Hello from Rutledge, Alabama, home of the World’s Largest Peanut Boil. First let’s do an update on Luverne Hardware which is owned by Wayne and Vicki Rolling, we have started working on the last two rooms as far as cleanup and repair. After that lights, shelves, merchandise and then the day we are all waiting for; we will be fully open. I don’t know about you but we can’t wait for the grand reopening. We miss seeing and helping all of you. The lumberyard is now open. If you need something we don’t have we are doing special orders and get deliveries twice a week, let us know we can order it and have it on Tuesday or Friday.

Okay let’s talk about public safety in this county. The Sheriff’s office needs help. As of right now there are six deputies on the road and two of those have not been to the academy yet so are unable to do very much. As you know, the town of Rutledge has not been pleased with the status of county law enforcement for some time. I know that the Sheriff is struggling to keep qualified people due to the low wages. This came up in the commission meeting the other day. The commissioners realize that low pay is affecting our ability as a county to keep good people and are trying to work out a plan to fix this issue in the future. However, that does nothing to help us as a county right now. I know that my taxes have not gone down because there aren’t enough deputies. I have noticed that the number of cars speeding on our county and state roads have increased and like I said before I understand the Sheriff can’t be everywhere but with limited resources they sure do not need to be in cities that have police departments. They should be patrolling county roads continuously and at different times of the day and night.  And like I have said before, until we as a county make public safety a priority, it will not get any better.

As many of you may have heard there was an accident in Rutledge last week; car versus semi-truck…. Guess who won that one? Yes, the semi. From my understanding, it was not the semi drivers fault. The people involved were extremely lucky, but what about the next accident? If we don’t figure out a way to get people to slow down and at least drive close to the speed limit it is just a matter of time until someone is killed in one of these accidents and the person that dies will most likely not be the person that causes it.

It has been approximately 3664 days since Delange Harris’s murder and 1794 days since Mr. Earl Cosby’s murder and still no justice for the families.