Views on ECM/Good Samaritan/Cherokee

Here's some reader views. First, we'll do our mandatory visit to our favorite West Colbert town:

It seems to me that since the Mayor and the town council did not pursue an investigation in the missing fuel that they know where it went and to whom it went to. I have questions to all of them.

Why didn't you do the research before it was even considered to hire the police officers in the first place? Doesn't it cost the town more money to hold all the extra meetings or are you doing all these things to put a little more money into your pockets?

No pun intended but it seems that they are having a lot of blond moments.The citizens deserve answers and deserve better police protection and they deserve better people to run the town.

Note: If any readers have observed Chuck Lansdell and Thelma Lambert not voting in tandem on any issue, please forward the info to us. Why would Lansdell and Lambert vote against installing security cameras costing around 1K in order to prevent a theft of 11K in fuel each year? We're assuming most in Cherokee are capable of rational thought. Think about it!

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Now, let's return to Lauderdale County:

I don't know how Coffee Health Group ran their hospital(s), but I've recently gotten calls concerning 3 people who used my phone number at the emergency room. They all used different names, but my number. I understand that the new owners are anxious to collect past due bills, but I hope they've instituted a plan where they verify patients. It doesn't make me love them when they call me about people I've never heard of.

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Remaining in Florence, here's an interesting story concerning both our previous topic and an old favorite, Good Samaritan:

I lost my job a while back when the company I worked for closed (Good Samaritan Hospice, and yes, they were SLIME balls). I was the insurance provider or my family, as my husband is small business owner. A month after losing my job/insurance, I was hospitalized at ECM for 3 days unexpectedly (almost died).

Found out COBRA not available, so I have to pay a nearly $20,000 bill. Since then I have paid @ $3,000, and debt was bought out by attorney's office. Per new ECM poilicy, all debts must be paid 3 months after services. They wouldn't accept our payment plan of $200/month and are suing me. Delivered legal papers to me, via Sheriff's deputy, in front of my kids. Those papers cost an additional $3,400 for attorney's fees.

The deputy told me that they were delivering close to 1,000 of these. I have family that can help bail me out, but most don't, and will risk bankruptcy, foreclosure on their home, and at minimum, ruined credit. The worst part is that ECM would accept fraction of the bill from a large insurance co. and expect 100% from people who have no insurance and/or no job. I am not accepting help from my parents for now because I feel this fight is worth fighting.

Note: If you have any Good Samaritan accounts that can be verified, please send them to us. We regularly receive what could be termed gossip concerning the former Florence hospice, but nothing that is verifiable.



Shoalanda

AIDT Leaves Shoals/Your Deputies at Work

Alabama Industrial Training Development, or AIDT, was established over 40 years ago as part of the network of community colleges. Aside from four regional centers, the AIDT has offices on all community college campuses. The office at NWSCC in Muscle Shoals remains open and should serve the Shoals as long as the community college system remains funded by the state. Just what is the mission of the AIDT? In their own words:

AIDT, an institution of the Alabama Community College System, encourages economic development through job-specific training. Training services are offered in many areas, at no cost, to new and expanding businesses throughout the State.

Certainly this is a worthwhile endeavor; however, many of us had never heard of this program until the advent of the National Alabama rail car plant in Barton. Apparently it's not unusual for the AIDT to open satellite offices in areas where large new industrial development is taking place.

That is exactly what AIDT did upon the announcement that the long awaited rail car plant was actually locating in Colbert County. The AIDT opened a centrally located office at 737 East Avalon Avenue in Muscle Shoals in order to evaluate and recruit prospective workers, specifically welders, for National Alabama.

Now the office is closed. Signs indicate the unit is for rent. Apparently there is no longer a need for recruiting and training those 1800 employees for National Alabama. Those 70 rail cars a day that were to have been produced since January 2009? Are these even still spoken of, or did everything disappear with Alabama's answer to the Wizard of Oz Greg Aziz?

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Yesterday we mentioned the dearth of police officers in Cherokee forcing the citizenry to rely on Colbert County deputies. A reader wrote of her experience during a possible break-in:

Forget about the deputies showing up. A friend called 911 as her ex was threatening her and trying to break in her house. They told her it would be a couple of hours before they could come.

One day my alarm company called me at (work) and said they had called the Sheriff’s department about a possible break in. I finished what I was doing and drove the 30 min drive to south of Tuscumbia.

When I got home no one was there. I waited about 15 more minutes and walked around the house checking all the windows and doors. Everything seemed ok. I opened the door and grabbed a butcher knife in the kitchen and walked through the house, everything ok, so I called them and said that my alarm company had called them and I was at home and everything was ok. They said thank you. I could have been the burglar calling them.


