Happy Halloween/Celtic New Year!

All of us at Shoalanda Speaks wish our readers a happy Halloween, Harvest, Celtic New Year's Eve, or just a good football watching day!



Halloween Myspace Comments | Dog Checks

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Shoalanda & Staff

Rob Carnegie to Remove Cameras from Tourism Board Meetings!

Rob Carnegie singing "I'm Just an Ol' Chunk of Coal, but I'm Gonna Be a Nazi Someday!"

Remember that Lyle Lovett song: She's hot to go, she's ready. Well all Lauderdale County citizens should be pretty hot right about now and ready to write some letters.

Our new Canadian Tourism Director has decreed there will be no more taping of board meetings. No matter he's not on the board, eh? Rob does know what country he's in now, doesn't he? We can't tell...

A reader just told us that no one should publish any pubic information about incarcerated criminals that the taxpayers support (more on that later), now we're told the taxpaying public has no right to see a video of tourism board meetings. Can they still attend in person? We're betting Carnegie will seek to limit that too. Nor will any tourist department employees be allowed to attend with the exception of Alison Stanfield.

So if anyone asks if you if you think Adolph Hitler escaped NAZI Germany in 1945, be sure to reply yes, he changed his name to Rob Carnegie and is now living in Florence, Alabama, and taxpayers are giving him 120K a year to tell them they're too idiotic to do anything about it.

(Our apologies to Billy Joe for even associating his song with the name "Rob Carnegie.")

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Rob's Halloween Costume

Shoalanda

Goodbye, Kelli! You Were Too Good for Them!

 Did you ever stop to think about the difference between a tourism office and a tourism board? They’re not the same thing, are they? 

The hospitality field usually includes restaurants. I can run a pretty big restaurant, at least the operations part, and most of the financial part too. I don’t ever want to have to do that again, but I could. That means I know what to order, how to stock, how to set up bars and tables, all the good stuff. How do you get customers into the restaurant? I have very few ideas. I worked for a chain and our home office always did the advertising, and I didn’t have to worry about it.

So having someone from the hospitality field is really important for the Florence Board? Why?

Many board members for large companies are retired from similar companies. They have the expertise. You won’t find a carpet manufacturer on the board of a steel company and you won’t find the owner of a large computer company on the board of a natural gas company. They have expertise all right, but just not any in the right areas.

So why should the Florence Tourism Board want a member of the hospitality field to come on board when he/she may not know diddley about getting tourists to come to the Shoals? Maybe it just sounds good?

All this is to ask why was Kelli Gaputis not kept on the board? There were two places to fill, so the board could have had both Kelli and a member of the hospitality industry. Is it still men versus women with them? Isn’t the board mainly to make sure the money is spent correctly? A sort of checks and balances thing? Why are these people who meet once a month more important than those who work in the office five days a week to promote tourism and actually know what they’re doing?

Maybe someone understands, but I don’t. Maybe someone understands why the county commission didn’t even interview Kelli. Sure she had been on the board for some time, but not all the current commission members knew her. Didn’t they at least have a few questions about her vision for the next few years? Or did they know already they weren’t even going to consider her? It’s pretty bad when our local governing bodies don’t even feel the need to keep up appearances of impartiality. 

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J. Redmon will be bringing us some interesting information on drugs and other problems in local community corrections in the next few days. Any readers with inside information or questions are encouraged to comment.

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Shoalanda

The Romance of the Subway Bandit

We won’t use any real names here, so we’ll call her Mari. She had a dead-end job, an ex-husband who had abandoned her, and a small daughter to raise. With no extra money on hand, Mari didn’t take care of her appearance; her co-workers had never known her to even have a date. Then she arrived at her office one Monday morning to announce she was married.

Everyone was shocked, but eager to meet Mari’s new husband. Well…that wouldn’t be possible just then. He was working on construction or on an oil rig or something in another state, or was that country? He’d be home in a few months; they’d just have to wait. Mari’s office mates teased her that her new last name sounded a great deal like “pregnant,” but little did they know that Mari and her new hubby had yet to consummate their marriage.

