Water Torture/Coddling Criminals

From a reader:

Speaking of Special Ed Classes in Alabama……We understand that the idiot who attacked the Town of Lexington, Mayor and Town Council saying they refused to fix the water pressure problems at his house, has finally found the source of 

all his complaints……UNDER HIS VERY NOSE. Well actually, under his kitchen, bathroom and bedroom floors.  Yes that is right!!!  All of his trouble stemmed from a problem HE HAD under his OWN HOUSE and was NOTHING to do with the Town of Lexington or Lexington Water Works.

Mr X belittled and harassed the Mayor, Council and Water Department for months on end about how WRONG they were and how sorry they were and how self-serving Mayor Sandra Burroughs was for suggesting that she pay to help him locate his trouble.  Every single person who was present at the 1 and only council meeting that X dared show up for, tried to help him and he refused to listen or accept any suggestions other than it was ALL THE TOWN'S FAULT.   He even went as far as to call one lady, who he didn’t know and had never met, an idiot when she suggested that he check out the water lines between the meter and his house.  This was the first council meeting this lady had ever attended and she was just making a comment that they had had trouble a few years ago with low pressure and they solved their problem by replacing old water lines. For that, she was called an idiot by X. 

From my understanding, the town put in a brand new water meter and water line at this location.  They also put a water pressure monitor on the meter that actually took readings of the exact pressure every 20 minutes.  This was left on the meter for over 2 months and never showed there to be any inconsistencies in the pressure going into the Xs’s meter.  The Mayor gave this man a print out of the readings which he refused to believe.  Mayor Burroughs offered to pay for a plumber to help find the problems because they were clearly on the property owners side of the meter and not the town.  X refused that help.  Mayor Burroughs offered to buy a pressure pump to go on his meter too.  He refused that saying that if we were planning to fill up the water tanks in town soon, there would be no need for the pump.  Still he wanted to complain each and every day.  Not only did the Mayor try relentlessly to help them, but every single council member did as well.  And lets not fail to mention that guys who work in the Lexington Water Dept and all the hell they caught.  They were called out all hours of the day and night, holidays, weekends, and beyond by the Xs that they did not have ANY water, only for the water dept to get there and discover that YES they did have water at their meter.  Have any of these representatives from the town received any communication from the Xs now?? Who knows…..I think all of them blocked or hid their phone numbers from their cell phones as well as blocked them from Facebook too.

Now they have had major construction done in all these rooms in their house because this water leak has totally wreaked havoc on their floors. Hmmmm  I think someone should apologize or do all of Lexington a favor and move!!!!!!

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Just a reminder that we accept guest editorials, particularly on political issues - our primary focus of coverage. We also are happy to accept rebuttals. Simply because we publish a guest blog that supports ABC, that doesn't mean we won't publish one that is anti-ABC. On the contrary, we try to be unbiased in these submissions. 

When we publish one of our own blogs? It seems we identified the lady seeking to expose the problems at the Dollar Tree as being from Colbert County, when in fact she is from Lauderdale. Our apologies.

Veterans Park? We hope to have some very interesting thoughts on that next week as well as the upcoming Senate race. Tell us what you want to hear, or better yet, send us a guest blog!

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Thought for today: No one at this blog, or any other local blog or news site, has forced, encouraged, or enabled anyone to commit a crime. Those who commit crimes covered here or elsewhere did so of their own volition. Nor do we prosecute these crimes. Be it your friend/relative or mine, these people have their day in court. We've stressed this over and over. Don't shoot the messenger and please, please don't espouse the theory that it's better simply to overlook everyone's mistakes.

Or we could make a movie entitled Escape from the Shoals.

Lexington Water/Is J.J. Gone for Good?

A reader has contacted us about problems with water in the small Lauderdale County town of Lexington, specifically pressure. We've always been very impressed with current mayor Sandra Killen-Burroughs, so we went straight to the top to get some answers, and here they are:

Low water pressure is a problem that we have from time to time in Lexington. Here are some of the reasons we have issues with water pressure. The town of Lexington used to own their very own well to provide/sell water to their customers. (We currently have over 900 customers). Of course, ADEM administers the permits to operate a well such as we had. From my understanding, someone from a previous administration (not sure if it was a former Mayor or former Council member) refused to abide by the guidelines that ADEM had set forth, therefore, ADEM condemned use of the well for the Town of Lexington.

At that point, being cut off from our own source, the town was forced to have to purchase water from outside sources. Those outside sources are East Lauderdale Water and Loretto Water, both having to travel long distances to even get to our customers. We’ve been told consistently since May of 2016 that there is a new well coming online soon to supply our town with more water pressure. We are still waiting for that new source but we are very hopeful that it will be soon. 