Some recently read food for thought (tongue in cheek style): There's no longer any such thing as sin, just mistakes, and we are not responsible even for them.

Shoalanda

Another Called Meeting in Cherokee Today?

From a reader on yesterday's blog:

The Cherokee Council checking with the Attorney.... HA! The Attorney was sitting right there when they made the motion to begin with.... every time he's ask a question, his response is "I don't know".... The Mayor ask him 3 or 4 questions at the last regular meeting and it was always "I don't know".... Yes, they're paying an Attorney that doesn't know anything about Municipalities...but that's how the Burger King Four like it.... so they can do whatever they please... they're having to call yet another special meeting tomorrow (Tuesday) because he didn't know the answer to a previous question.... Oh well, par for the course...

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Worst case scenario:

You're lying in bed at 3:00 a.m. when you hear a prowler. You dial 911 and ask for the Cherokee Police, a department that has only three officers. One officer is sick, one is out of town for a funeral, and the only remaining officer has gone home and is asleep. You're told a sheriff's deputy from Tuscumbia will be at your home as soon as is humanly possible. The prowler is in your home and you're having to wait for a deputy from Tuscumbia...

Isn't it about time the citizens of Cherokee demanded to know where their tax dollars are being spent? Starting with the suspected missing $11,000.00 in fuel?

*****

The man involved in a standoff situation in Russellville last night has been identified as Robert E. Saint of 196 Ash Avenue. Our sources say Saint is a former Russellville police officer and at one time headed their dive team. Saint's family was reportedly never in danger.

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Harvey Knotts of Huntsville (yes, we know that's a little far afield for us) has just been charged with ten counts of the sexual abuse of a minor. Mr. Knotts was a primary school teacher in the city system and is now on PAID leave. If that doesn't get your dander up, it seems Mr. Knotts has previously faced identical charges in Bermuda and is currently wanted there for evading prosecution.

How? Why? Alabama is notorious for not doing thorough background checks on its teachers. Perhaps this debacle will shake things up at the state department of education...



Shoalanda

The Missing Aspect of Legislative Raises

Read the TimesDaily today? There was a very interesting article on the salary of state legislators. While the article touched on many points, including new members of the legislature who had no idea how "expensive" it was to serve, it left out one or two dramatic points.

Yes, your state representative or senator serves you 365 days a year, but that does not mean said lawmakers are in Montgomery those 365 days a year. Most of these lawmakers have jobs/careers in their home district. Many are attorneys; others are farmers--you get the idea.

Unfortunately, the TimesDaily article failed to touch on the fact that our lawmakers' income from the state legislature was hardly their sole source of funds. Specifically, Tammy Irons, Greg Burdine, Marcel Black, and Roger Bedford all own law practices--practices from which they usually earn income even while serving in Montgomery.

Further, the M. J. Ellington article failed to mention the infamous office decor funding that produced so much outrage immediately after the 2006 raise. For those who wish to see how Marcel Black spent your taxpayer dollars, here's a link to the invoice for the controversial objets d'art--scroll down to pages 5 & 6 for Black's items. Link

For those readers/voters who just want the bottom line, here's the total:

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Today's called meeting of the Cherokee Town Council has rescinded its intent of hiring new police officers. It seems they didn't know adding two new employees would result in mandatory overtime pay. Do council members not consult the town's attorney before wasting the town's resources on motions that must be rescinded or modified in order to comply with the laws of Alabama? It seems not.



Shoalanda

The West Colbert Caper

Lured by the promise of big bucks, our hero drove down the dusty road. He'd heard Cherokee was a law officer's dream--nine dollars an hour and the chance to be shot in the line of duty with no medical insurance in sight. It didn't get any better than that for someone whose middle name was "Danger."

Arriving at the gritty town hall, the law man found plenty of empty parking spaces; could it be a trap? Slowly he exited his battered Peugot and walked toward the front door...it was open. With a quick prayer he gave a push and stepped inside. His eyes rapidly adjusted to the dimmed light, allowing him to look around for the fabled head honcho--the Chuckanator. His heart raced as he discovered...nothing. The town hall was empty.

At least empty of people. There spread before him were office equipment and filing cabinets filled with who knew what. Amid the sensitive town documents, there was probably even a petty cash box, just no one in sight to tend them, to guard them from the evil that lurked on every street corner of the legendary town. Slowly, the would-be protector of the innocent backed out of the deserted office and concocted a plan...he would return in an hour when someone, anyone, would be here.

