Lack of Respect at Rogers High Led to Much Worse

 

We once read a commentary on an infamous murder that blamed the incident on a lack of common respect and decency. This lack isn't unusual in today's world, and it often leads to much more mundane, but nevertheless unwanted, results in everyday life.

Is this lack of respect found at Rogers High School in Lauderdale County? Absolutely. 

Remember our verified account of the young male student who was the victim of attempted sodomy? Why were the 13 year-old perpetrator and his two confederates so bold?

Perhaps they took their cue from the junior varsity coach (we have his name and choose not to use it at this time). How had he behaved toward the victim in the days and weeks leading up to the two incidents?

He reportedly had a nickname for the victim, who was no paragon of athleticism due to his asthma. He called the young boy "Wheezy." What kind of coach, what kind of teacher, what kind of human being does that?

Our answer: Not anyone who should ever be a role model to youth...

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When we previously reported on this incident, we stated that the main attacker received 30 days in-school suspension. We were in error. The violent bully received only ten days. Think long and hard about that...

Who Dropped the Ball on Florence's Most Wanted

 

Some weeks ago, the City of Florence proudly announced that it was debuting its new and improved City website. Many at the time commented that the new site presented less information than the previous one. Others remarked that the older site was more attractive.

Perhaps the site's main failing is that the information is not up to date. We've recently been posting various "Most Wanted" information from area cities, counties, states, etc. What about Florence's list of Most Wanted?

According to the City's own website, the list was last updated 23 months ago. Surely, there are new additions. Surely, some on the list have become current with their fines and are no longer wanted. 

Andy Betterton is quick to suggest new businesses judge us on such things. We're going to guess that neither IBM nor Amazon want to branch out to a town that can't even update such a simple list.

Chicken Little: THE PARKING DECK IS FALLING

 

This appeared on my phone text at 3:30 p.m. on Weds. 12/4:

Being confused I called my city hall source and was told this concerned a letter that Mayor Andy Betterton had sent the council from the engineering firm, LBYD Engineering. This is the firm from Huntsville that was hired in 2018 and compiled a report showing the work that needed to be done to the structure of the parking deck at Tennessee and Pine St. This letter had been sent from the chief engineer Ashley Cardin and stated that the deck was in such bad shape that it could pose a safety threat. The notice made it sound like this meeting was being called due to the parking deck falling to the ground or something.

Fortunately, that was not the case, and the meeting was kind of overblown. The sky wasn’t falling, and neither was the parking deck. This is the video recorded by David Carson on his Facebook page; Florence, Alabama Open Meeting Project, of the meeting:

You will notice that Jimmy Oliver latched onto the phrase from the LBDY engineering letter “life safety concern”. If Andy Betterton was playing the part of Chicken Little in this “nursery school drama” Jimmy Oliver sounded like Henny Penny from the fable sounding the alarm. QUICK, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE! The parking deck is falling. It was a little dramatic. At first it seemed all the council were going along with the tale of the dangerous parking deck. And then Blake Edwards spoke. He asked the mayor if the engineer who wrote the letter had inspected the deck recently. Betterton said no, he had just made a phone call to Mr. Cardin asking for a letter on the assumption that no repairs had been done since the inspection. 

It seems Betterton is determined to see the deck demolished. You could tell some on the council knew they had been deceived but it was too late to back out. And the truth is the parking deck is in bad shape, in places. I recently walked the entire structure to see for myself. It does have cracked foundation supports and exposed rusted rebar but that is primarily confined to the top two floors that I saw. But I am not a structural engineer. I was just going by what was visible. Thank goodness, I didn’t get hit in the head with any falling chunks of concrete. I think.

The bottom line to this story is that neglect caused the parking deck at Tennessee St, and Pine to deteriorate and for some unknown reason the previous mayor and council and the current mayor and council chose to ignore the findings in the engineering report and let the deck rot before it’s time. The “original” parking deck at the corner of Tennessee St. and Pine will close at 5 p.m. on Friday 12/6/2024. Chicken Little, Henny Penny and the rest of the barnyard would do well to be more interested in taking care of the buildings we have now than trying to impress the king of tourism and other metropolitan areas. $95.75 million taxpayer dollars in debt is not chicken feed!

The Florence Detective

118 Families Needed Now!

 

* This is an emergency!

* 118 Dogs need a temporary home.

* FLAS will provide food and other supplies.

* If you decide to adopt the animal, that is an option.

* If you want to adopt now, the special fee is only $35.00.

* If you can't foster, you can donate food, blankets, money, etc.