Please be aware that the New Mayor and the New Council has made it a top priority to find our OWN water source here in our own town to provide water to our customers. In January, we applied for $3 million grant for this project. We should hear back from that grant process very soon. If that grant is not approved, we will try another route and I am open to suggestions. Right now, I have four locations of possible wells that we can use to supply our customers. I am committed to doing whatever it takes to get us our own water source.

Another issue with our water pressure is that our two water tanks are empty. Why? The former administration was supposed to be doing monthly maintenance on those tanks. Well, that was not being done, SO they hired some shady character to do the work and he took the money and ran without doing the work. The very first order of business that the NEW council and I took was to seek out a reputable company to come in and submit bids to get both tanks refurbished and up and running immediately. We went through seven proposals and decided on one to complete the work ASAP. The contract has been signed and the company will start that work in May. That work will be completed in three weeks after it is begun and we will fill the tanks. That will help a lot with the water pressure.

We received a CDBG grant from the state last year to replace the oldest part of the waterlines in the town. That is a $308,000 grant and that work is scheduled to begin very soon. Robinson & Sons from Haleyville won that bid and will start ASAP. We actually have a public hearing on this project on Thursday night at 6:00 p.m. at the Lexington Senior Center. This will be the final public hearing scheduled before construction begins.

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An update on John (JJ) Common:

1. He's currently being housed in the Lauderdale County Detention Center.

2. His previous suspended sentence of 17 years has been reinstated; he's awaiting transfer to the state prison system.

3. He still faces seven felony charges, four of them Class A felonies. Franklin County District Attorney Joey Rushing is currently conferring with federal authorities to see if they wish to prosecute Common. 

4. If the feds don't want J.J., he will face a Franklin County grand jury.

5. It's doubtful Common will receive parole on his 17 year sentence. Any federal sentence will be served after the state sentence. If prosecuted at the state level, it's most likely Common will be sentenced as a habitual offender, which could put him away for life.

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Just think, all those years as a crime writer with the TD, and Tom Smith still doesn't know the difference between parole and probation.

Augie Can't Save Everyone

And just who are you in bed with? Not literally, I mean politically. Lie down with dogs and you know the rest.

I’ve read this blog since its beginnings, and I’ve seen people connect Shoalanda with everyone from Ron Weems (someone actually thought she was a spurned girlfriend?) to now Rick Singleton (another someone thinks she’s his relative because she has the balls to endorse him as the better candidate?)

Remember the school bus crash in Huntsville some years ago? A lawyer said every time a child died someone had to pay. Sounds like a sad truth to me. So to Augie Hendershot or any other candidate, remember those you’ve abused over the years will come back to haunt you. The Wisenbaker kid? Augie must not have gotten there in time for that one.

A fake tan? Didn’t someone mean a painted sepulcher? If the old expression is “you have to pay for your mistakes,” how much more do you have to pay for the wrongs you intentionally do?

Charger Dodge
Lexington Born and Bred

PS: I’m still waiting for Augie to answer my question about the missing water department money.


Note: The Wisenbaker (Tim Wisenbaker) child has been referred to in the news this week due to his father being arrested for killing and slaughtering a valuable bull in Lexington. A far a I know, Chief Hendershot was never on the scene when the child died, a child that had probably been dead at least an hour before anyone sounded the alarm. Nice folks.

For those who say we don't like Augie, here's proof we love Augie:

Lexington Speaks, Will Augie Answer?

I’ve just received word that water bills in Lexington are going up to 35.00. My wife and I had been paying 30.00 for the little water we use. We have our outside water hooked to a well. That means our sewer is going up also.

My cousin doesn’t have a sewer connection, so his bill will go up to 38.00. In other words he pays 3.00 a month more because he doesn’t pay the sewer charge. Is this legal?

I can remember when Wal-Mart had to stop giving discounts on gas at Murphy Oil simply because it was paid for with a Wal-Mart card. It would seem to be something the Attorney General’s office should look into. I plan to request their opinion on the billing practice, but I realize it might be legal for Lexinbton since it’s a public utility.

Now, I want to ask our police chief Augie Hendershot something. Oh, I know that there’s a statute of limitations on theft. It’s been about 10 years since the forty thousand dollars went missing from the water department. There’s no way we’ll ever get it back.

Augie was chief then, and I’d like to know why he didn’t investigate the theft. He knew about it even if the water department wouldn’t bring in the ABI. Is this what Lauderdale County can expect if he becomes the new sheriff? Augie has said he’ll answer all questions, so here’s hoping he’s as good as his word on this one.

Charger Dodge