How long does an hour last in Cherokee? Only one who's been in the trenches can really appreciate the slow motion ticking of the clock, but the time finally arrived. He returned; he recreated his earlier attempt at finding employment in this fabled hub of law enforcement. What would await him?

Nothing. He found the same emptiness that had greeted him an hour before. He was utterly alone and he could have taken everything that wasn't locked down, including the toilet paper. He could have walked out unnoticed with his plunder and never looked back...but he just wasn't that kind of guy.

He couldn't promise that the next one to discover this easy mark would feel the same way...

The adjectives in the above tale may be over the top, but the story is true. Not only did our favorite Colbert County town make itself an easy mark, it lost the chance of a great police officer. Ah, malfeasance, thy name is Cherokee.

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Remember Derek Warren Logue, the sex offender advocate from Sheffield who recently returned to the "mean streets of Cincinnati," as he called them? Logue who objected strenuously to our description of him as a sexual predator...since he had only one known victim and Alabama does not use a tiered system of designation for sexual offenders? Now back in Ohio, Derek has again been placed in their system. Many thanks to a watchdog for sending this link to us:

Derek W. Logue

Logue recently published a rant on the TimesDaily Forum against Sheffield Municipal Attorney Ben Gardner. Kudos to Mr. Gardner for whatever action elicited this response from a man who sexually assaulted an 11 year-old girl because she "was asking for it."

Related post: Sheffield: Sexual Predator Central

Shoalanda

Brandon Shane Mundy & the Thin Blue Line

The small amount of police officers (dressed in blue) standing between the criminal element and the law abiding citizenry is the standard meaning of "the thin blue line."


The "Thin Blue Line" logo pictured is the current Facebook image for Brandon Shane Mundy, a former police officer with the town of North Courtland. According to news reports, North Courtland's Chief Alex Taylor dismissed Mundy some months ago after being informed of the results of the state's investigation into last July's fatal crash involving the patrol officer.

Now a Lawrence County grand jury has indicted Mundy on two counts of vehicular homicide. If Mundy should be found guilty of these charges, what would be the expected sentencing outcome? From the Alabama Code:

Section 32-5A-192 Any person convicted of homicide by vehicle or vessel shall be fined not less than five hundred dollars ($500) nor more than two thousand dollars ($2,000), or shall be imprisoned for a term not less than one year nor more than five years, or may be so fined and so imprisoned.

Whatever the outcome of the charges against the 30 year-old Mundy, we doubt he will ever again be included in that thin blue line he obviously still considers himself a part of.

Related post: Brandon Shane Mundy--Cowboy Cop?

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Robert Rhett Trevino died in an auto accident yesterday. Unfortunately, such accidents are no longer rare. It is rare when the driver of a vehicle is found to be, to put it politely, nude.

Witnesses say Trevino's vehicle first wrecked at the intersection of East Grand and John R, continued across Woodward, and traveled to the 400 block of West Grand before the fatal impact. Trevino was arrested in Sheffield last October on charges of possession of a controlled substance and possession of marijuana.



Shoalanda

Thelma's Rendition of "I'm Your Puppet?"

Thelma Lambert & The Sunshine Law

A Guest Commentary By

Cherokee Reason

It was interesting to see your posting concerning Coucilperson Lambert's attempt to make public records private. This blatant illegal offering was not Lambert's fault. Anyone who has ever attended a town council meeting in Cherokee can attest that she has no personal original thoughts.

If there is a new issue that is presented, she does not even know what her position is on the subject without glancing at the mayor. It is only after his position is known to her that she knows where she stands. She is a complete puppet. This idea nor any others that this corrupt bunch has could have been authored by Ms. Lambert. The Coucilperson is simply incapable of original thought if history is any indicator. She was coerced into making such a ridiculous offering.

It is definitely not the first time the mayor has used her to start something that he knew would make anyone look unskilled. The sad part is that Lambert doesn't know that she is being used. This fact should let anyone know that she didn't act alone suggesting the Sunshine Law violation. She will join the Mayor's so called personal assistant as another victim that will be thrown under the bus when she is no longer needed.

I can completely understand why the Mayor and his clan want to hide things. I hope The Connection exposes the Mayor and his cohorts for what they really are.

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Have you always dreamed of being a zombie? Well, now's your chance. A North Alabama film company is currently casting for its new zombie filled series The Live Side to be broadcast on YouTube. The second round of auditions will be in two weeks; here's a link to their Facebook page:

The Live Side

Shoalanda