* 256-760-6676

* FLAS is open seven days a week at 3240 Roberson Rd. (Turn right at Health Dept. on Chisholm Rd.)

* This should be the season for joy, not euthanasia. 

THE GRINCH THAT STOLE THE PARKING DECK

Let me recap the Florence City Council work session and meeting from 12-03-2024. This is the time of year that kicks off the holiday season, and in the spirit of good cheer and peace on earth, I am going to compliment the council for one action they took. They removed the original agenda item that was kicked down the road at the last meeting and placed on this agenda to demolish the “original” parking deck at the corner of Tennessee and Pine Streets. When I checked with my agenda sleuth at city hall, I was told it probably would not come up again until after the new year. So that gives the old parking deck a reprieve from the wrecking ball....for now anyway.

Let’s get to the votes on the agenda items at the meeting. It was kind of a smooth meeting, but two agenda items got passed in the consent agenda that really needed "further discussion" in this reporter's humble opinion. One was resolution (f) a proposal to sign a contract with a company called "The Ground Guys of Northwest Alabama”, to provide lawn care for the Southhall house, the Kennedy Douglas Center, Pope's Tavern and the Indian Mound in the amount of $2,083.33 per month not to exceed $25k a year. One question I had: Do we not have a LAWN CREW we already employ full time on the City of Florence payroll to take care of mowing the grass? And to cut 3 city lots each about 50’ wide and the grass on the Indian mound has a going rate of $25K a year? Man, and to think when I was a teenager, I mowed half acre lots for $10 a cutting! Of course, that was back before the gas-powered mower came along.

At the work session. Bill Jordan used the famous Jordan double talk, well actually the Jordan “mumble”, to try to justify the expense saying it would save paying overtime and Brian Murphy, Art and Museum Dept. head who is responsible for the property in question, just sort of stood there. AND THIS WAS PASSED! If this is not a prime example of a waste of taxpayer money that is going on in this town, I do not know what is.... well, I COULD make a list but that wasn't even the biggest waste of money at this meeting. There was another: agenda item (bb) which was a MATCH for funds from the state of Alabama Land and Water conservation fund in the amount of $437,073.32 which will be used to renovate the campground at McFarland Park. For those who have not seen the plans for this project, it appears only to involve pouring new pads for parking spaces for campers at the park. No remodeling of bathrooms or pavilions added, just some parking pads. The taxpayer is getting hosed TWICE on this deal. Once from the state and then from the city. That is almost ONE MILLION taxpayer dollars that will go down the river after a flood or two. Your tax dollars may not be working, BUT they can sure swim!

Let me end the report of the meeting on a positive note in the Christmas spirit. The lighting of Wilson Park is coming up Friday. And there was a ceremony from the beautification board for the lighting of the “official” Florence Christmas tree on North Court St. It was a beautiful event. Downtown Florence is in the holiday spirit with the streets decked out in Christmas decorations and the stores open for business. And as you shop and eat and are generally merry at this special time of year........think of a poor brave parking deck. Proudly clinging to life and being used by shoppers while gallantly defying the wrecking ball that the mean old Grinch is trying to lob its way. The Grinch may look like Santa with his round belly and white hair but there is a hard heart underneath his sweater vest, and he has his greedy hand on the lever to knock our noble parking deck down. We need another Christmas miracle on Pine Street.

The Alabama Onion & More

 

If you haven't yet found The Alabama Onion, you've been missing something. There have been spoofs of the Shoals previously, but they haven't stayed around long. Let's hope the Onion is here to stay.

The Alabama Onion

*****

The Shoals Tatler is also usually spot on. We would like to see more from this Florence District 6 wag.

The Shoals Tatler

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Christmas is just around the corner. There are currently two John W. Morgan prints available on eBay - one very hard to find: George Colbert's Stand on the Tennessee River:

What Would Andy Do with the Money?

 

It appears that Andy Betterton is planning a run for a second term as mayor of Florence. This marks 30 years that the registered Democrat has been either running for or elected to public office. He has a war chest to prove it.

If the current Florence mayor should run and lose (the latter is pretty much a foregone conclusion), 2025 would likely be his last foray into politics. Whether he runs in 2025 or not, he will have to decide the disposition of his accumulated campaign funds.

Legally, he can donate the money to charity or pass it on to another candidate. If he should choose the latter, whom would be the beneficiary of Andy's generosity, should it be $10.00 or $10,000.00? We asked a political science guru who believes Betterton would donate the funds to the Democratic Party.

For those who have asked, no, Andy can't keep the money for personal use; however, the main takeaway here seems to be a cautionary tale. Be careful when donating money to a candidate. It may wind up where you would least want it.