In an era when the Internet was just a series of bulletin boards linked by telephone land lines, those with a need to know garnered most of their information from an old fashioned newspaper. In the Shoals that usually wasn’t the Tricycle Daily, but the Birmingham News. The News published such fascinating articles, like the one on prisoners about to leave Limestone Correctional Facility in a few weeks for a new life. Observant readers noted one who was interviewed had a surname that sounded much like the word “pregnant.”

Mari’s friends said nothing, but rejoiced with her when her new husband finally joined her. In a few months, they celebrated again when Mari actually was pregnant. It wasn’t long until Mari and her family moved away. Those who knew her casually really didn’t know where she’d gone or what had happened to her and her family. Whatever it was, it apparently wasn’t good.

Fast forward 25 years, and we have a Subway robber apprehended in Muscle Shoals. His name sounded suspiciously like “pregnant.” Was it Mari’s husband? A quick Google showed that he hadn’t been Mari’s husband in a long time. In fact, he had been searching for her and their children for the past two years. What would have made Mari disappear so thoroughly from her husband’s life and take their child? Whatever it was, we can bet it wasn’t pleasant.

The Subway robber will probably return to prison, assuming he doesn’t have any family who will demand ad nauseum that he be placed in community corrections. This tarnished tale of romance didn’t have a good outcome, did it? Will it cause anyone to take stock of her own situation? We doubt it. We do hope it encourages her friends to maintain their relationship. We understand that some are accepting, while others are simply aghast. Remember whatever happens, it’s not your fault. Some people just have to learn the hard way. In fact, that’s true for most people we know.

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We recently posted the words to the “Snake Song.” Now we see a regular letter writer to the TD has mentioned if you take in a frozen snake to warm him up, he’ll simply bite you when he thaws out. Snakes and druggies really get bad press, don’t they? Maybe it’s for good reason…

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Shoalanda

Court House Etiquette?/Her Friend's Bad Choice

First a reader has shared this with us:

Did you know that part time employees of Lauderdale county are not included in the recent pay raise or cost of living raise the county commission passed in the budget? Nor were they included in last years raises , No benefits, no holidays are expected but really wouldn't you think a part time employee would get a raise ??? who would need it the most??? According to the commissioners they Never give raises to these employees . Just think if you work there 5 yrs or more, hoping you might get a full time job some day there only to be told you will never get a raise . Cost of Living goes up just as well for these employees who do vital work the same as full time employees , Great way to make a person feel unappreciated .

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Problems in certain court house offices? We have not had any experience in the court house itself in recent years. We invite all comments on what may or may not be wrong there. We can comment on one problem we've seen in the Florence-Lauderdale Government Building and at many other businesses too numerous to mention.

It's summer; you wear thong sandals, do you not? Well, you shouldn't. Not all offices, etc., are governed by OSHA. When that filing cabinet or whatever turns over on your foot, see if the company's workman's compensation policy will pay your bill then. 

Oh, you say, but teeheehee, they're so cute, and how often does an accident like that happen? More often than you think.

Workers in restaurant and medical settings? Are you wearing acrylic nails? Perhaps, even if your supervisor gives you a pass on this, you should read up on what you can transmit to patrons/patients/whomever you come in contact with. You also might want to read of the increased likelihood for your own infection while wearing these "cute little things."

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A few months ago, a young woman contacted us via FB that she was very concerned for her friend. The friend's boyfriend was in prison, but he wouldn't take her pictures off his FB or change his relationship status. At the time we wondered why the friend was writing and not the young woman who had "seen the light." Could it be that the friend was trying to be a good influence, but the young woman in question didn't want to be saved?

We didn't bother to look farther into the situation at that time. We have now. No, my young reader, your friend doesn't want to do any better, because of course she can save him. You might ask her how that's been working out, but we sadly predict she'll place him before you. Just be there when she realizes what he is and probably always will be.

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Shoalanda

A Reader Visits the Lauderdale County Courthouse...

