid Kitts a 40K bonus after his first year. 

Think about this: For those UNA presidents who choose to live on campus (Dr. Robert Potts did not), there is no rent or mortgage payment. We never see that particular perk included in salary data. Does Kitts pay utilities? We have no idea, but we're sure the bill for a home that size is steep. Another perk?

We wonder how much the salaries of "mere" secretaries stack up against that of similar positions in the private sector.

Public Defenders, Bloggers, & Other Pariahs

Technically, the State of Alabama doesn't have "public defenders," but "court-appointed attorneys." A few counties have contracted out these glamorous positions, but in the Shoals a judge will still appoint representation for a defendant found to be indigent. A recent commenter has bemoaned the fact that these JDs are not competent to handle murder cases. We'll add that the commenter, PayAttention, now has the dubious honor of being only the second to be banned from this site due to his/her language and trollish posts.

We disagree with those who claim court-appointed lawyers are inept or don't care. We know several local attorneys who take such cases, but is it fair to choose just one and showcase him or her to the exclusion of the others? It doesn't seem so; therefore, tomorrow we'll be looking at a Huntsville attorney who routinely takes court-appointed cases. It promises to be enlightening.

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Any of our readers attend the Florence Christmas parade? If you didn't, here's a review by a new local blogger. We'll say two things: Just don't shoot the messenger and if we'd known the Rotary Club was dispensing Laffy Taffy we would have made it a point to be there.

Pardon Me

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Our friend Jeremy Britten loved the parade, but after reading the caption of this photo, he could be accused of a temporary lapse in judgment.

Uber hip? If you say so, Jeremy. If the car didn't say "Florence City Council," we would have thought it was a casting call for the next season of Walking Dead.



Shoalanda

Jeremy Britten Communicates

Our April 25th blog incorrectly identified Corey O'Connor as the founder of the Shoals Area Twitter group. The man behind the group is actually Jeremy Britten (pictured), a Seattle native and web designer who currently works as Web Communications Manager at the University of North Alabama.

Britten is an extremely talented designer whose work and photographs may be viewed on Flickr. You can learn more about Jeremy and his humorous insights on the world of professional art at:

http://abstractrandom.com/

We hope Britten and his family will choose to remain in the Shoals where artistic pursuits are often underrated. If you Tweet, be sure to send a thankful twitter to Jeremy for his efforts on behalf of the Shoals.

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Our March 25th article on Shoals Suzuki contained some incorrect information concerning Kevin Self. We incorrectly listed Kevin's middle name as Dwight; this was taken from the June 8, 2008, TimesDaily online concerning Classic Rock 105. Further, Kevin was not married at the time of his father's death, did not inherit any of his father's estate, and therefore was not a partner to his brother Michael Self. Also, we listed the date of the sale of WLAY as 2000. Self Broadcasting actually sold the radio station in 1998 to Cumulus; Cumulus sold the station to Clear Channel Communications in 2000.

Mr. Self had further asked us to state that no such organization as Self Broadcasting exists. Although our article did not mention the status of the company, we are happy to add that Alabama records show this company is now dissolved. Our apologies to Mr. Self for any inconvenience these errata have caused him.


What's up with this: It seems the recently terminated Sheffield police officer (whose name has not yet been made public) was also fired from the Russellville Police Department. Perhaps education is not the only occupation in which trash is passed.