By Staff
Local doctor is
a true hero
Editor,
Sometimes it seems impossible to find an individual who takes time to give something to the community without asking anything in return. We are blessed here in Hartselle to have many successful individuals who do just that.
One in particular is Dr. Eric Mashburn.
Dr. Mashburn conducted free physicals again this year for the Special Olympics athletes here in our school system. Despite the recent flu season that likely has his office swamped with patients, plus the loss of his dad, Dr. Mashburn took the time to give of himself for these special kids in our community.
Thanks to he and his staff, more students with disabilities have the opportunity to participate in the Special Olympics events that will take place this year, such as basketball, bowling, and track and field.
On behalf of the Special Education Department for Hartselle City Schools, thank you.
Beth Bole
Hartselle High School
Writer angry at local police
Editor,
I am going to attempt to write this letter as politically correct for this papers sake. I try to live a law abiding life, and have tried to teach my children the same. As I have stated before, they are not perfect, but they are not evil either. There are quite a lot of things that the Hartselle police department are doing that is questionable as to being on the up and up.
What would it mean or say to you if your son/daughter were stopped, removed from their vehicle, and the vehicle was searched? How about 7 times in a period of 60 days? How about one of these times this occurred merely because a passenger was smoking a cigarette? Another interesting fact is that the police never once found anything illegal.
Would it arouse your interest if your son/daughter were issued a "No Trespassing Order" when the merits of the order were extremely questionable? Would it bother you if you went to town in your son/daughters vehicle only to be stopped, removed from vehicle, and an attempt to search by the police was done?
Would it upset you if your son/daughter were riding a bike uptown and an officer seized the bike, stating that is was stolen? Only to be informed by another officer that the bike wasn't stolen, and that the investigators had known for many days. It was only then that they returned the bike, I might add, without any excuses or apologies.
Would it raise questions that an action by a police officer led to your son/daughter losing his job. This action was totally out of his responsibility, yet he took it upon himself to do this, for he was employed by the city, not Wal-Mart.
I have been to the mayor four times, the city manager three times, the police chief, and have nothing from them except the usual spin of things. I have spoken to all but one of the city council.The mumbo jumbo that I get makes me think I just went to a circus. What was it? Was it when I stated in this paper that if you wanted an officer during the night, go to the old Wal-Mart parking lot? Or was it when I referred to our police department as "hippity-hop" cops. Or was it when I wrote a letter criticizing the response time of our police?
Isn't it odd that a member of our council had a member of his immediate family that was surrounded by every on duty officer of our police department, searched all while he is trying to wash his car. How about a car full of young girls, getting stopped for failure to use a turn signal, when the officer that stopped them failed to use his also. I should know, I was behind the officer. They also searched the girls and the car.
A commercial property owner in town, has one of his buildings damaged by an two individuals in a car. There are witnesses, one of which calls the police department. The police reason for not showing up in a somewhat timely fashion was that they never got the call. This is just the tip of the iceberg. I could fill up several pages of this paper with similar nightmares from our trusty police department. I sincerely hope that our council can sleep knowing that "Hartselle 5-0" is on the parole.
Mike Dowdy Hartselle