Lauderdale County's Second Courthouse

Guest blog:

After your article about Missy Hibbett, Lauderdale County Circuit Clerk, and her office staff, I wanted to check it out myself. I am a republican and would have been voting for Missy Hibbett after her switch from being a democrat because I thought she was sincere and probably doing a good job since the Republican Executive Committee allowed her to switch. After seeing the letter on your website, I was a little taken back. A close family member and I had the discussion about the validity of the letter and he insisted that I not be judgmental, so I personally did my own homework.

When I visited the Lauderdale County Courthouse, I made it a point to begin on the first floor to observe the office staff and ask if our elected officials were at work. I was surprised to see Danny Hendrix at work as soon as the courthouse opened the day I was there. Mr. Motlow, Probate Judge, was coming into the building as I was. I sat quietly and observed the staff and their conduct for a little while before going upstairs.

I made my way through each floor and spoke with most elected officials. It took me a couple of hours to get to the offices on the 4th floor. By the time I got to Missy Hibbett's office, it was later in the morning and thought I would find her at work and prove your article as false. When I asked to speak with Ms. Hibbett, I was told she wasn't in today. She might be in late this afternoon. The lady I spoke to behind the counter came from the back, as there was no one at the window. The attire, or lack of attire was alarming to say the least. I could hear laughing and loud inappropriate language from the area the young lady came from.

I have to admit, I was wrong in assuming the Lauderdale County Republican Executive Committee did there homework and made a good choice in letting her switch parties. With the qualifying of candidates for the 2016 elections, I wonder how many more of these kind of people are going to be crossing over to the Republican party. I challenge all voting citizens of Lauderdale County to observe your Clerk's office, as well as all of them, and see who is really on the job, who they are employing, and if professional attire and conduct is expected and required by our public servants. If you don't have time to visit the courthouse, make a phone call and ask to speak with your elected officials. If you don't take the time to verify the information, then you should listen to those of us who do.


Lauderdale County Voter

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Shoalanda

Summer of '65: Murder on the Lake - Part IV

Previous installments:

Part I

Part II

Part III

Richard Leland Romine's trial began on November 29, 1965. Frank Potts and Bryce U. Graham acted as defense attorneys for the North Florence father who had initially faced the charge of First Degree Murder (now known as Capital Murder). A Lauderdale grand jury indicted the 40 year-old Romine on the lesser charge of Second Degree Murder (now known as Felony Murder). Lavern Tate prosecuted for the state.

The trial was unique in that the parents of former high school standout athlete Bobby Stewart didn't feel justice would be done for a Sheffield victim in Lauderdale County. They hired Muscle Shoals attorney Donald Wassner to assist the Lauderdale District Attorney's office in its prosecution of Romine. Their actions may have produced the exact opposite of their intent. Wassner had located in the Shoals in the 1950s. A staunch Republican, he was noted for having been a prisoner of war in WWII, but was also considered an outsider in the then staunchly Democratic area of Northwest Alabama.

The prosecution depicted Romine as leading a group of young Coffee football players, armed with pipes, to confront and attack Stewart. Defense attorney Frank Potts called the defendant to the stand on the fifth day of the trial; Romine related how his son had been bullied and beaten by Stewart at least ten times, perhaps more. He admitted to being at a loss as to the proper way to handle the situation since the Lauderdale County Sheriff's office had not acted. Potts then called a bevy of character witnesses for the defendant, depicting him as a family man with a responsible job. Throughout the trial, Stewart had been presented as a perennial student who socialized with younger boys from Sheffield High who were easily manipulated.

On December 4th, Donald Wassner presented the prosecution's closing arguments while the Lauderdale prosecutors sat silent. The jury took two hours and 23 minutes to acquit Romine.

Editor's Note: It's now been 50 years since the tragic death of Bobby Stewart split the Shoals apart. Both Richard Leland Romine and his son are now deceased, as are the parents of Bobby Stewart. The names of any witnesses, living or dead, have intentionally been omitted from this account.

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Shoalanda