By Staff
George should find another issue
Editor:
Almost every day this past week, an article has appeared concerning the county officials at the beach. The Chairman of the County Commission, Mr. Larry Bennich, has justified the trip numerous times to the media by clarifying the reason for each person to attend. District 4 Commissioner Stacy George did not attend the conference; however, he felt it necessary to accuse the others of taking a beach vacation at the taxpayer's expense.
If Mr. George is so unhappy with the way our County Commission is run, maybe he should resign and go elsewhere to air out his laundry.
I believe the rest of our elected commissioners are doing a great job managing our resources. It is hard to find good people willing to serve in public jobs. For the first time in many years, we have some fine people serving in our public jobs.
Our leaders, elected or appointed officials, as well as other County employees are doing a fine job. I can remember how the County was run before our present officials were elected/appointed.
I don't really care how many people went to Orange Beach. If Mr. Bennich said they had a need to go, that's good enough for me.
So let's cut out the griping and let them get on with the work for which they were elected/appointed.
Bobby R. Palmer
Hartselle
HU not responsive
to problem
Editor:
I was recently in the new Hartselle Utilities building on a personal matter and the chief engineer gave me a cook's tour of the building.
We visited offices, training rooms, board rooms, recreational rooms and utility rooms, all equipped with the latest technology.
What struck me was only three or four people occupied the entire building. It had the air of a mausoleum.
The purpose of my visit concerned my purchase and remodeling of Rosebud Cottage. During recent sewer work on Main Street, including testing for leaks, mud backed up from the sewer into the bathroom and toilet. I feared my sewer service could be full of mud from the main.
I went to see the chief engineer about it and the sewer department disavowed any responsibility. If I didn't like their collective decision to nothing about the problem, I could appeal the Hartselle Utility Board-which I did.
Everyone at the board meeting had an excuse as to why HU was not responsible. Mr. (George) Adair expressed his opinion that HU responsibility ended at the street. The excuse was the pressure generated by sewer main pressure checks was comparable to that of an electric fan blowing.
Bob Woodruff, retired county engineer, disputed this and stated to me that the pressure checks on Short Street caused his toilet to erupt like a geyser.
From an electric fan? Ha!
The meeting ended with Buzz Howell dismissing the petition without consulting the other board members. It appears as if the dictatorship called Hartselle Utilities is fully functional with Buzz Howell and Adair at the helm.
I read lightning struck a $1 million transformer and it will cost customers $40,000 a month. Where's the lightning protection for that transformer, Mr. Adair? The bill for the new building will cost customers $80,000 a month. Is there no limit?
The city council created the dictatorship called HU and it's about time they did something about it. What's the responsibility of the council to the voters?
Buzz Howell just thumbs his nose at the council. The ability to borrow unlimited amounts of money and the ability to raise utility rates without limit should be dealt with by the council.
Herb McCarly
Hartselle
Copy of divorce papers should be at school
Editor:
I write this editorial for divorced parents with children in school.
There are so many things going on concerning our school system today, as far as their rules and regulations and I know it's hard for them sometimes to cross all the T's and dot all the I's. They seem to be doing all they can.
But there are, however, some things the parents can do to help and still stay within the rules. One particular thing is if you are a divorced parent, you can put a copy of your divorce on file with your child's school records to prove you have sole custody of you child. Therefore, if a step-parent goes to school demanding you child's school records they will be refused the records, otherwise if you do not have proof on file, the principals, teaches and counselors have no way of knowing where they stand.
But by having the information it saves them a lot of trouble and conflict of interests they otherwise would not have to deal with.
This is also very humiliating and embarrassing to the child when a stepparent steps out of their bounds and rights and goes to the school interfering. Children have feelings and rights also.
Anyone with children of their own you think would be considerate and understanding. Needless to say, you think now days parents who have children of their own would have a full-time job seeing to their own children's needs.
I hope this letter saves someone else's child from this sort of humiliation and embarrassment and also the teachers and trouble they have dealing with such non-sense.
Changing your telephone number at home to an unlisted number to stop after-school harassment calls sometimes is not the only thing you can do. You need to check with the school to see what measures can be taken for the child.
Ann Guthrey
Danville